Carter Aaron Reid, Sr. was the son of two thoroughly middle class, blue collar, hard working parents. His father was a carpenter and his mother an elementary school teacher so while they weren't exactly poor, they certainly weren't anywhere near the realm of wealthy. In fact, most months, they barely managed to scrape by with the wages that his parents made. Still, what they lacked financially, the family more than up for with love. Carter, along with his three younger siblings were close to each other - best friends, really - and they all had a strong relationship with both their parents as well. In short, there wasn't anything incredibly remarkable or noteworthy about Carter. He was the eldest of four kids, did well in school (though he wasn't an academic person by any means) and was the quarterback on his high school football team for two years (though he played for four).

It wasn't until after Carter had graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Denver, Colorado that he realized he'd had little to no ambition when it came to carving out a future and a career for himself. He'd been content with working at the nearby diner, bussing tables for a few bucks a week, to supplement the families income. Once he was out of school, though, Carter realized that he wanted more for himself - and for his future family. With that thought in mind, and his parents' blessing, Carter hopped on a bus and headed to California. He had no plans beyond moving to Los Angeles and, unlike most of his peers at the time, Carter harbored no dreams of becoming the next big actor or musician to be thrust upon the masses and out of the glitz and glamour that was Hollywood.

It was while in Los Angeles that Carter met Aeryn Thomas. She was a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, majoring in Education, and a waitress at the coffee shop that Carter frequented his first few days in the new, bustling city. Aeryn had been raised in the City of Angels and upon finding out that Carter was a transplant, offered to show him around and help him get acquainted with his new home. She also helped him secure a job at the same coffee shop that she worked at. Their relationship started off slow. They were friends first and then, gradually, they became more than friends as the weeks and months passed and, by the time the following school year had started, they were an official couple, with inside jokes and personal songs and a table at a nearby diner that the waitresses always reserved for them on Friday and Saturday nights.

It was those same blue-haired waitresses with laugh lines around their mouths and eyes that constantly cooed over Carter and Aeryn, insisting that they'd be married one day and have their own little children to worry about. They laughed it off quite often, insisting that if that were to happen, it wouldn't be for many more years. At least until they'd both graduated from college, and since Carter was a year behind Aeryn, that was still a good five years in the future. Unfortunately, plans didn't always turn out the way that you wanted or expected them to. Aeryn found out that she was pregnant a few months after the start of her winter term during Aeryn's sophomore year at UCLA. She was already two-point-five months pregnant by this point and, despite the shock at the news, Aeryn was adamant about keeping the child. Abortion and adoption had never even been fleeting thoughts in the young girls mind. It wasn't what her parents, God rest their souls, would have wanted.

Ciera Yvette Reid was born on September 13, 1988. It was a Tuesday morning when Aeryn went into labor in the middle of her English Literature class. The little girl was a week and a half early and her mother was in a sheer panic as she sat in the middle of a crowded classroom, tears running down her face while she sat in a puddle of water waiting - impatiently - for the medics to arrive and whisk her away to the hospital. One of her classmates - and friends - had run off to find Carter in the midst of all the excitement and, within minutes, he'd arrived - face flushed and breaths heavy while he leaned over his girlfriend, their hands tightly clasped together. The medics arrived not long after and they soon had Aeryn loaded up into the back of an ambulance en route to Cedars-Sinai Hospital. After a relatively short five hours of labor, the little girl greeted the world with a wail, clumps of dark hair matted to her head and her short, chubby arms flailing wildly in the air around her. Even through the tangled knots of sweaty hair that hung in Aeryn's face and the heavy, harsh, pants of breath that fell from her mouth, her first words after the little girls early arrival into the world were heard by everyone in the room: she's perfect.

The tiny family of three lived in a small one bedroom apartment near the UCLA campus where Carter resumed his studies while Aeryn stayed home with Ciera - or Button as the proud, doting father referred to her - after taking a short hiatus from school to do so. Things were tight with only Carter working and the tension that surrounded their little home was sometimes to thick for anyone to breathe. It was much too difficult for the two of them to stay in California with only Carter working and attending school while Aeryn stayed home. She wasn't cut out for the in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant housewife kind of life and Carter, despite his insistence that he could take care of both Aeryn and Ciera, wasn't quite cut out for the life that they'd found themselves living in either. It was with that thought that the couple made the decision to move to Denver and stay with Carter's parents. Ciera was barely a year old and her grandparents were absolutely ecstatic that they'd get to see her everyday while Carter and Aeryn worked and attended school part-time.

The next almost-three years passed without incident. Aeryn graduated with her associates degree in early childhood education from the University of Colorado, Denver while working part-time at a nearby daycare. The day was marked with a small celebration that ended in Carter proposing to Aeryn, vowing to make an honest woman of her amongst the handful of guests that were in attendance. It was perfect and, even as a baby, it was as if Ciera knew what was going on - her joyful toddler-talk filled the air around them making all the friends and family that were gathered coo in wonder. That was also the same day that the small family got another surprise in the form of a phone call from the family doctor informing Carter and Aeryn that they were going to be parents again after Aeryn had gone in to see him for what everyone had assumed was a stomach virus. Tears were shed, though they were happy ones, and Carter, along with his father, set out to build a small house behind his parents home for the soon to be two-child family.

Carter Aaron Reid, Jr. was born in late November - about a week before Thanksgiving - of nineteen-ninety. Where Ciera was a fair dark-haired brunette with green eyes, Carter, Jr. (or CJ as he was called by the family) was a light-haired blond with blue eyes. The two were as different as night and day in more than just their physical appearances, though. Carter was the life of the party wherever he went while Ciera tended to fade into the background, always keeping a protective eye on her younger - though slightly bigger than her - brother. She was quiet and unassuming as she skirted the crowds of people that CJ's magnetic personality drew to him, making sure that he was careful or that no one was messing with him. Even as toddlers, Ciera was always mindful of the little boy. Her parents and grandparents thought it was the most adorable thing to behold, insisting that she just had a natural maternal instinct that would prove useful in the distant future. Little did they know that children of her own would one day be the last thing that the little girl would even want to consider. One would have thought that with as protective as Ciera was over CJ, she would've been more mindful of the situations she got herself into.

It was the day of Ciera's sweet sixteen birthday party - something that her and Aeryn had stressed themselves out over when planning, making sure every last detail was accounted for - that the young girl's life changed forever. The party itself had gone off without a hitch and, for that, Ciera was grateful. She'd been worried about every minuscule detail leading up to it. Would there be enough food? Would her friends have fun? Were the decorations up to par? Did they expect something like was shown on MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen? There was no way that her parents - or grandparents, for that matter - could afford such a lavish affair but everyone had pitched in to make the day as perfect as it could be without some multi-platinum recording artist gracing the makeshift stage in a five-star hotel ballroom. After all, Ciera deserved it for her impeccable grades and willingness to help out around the house whenever necessary. It was her reward for being a model student, an understanding and respectful daughter and granddaughter, as well as a protective and caring big sister.

What should have been a night of celebration for Ciera went quickly south when an acquaintance cornered her in the small alcove beside the front door, just out of sight of the remaining guests and her family. With his hand clamped tightly over her mouth, he'd dragged Ciera out the door and down the driveway to where his truck was parked. It was one of those monstrosities that Ciera hated for the mere fact that they were not eco-friendly. A cherry red Dodge Ram 3500 extended cab with black leather interior that still had that new car smell. The scent of leather was tinged with adrenaline, fear and sweat, laced with the slight scent of salt from the tears that streaked down Cici's wide, frightened eyes. Whispered threats kept the young girl quiet as she clenched her fists tightly, nails piercing the skin of her palms, and closed her eyes just wanting whatever was to happen to be over with. The unintentional scream of pain and terror that escaped her throat at the moment of penetration brought her father and uncles outside soon enough to catch the boy in the act. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.

Ciera was rushed to the hospital, in shock, and the boy was arrested on the spot. Luckily, though every one of them had wanted to, the men in Ciera's family hadn't done anything besides rough him a little. To scare him, of course. Thankfully, the trial didn't lag as the family had expected it to: the boy had confessed to what had happened at his parents' behest and had apologized publicly to Ciera and her family for what he'd done. None of that mattered to the young girl who had, in the course of an hour, become sullen and jaded - withdrawn. She requested a change of schools and, when the looks and whispers from her peers didn't stop, Ciera demanded that she be allowed to drop out and get her GED instead. Without hesitation, everyone quickly agreed to her wishes, overcompensating for their own perceived guilt from the night that everything had gone so horribly wrong. That, however, didn't stop the whispers, the sidelong and pitying glances or even the occasional snub from some misguided teenager that believed wholeheartedly that Ciera had been in the wrong - that her family had just wanted the money they'd received from the boy's family.

It was at that point in Ciera's life, mere months after she'd turned sixteen, that the depression overwhelmed her. It was safe to say that the young girl had almost completely lost her will to live. Ciera resorted to self-injury: cutting, burning, and even popping pills on occasion. After an overdose on painkillers accompanied with a Vodka chaser and a short stay in psychiatric care, Carter and Aeryn decided that it was time to get their daughter away from Denver - and Colorado - for good. After a few months and extreme indecisiveness, the family - Carter and Aeryn, specifically - finally came to an agreement on where they'd be moving. Neither of them had been too fond of the idea of going back to California, even though that was their first option, and though the middle-of-nowhere, USA seemed appealing, the job market in the mid-west wasn't exactly thriving. Enter Sleepy Hollow - suburban New York. It was the perfect choice for them, to be in a place where no one knew who they were or what had happened to Ciera. It was the young girl's chance to reinvent herself, or at least that's what the plan had been. Unfortunately, old habits die hard.

By the time the family had relocated to their new home - a two-story, single family home at 68 Depeyster Street - Ciera had already turned seventeen. Life went on almost as usual for the Reid's, though Ciera had become severely withdrawn and introverted, the family tried to pull her out of the hole that she'd willingly climbed into. She was hiding from the world. Content to sit on the sidelines, away from the crowds - especially men - and secure herself in corners with vantage points that would give her a complete view of whatever room she was in and whomever she was surrounded by. Fear and anxiety ruled her life and, on more than one occasion, she suffered from a panic attack induced by being touched, or being too close, to a male that she wasn't in any way familiar with. There were even times when these panic attacks were brought on by her own father and brother. It was safe to say that she'd lost her faith, and trust, in humanity. After two more stints in psychiatric care that spanned approximately four years - two more stints that preceded two more failed suicide attempts - Ciera returned home to her family. She tried, she worked harder than she ever had before, to find some kind of normalcy in the chaos that her life had become. That didn't mean the demons that had haunted her previously ahd gone away, and the medications were only able to keep them at bay for so long.

It took a few more years of intense therapy before Ciera was able to feel a bit more comfortable being around men, but she knew that all of it was worth it. Though there'd been a time in her life where she'd believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she wanted to die, she learned through talking things out that she did have so much to life for. She wanted to live for those things, and now that she's in a better place - both emotionally and mentally - she's trying her hardest to really live. She's not miraculously healed, and the panic attacks still come and go in waves; there are still moments where it takes her awhile to walk out the front door of the house that she now shares with her roommate and best friend, and sometimes she'll flinch away from individuals of the opposite sex without meaning to but, as with everything else, she knows there's a process to getting better, and she's trying. She's fighting. And, despite everything else, that's all that matters to her.