Chapter 1:



"How do you expect me to trust you when you continually disobey my every word?" Brian's voice continued to crescendo which each word that spat from his lips, his tone coated heavily with a thick Kentuckian accent. Jessica looked away from her father, trying desperately not to act on the urge of wanting to roll her eyes. She couldn't have cared less that her father was ripping her a new one; afterall, it had seemingly become an almost daily routine for the both of them. "Jessica Marie Littrell! Look at me when I'm speaking to you!"



"What?" Jessica spat back just as hatefully, hinting the slightest bit of boredom in her voice. She, unlike her father, had less of a southern accent. 'I can see your pissed off at me, but does it looklike I care?!'Her sapphire eyes burned with a deep passion as she glared deeply at her father, again, feeling the urge to speak that thought outloud. Of course, she quickly decided against it as it would only drag this pointless argument on longer then Jessica cared to be a part of it.



Brian sucked in a deep breath to keep grasp of his calm reserve. Clenching his hands into fists and then releasing them, he opened his mouth to continue. This time, his tone was low, and in a frightening sense, very menacing. "When I tell you to be home at a certain time, I expect you to be home! No ifs, ands, or buts about it!" Those words always seemed to be on repeat when they came out of Brian's mouth; he was beginning to wonder if he was wasting his time having to repeat them over and over.



"So I stayed out a little bit later then the stupid curfew you set for me!" The words rolled off Jessica's tongue in a sarcastic and careless manner and she slumped further into the couch, running her slender fingers through the golden blonde locks that rested well past her shoulders.



"Damnit, Jessica!"



Jessica nearly jumped in her seat as her father screeched at her; instead, she winced. Very rarely did her father ever speak like that towards her, or anyone she knew for that matter. Only in instances when Brian was extremely angry did he let obscenities escape his mouth. 'Well, this is obviously one of those times.'



"I don't know who you think you are staying out late and not coming home until noon the next day! What is your problem?"



Oh great. Now her father was really going off. Well, damnit, could he blame her for craving a social life? Sure, she'd defied his wishes and stayed out all night. She didn't tell him where she was going, nor did she phone home the entire time she was gone. And yeah, he'd caught her in a tight liplock on the front step with her boyfriend only moments before. But c'mon, he was overreacting now!



"The Hell I am overreacting, Jessica Marie!"



Oops, she actually let that thought slip past her mouth. Looking up again, Jessica's sapphire orbs caught sight of her father's deep blue ones (she'd inherited her eyes from her father; or so everyone claimed) and saw a hot fire burning within them. This time she chose to keep her mouth shut, for once she decided not to challenge her father with her smart remarks.



"Why do you always insist on doing the complete opposite of what I say? Do you purposely try to piss me off?" Brian rubbed at his temples in an aggitated manner, tapping his foot rapidly against the ground. He hated having to go through this, more then anything. He just didn't understand why he couldn't get his daughter to see why he was so upset in the first place. Why she always insisted on challenging his parental rights this way was beyond his comprehension.



It was a sharp knock on the front door that prevented the heated argument from continuing any further. "What?!" Brian yelled back over his shoulder, not moving an inch from the spot in which he stood towering in front of his daughter.



"Uncle Brian?" came the distant sounding reply, muffled from traveling through the oak door.



Brian paused a second, straining the slightest bit to place the voice, but immediately afterwards recognizing it as belonging to his "niece", Ana Dorough. He sighed, not the least bit happy about recieving company during one of these times. "Door's unlocked, Ana! Come on in!" he called back and crossed his arms over his chest. On the contrary, Jessica followed her father's suit and sighed also. Only she sighed in relief. Company arriving meant her means of escaping her father's berating. Surely her father wouldn't continue scolding her now that someone had arrived.



Only a mere second later did the door click and the two Littrells present watched as it was pushed open rather quickly. Bounding in came the short, 5'4" figure of Ana Dorough. "Hey, Uncle Brian!" she greeted with a smile as she walked over to him and gave him a quick hug. "Hey, Jess!"



"Hi..." Jessica mumbled back in reply as she watched Ana's father, Howie, walk slowly through the doorway and shut the door behind him. Seeing her cousin shooting her a questioning gaze for reasoning of her unwelcoming silence, Jessica shrugged back in reply, looking quickly to her father.



"We'll continue this later," Brian answered his daughter's silent questioning.



"Thank-God," Jessica muttered, jumping up from the couch and hurrying over to the stairs, Ana quickly following her pace. 'Stupid jerk!'she glared back over her shoulder in her father's direction and stomped up the stairs as loudly as her feet could pound against them.



*****



"Your dad mad at you?" Ana asked the obvious question, tagging a step behind Jessica as they made the ascent up the stairs.



"Obviously," Jessica spat, but immediately felt guilt course through her as Ana fell silent. She had no right to take her anger and frustration out on her cousin. "Sorry," she apologized, stopping long enough to let Ana be level on the same step. "Yeah, he's pissed."



"Well, what happened?" Ana was quick to inquire, seeing Jessica's sapphire orbs brightly ablaze. From what she'd heard through the doorway, it was all too obvious that father and daughter had another fall out.



"He didn't like the fact that I stayed out all night and didn't come home until noon today," Jessica answered casually, leading the way down the hallway towards her room.



"You say that as if it's no big deal," were Ana's proceeding words. "C'mon, Jess, you gotta at least understand why he's upset. I mean-"



"Why should it matter? I'm 18!"



"But he's your dad and he cares about you. That's what fathers are supposed to do--care and worry and all that sappy crap."



Jessica couldn't help but laugh at her cousin's sense of humor. "I guess it didn't help that he caught me in a major lip lock with Scott on the front step," she spoke dreamily of her boyfriend.



"Ya think?" Ana answered, letting the sarcasm drip from the corners of her lips. "No wonder he's so mad."



"Oh well. He'll get over it, he always does."



'Maybe you oughta give him a break...'Ana thought as they stopped outside a closed doorway.



"Oh great. Steph's being a singing freak again," Jessica groaned as she reached for the doorknob, hearing the music coming from inside and her twin sister belting out heartfelt notes along with the singer on the cd. And of all singers, it had to be Mariah Carey that Stephanie was listening to at the moment. "I wish I could just make you turn around / Turn around and see me cry / There's so much I need to say to you / So many reasons why / You're the only one who really knew me at all."Stephanie's voice became even louder along with the music as the door was pushed open.



"So take a look at me now," Ana joined in and watched as a surprised Stephanie turned away from the stereo, hair brush in her right hand. The two grinned at each other, continuing to sing in unison with Mariah. "There's just an empty space / There's nothing left here to remind me / Just the memory of your face / So take a look at me now / So there's just an empty space / But to wait for you is all I can do / When that's what I've gotta face."



"Take a good look at me now / 'Cause I'll still be standing here / And you coming back to me is against all odds / That's the chance I gotta take!" Stephanie finished, clenching her eyes shut tightly together, looking heavenward as she sang. It wasn't long before the two cousins busted up laughing.



"You look just like Uncle Brian when you do that," Ana giggled, plopping down on Stephanie's bed and making herself comfortable.



"Freaks," Jessica mumbled, kicking her shoes off against the wall. She then reached for one of her hair ties from the shelf on the wall and proceeded to pull her long hair into a low ponytail.



"Look who finally decided to come home," Stephanie mentioned, finally acknowledging her twin for the first time since she and Ana had entered the room.



"Shut your pie hole, hermana," Jessica glared childishly, referring to her sister in Spanish. It was thanks to their uncle and Ana that she knew how to speak Spanish, as Howie had taught Jessica at a rather young age. Since he was always speaking it to Ana when she was a baby, she was already fluent in the language. Now Jessica was moving right on up, which thrilled her to say the least because she got out of taking any foreign language credits in high school since she was "already" bilingual.



"So where were you all night?" Stephanie immediately went to interrogate, crossing her arms over her chest in the same manner that Brian always did. She could tell it pissed the Hell out of Jessica, but she couldn't help but worry about her sister. It was just one of the many jobs that came with being someone's sister, more so being their twin. "No, no! Wait! Let me guess! You were out with Scott?"



"Yes, and it's none of your business."



Stephanie rolled her eyes in response. "You love to make Dad mad at you, don't ya?"



"Yep. It's my personal goal every waking minute of the day."



"Obviously..."



"Just drop the subject!"



"Awww! How sweet! Sibling rivalry!" Ana cooed in a playful manner, but her voice died out immediately when the Twins glared in her direction. Soon, though, she couldn't help but laugh.



"What's so funny?" Jessica and Stephanie questioned in unison.



"You two are what's so funny," Ana answered. "It still amazes me that you two look identical, especially when you argue. 'Cause then you just turn into one big identical blob of-"



"Ana, shut up!"



"You even yell in unison-"



"Don't make me call for Uncle Howie!" Stephanie threatened playfully.



"And what do you think my dad's gonna do?" Ana rolled her eyes. "He'll just ignore you." Arrogantly, she flicked part of her deep chocolate hair over her shoulder and stretched her legs. But in truth she was only joking. The twinkle in her chocolate eyes that matched her hair was enough proof of that. Ana wasn't the type of person who had been brought up to think she was better then others. She respected everyone and everything, treating them how she expected to be treated, and she didn't take the little things in life for granted...not after what had happened just a little over a year before.



"Do keep in mind, primita, that you are in ourroom and you are making yourself comfortable on herbed. She willkick you out if tempted," Jessica was quick to say, collapsing lazily on her own bed.



"¡Te amo también prima!" Ana shot back and stuck her tongue out. Jessica glared slightly but looked away as if to say, "shut up!". Grinning in triumph, Ana unconciously twirled a strand of hair around her finger. It had suddenly gotten so quiet in the room that it seemed like a thick blanket of silence had draped itself over the atomostphere of the upstairs. "Oh!" she suddenly blurted, sitting up straight with the speed of a bolt of lightning. "Dad got the house!"



"You mean that old plantation out located on one of those backroads? Lots of trees around and such?" Stephanie inquired, her eyes showing sudden interest. Both her and Jessica somewhat remembered their uncle talking about his proposition of wanting to buy the old place. They didn't know much about it, though.



"Yeah. He finalized the deal the other day. I told him he was absolutely crazy when he told me he was actually going to go through with it. And it cost him a fortune too," Ana explained in a slightly accented drawl. "But he really doesn't seem to care. In fact, he's thrilled about it."



"Why did he want to buy it anyway?"



"Claims he wants to move away from the hassles of living in the city."



"So he decides to buy a plantation?"



"Go figure. That's my dad for ya."



"You're right. Uncle Howie is crazy."



Jessica tossed a pillow at her cousin's head in a playful manner, trying to forget about her and her father's argument. "Have you even seen this place yet?" she asked, seeing the look of disgust on Ana's face and trying not to laugh.



"Yes, I have, and that's why I think he's absolutely crazy! He took me to see it before we came here. The outside looks horrid, and the inside...well, it's not as bad as the outside, but geez. Then dad goes, "Ana, I know it doesn't look all that great right now, but you and I are gonna fix it up!" Ha! He actually expects me to help him with this. Personally, I think the place is a waste of time and I was urged to tell him to just spend some more of his money on hiring some professionals to fix the place up for him, but...I couldn't say that to him. He just looked so...proud of the purchase he made. He looked the happiest he's been in a long time..."



"But?"



"But that still doesn't mean I can't think he's absolutely crazy for buying it!"



Stephanie laughed as Jessica tossed another pillow at Ana's head. "You're terrible!"



"I have my reasons," Ana grinned, throwing the pillow right back. "But I think that's the reason why my dad and I came over. He wants to tell Uncle Brian about it. Also, something about wanting to get all the guys together to help us start "fixing" it up and what not."



"Uncle AJ, Kevin, and Uncle Nick?" Jessica clarified. She found herself thinking rather hard about the last time the guys had been together, or rather talked to each other. It had surely been a while, she knew. Of course, they all stayed in contact, but with each one going their seperate ways and having their seperate lives, staying up to date wasn't always easy.



"That would be them. He wants to get them all together for a reunion of some sorts. What can I say? My dad is wierd sometimes."



"No wonder you came out the way you did," Jessica replied, unable to resist the temptation to tease the younger teenager.



"Just wait 'til you get stuck in that creepy house with all those old men! I'm not rescuing you," Ana declared with a twinkle of delight in her eyes.



"Gross!" Jessica groaned.



"Hey, maybe a reunion is what our families need?" Stephanie finally concluded then settled back for another hour of social gabbing.



*****



Howie found himself collapsing onto Brian's couch as he watched his daughter quickly follow Brian's daughter up the large staircase. "Having a bit of trouble, huh?" he mentioned, leaving room open for Brian to discuss it if he wanted to. He didn't want to nosey his way into Brian's family business if he wasn't welcome. But he could tell by the expression on his close friend's face that the man was the slightest bit peeved by something. The argument he and Ana had heard through the door was only evidence of such.



"I don't understand her, D! I really don't!" Brian exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air to signal his defeat. His voice dripped with the sense of stress he was feeling, and he, too, collapsed onto the couch next to his friend. Growling out in exaggeration, he softly banged the back of his head against the back of the couch. Any harder and his headache would surely grow. "Matt never gave us this much trouble. And Stephanie, geez, besides looks, her and Jessica are total opposites! I tell ya, I just don't understand it!"



"I'm still not getting what you are talking about, bro," Howie slowly replied, despite the slight idea he had in mind. He knew Brian's ranting had something to do with Jessica. "What happened?"



"Has Ana ever given you a bunch of trouble?" Brian asked bluntly.



"No, but then again, she hasn't turned 18 yet. What'd Jess do this time?"



"Let's see, after I specifically told her to be home by 11:30, to call me to let me know of any additional plans and if she was going to be a little bit late getting home, she decided to stay out all night and not come home until noon today, nor did she call me once last night," Brian said in a rush, using his hands to make gestures as he spoke. "And what's even worse, when she finally decided to come home, I caught her in a majorliplock on the front step with Scott!" Howie couldn't keep himself from chuckling at the amount of emphasis Brian used on the word "major". "I don't find this the least bit funny, D."



And Brian was dead serious as he said that, which only made Howie laugh a little harder. "No, I know it's not funny. But what I dothink is funny is how you seem to be making more of a big deal over the fact that you caught your daughter making out with her boyfriend."



"So? I can forbid her to date!"



"'Rok, she's 18."



"Quit reminding me..."



"She's not a little girl anymore," Howie continued to chuckle, watching as Brian frowned at him. "But I do understand why you are upset at her for staying out all night and not calling home at all. I'd tan Ana's hide if she ever did that."



"Thank-you!" Brian exclaimed once again, sinking down in his seat. "But, ya see, Jessica doesn't seem to understand why I'm upset. Nor does she everseem to understand my reasoning. What the heck am I doing wrong?!"



"Nothing, Brian. Nothing at all. She's just rebelling."



"I shouldn't have let her hang around AJ so much when she was little."



"I think Aje would take offense if he heard you say that."



Brian sighed. "Sometimes I just don't know what to do with her anymore. And so many times I've been ready to ship her off to go live with her mom-"



"Ouch," Howie winced.



"But the thing is, I don't want to. I don't want to seem like a bad parent who can't take control of his own kids."



"If it makes you feel any better, you're a good dad and you're not a bad parent. Like I said, Jess is rebelling."



"Lucky for you, Ana isn't doing that."



"Yet."



"Anyway, enough with my ranting...," Brian said, getting back into the habit of rubbing his temples in a furious manner. 'Stupid headache'he thought with a grimace. Standing up, he motioned for Howie to follow him into the kitchen. "What brings you here today?" he asked casually, heading for the fridge and opening it's door to retrieve two sodas for himself and Howie.



"Good news," Howie replied with excitement, his eyes lighting up as he accepted the soda. Brian raised his eyebrows in question and Howie continued. "Remember that old plantation I was thinking about purchasing out on Shelton Rd.?"



"Uh...yeah," Brian answered, actually having to think about it for a second. He was still unsure about it.



"Well, I closed the deal two days ago."



"You actually bought it?" Brian clarified before popping two asprin into his mouth and taking a sip of his soda.



"Yeah. Finished the paper work when I closed the deal. It's all mine now."



"D, don't take offense, but I think you're crazy for buying that place."



"You and Ana are just alike."



"How so?"



"She told me the same thing."



"Well, I like to think I have a positive influence on my niece."



"Positive influence? Ha!" Howie joked.



"Have you found a crew to hire to fix the place up?" Brian wondered outloud with interest. The two walked the length of the kitchen, through the back door, and stepped out onto the patio.



"No," Howie shook his head and decided to let loose of his idea. "I was actually thinking of tackling the project myself."



"You?!" Brian laughed.



Howie glared. "And what are you trying to imply amigo?"



"I hope you have some pretty tall ladders to help you out!" Brian continued to cackle.



"Very funny, Mr. Comedian. I'm laughing...really, I am..." Howie rolled his eyes.



"Sorry, D. It's just that I never expected you to ever take on something so big as fixing up an old place like what you bought. Why not just hire a crew to fix it up for you?"



"For one, I find pride in my purchase. But also, the sooner I move out of the place Ana and I are in right now, the better I'll be. The two of us can live in the old house while I'm fixing it, instead of having to live where we do now. I just...I can't handle living there anymore. I know it's been over a year since she's been gone, but it's still too painful. I just need to get away. A fresh start, ya know?"



Brian nodded, not knowing what exactly to say to make his friend feel better at the moment. He knew how hard of a year it had been for Howie, ever since his wife, Ana's mother, passed away. It had damaged Howie more then anyone could see or comprehend and Brian thoroughly understood why Howie wanted to make the move. Although, he didn't understand why Howie chose to purchase this old plantation. Maybe it was just his idea of a "fresh start".



"I got to thinking when I was signing the papers the other day," Howie started to speak again.



"I hope you weren't thinking too hard," Brian joked, hoping to ease a bit of the tension Howie was feeling and trying to lighten the situation.



Howie offered a crooked smile. "Very funny, 'Rok..."



Brian grinned.



"What would you think about calling the fellas up and seeing about getting them to come here as a sort of reunion for all of us, and at the same time, give a helping hand on starting the fix up of the plantation?"



For a second, Brian paused, surprised that Howie had suggested such a thing. It seemed like forever since the last time the five of them had been together. The only one Brian had seen most recently, besides Howie, was his cousin Kevin, but that was mostly for the fact that they were family. It had been months since he'd seen Nick, and even longer since he'd seen AJ. They'd all been so busy with their personal lives that none of them had the time to call for a "reunion" as Howie had just suggested. But Brian couldn't deny the fact that the idea was appealing; it would be great to get together as five brothers again.



"Earth to Brian."



"Sorry. I was thinking."



"Anything to say about what I just said?"



"Well, you know I'm more then willing to help you out on fixing up the plantation as long as you need me to. As for trying to get the fellas out here...I'm all for it. It's been too long since we've all been together."



"I couldn't agree with you more."



Brian opened his mouth to say more, but was well caught before getting the chance when they suddenly heard a loud voice call out from somewhere within the confines of the house. "Where ya at, pops?!" Brian's ears instantly perked up with a smile as he recognized his eldest son's voice. Seconds were all they had to wait before the door to the patio was thrown open and out stepped a twenty-three year old version of Brian himself. In addition, carried in Matthew Littrell's arms, was a two year old boy adorning sandy blonde hair atop his head and dressed in a yellow t-shirt and a pair of dark denim "Pooh" overalls.



"Papa! Papa!" the little boy cried out with excitement the moment he laid his eyes on Brian. Whimpering, he squirmed in Matthew's arms until his father let him down and he went barreling towards his grandfather. "Papa!!!"



Brian laughed as his grandson threw his tiny arms around his legs and immediately begged to be picked up. "Bailey, my boy!" Brian continued to grin as he smothered two rosey cheeks with tons and tons of kisses.



"Come wid Daddy!" Bailey announced happily, pointing towards Matthew.



"I see you sure did!"



"Hey, Uncle Howie!" Matthew greeted as he reached to offer his uncle a hug.



"Matthew Jordan Littrell. You're looking more and more like your dad when he was younger," Howie replied, returning the hug.



"What are you trying to imply, Dorough?" Brian immediately questioned with humor.



"Uncle Howie's just nicely trying to imply that you're an old fart, pops," Matthew teased his father, nudging him in the ribs to add to the joke.



"Well if that's the case, then Uncle Howie needs to keep in mind that he's older then your old fart of a father."



"Stinky papa!" Bailey giggled, trying to pinch his nose closed.



"No, stinky Uncle Howie," Brian immediately corrected his grandson with a grin.



"Hey pops, did Jess ever make it home?" Matthew asked after a few seconds of watching his father coo at his son.



Brian's eyes turned a shade darker. "Yeah, about fifteen minutes ago."



"That would be noon."



"Exactly."



Matthew sighed and rolled his eyes, understanding his father's anger. "I'ma go talk to her."



"Daddy no leave," Bailey instantly whimpered, shaking his head.



"Hey Bailey, Papa bought you some new balls to play with! They're already waiting out on the big backyard for you! How about you come with Papa and Uncle Howie to go play with them?" Brian suggested to distract Bailey as Matthew entered the house again.



"New balls?" Bailey asked with excitement.



"Yep! New balls!" Brian grinned. "Let's go!"



*****



Matthew hurried quickly through his father's house and found himself slowing his pace a notch as he began to ascend the large staircase that led upstairs. As an old habit, Matthew's eyes studied both walls as he made each step; mounted on the walls on either side of him was an enormous collection of photographs of the whole family, pictures of Matthew throughout the years, his twin sisters, his son Bailey -- several of he, Bailey, and Ariane, pictures of his father together with his cousin Kevin and the three other guys he knew as his "uncles". Some of them were really old pictures from back when Matthew's father was still part of that music group...the Backstreet Boys.



He grinned at that moment as he stopped for a second to study those pictures carefully. Brian, his father, was so young in those pictures, and in a select few he was twenty-three--Matthew's current age. They really did resemble each other at that age. 'It's like looking at myself in a mirror'Matthew thought. Though the more Matthew thought about it, the more he realized his father hadn't changed all that much; at the age of 47, Brian still looked the same in many ways, except for the fact that he was starting to sprout gray hairs and everyone loved to give him a hard time about it. But Brian was still the same Brian.



The group pictures of the Backstreet Boys that were mounted on the walls had to be, by far, Matthew's favorites as he remembered when he was younger his father would sit him down and tell him numerous stories about him and the fellas on their "rise to stardom". Stories of traveling the world, pulling pranks with Uncle Nick and Uncle AJ, getting in trouble by Kevin, all of the fans--the never ending numbers of them, being mobbed by the fans, the concerts--His father's stories were endless and always replaced bedtime books at night. It was as if the memories were his own.



Bringing himself back from his little trip down memory lane to his early childhood, Matthew continued up the stairs. Further towards the top, his eyes fell upon pictures of the one person he figured his father would have taken down. Matthew's mother. Even after the divorce being final for going on two years now, Brian still hadn't taken the pictures of Leighanne down. Matthew just didn't understand his father's reasoning with that. But he never chose to ask his father about it; it wasn't a subject Brian chose to discuss easily.



Matthew shrugged the thought away and reached the top step upon hearing a loud round of laughter ring through the upstairs. He had to roll his eyes at the sound for he knew just how loud his sisters could be and considering the fact that his Uncle Howie was there, then that most defenitely meant his cousin Ana was there, also. Three girls in one room at the same time meant ear-shattering laughter as he had just heard. "Figures," he muttered with a grin and headed down the hall, stopping shortly outside a closed door. "Locked?" he thought outloud when he tried the handle but found that it wouldn't turn. That seemed just a bit odd to him as the twins never locked their door, but who knew...they could be unpredictable at times. "Having privacy issues?" his words came from beneath his breath and he raised his fist to knock on the door. Upon his persistant knocking, all sound from inside ceased to exist and he raised an eyebrow.



"What?!" a loud voice screeched from inside. It belonged to Jessica; just the person he wanted to speak to.



"What's with having your door locked?" Matthew called back.



"Who is it?"



"Your one and only favorite big brother!"



"Matt?!" Jessica and Stephanie screeched and he could hear one of them scrambling towards the door. He didn't have to wait long though as the door was thrown wide open and he was nearly tackled to the floor as Jessica threw her arms around him with excitement. "Matt!"



"Jess, Matt can't breath!" Matthew gasped as he pried Jessica's arms away from him.



"Sorry," Jessica apologized sheepishly as Stephanie pushed her out of the way. "Hey!"



"You big jerk! You never come by anymore!" Stephanie scolded playfully as she punched him in the arm.



"You're becoming too tough for me," Matthew grinned. "Sorry, you know I've been busy."



"Too busy for your family?"



"Don't go pulling that!"



"I know, I know...I'm only joking."



"So we've got this big ol' family reunion going on right in this very room, and who gets left out?" Ana spoke outloud as if she were speaking to no one in paticular. "Well, I see no one truly cares about poor lil' Ana...hmpf...how sweet..."



Matthew chuckled as he turned his gaze towards the source of the third voice. "Hey, Shorty!"



"What's this? Have I actually been acknowledged?" Ana stated in mock disbelief.



"Yes, well, I can't forget about my favorite little cousin, now can I?" Matthew asked and he went to sit next to the short brunette on Stephanie's bed. "Just thought I'd toy with ya and see how long I could make you feel unloved. I see I'm losing my touch, though."



"Obviously."



"Ha ha...ha. Actually, I was wondering if you and Steph could leave the room for a few minutes? I need to speak to Jess alone."



"Hey, this is my room too, ya know. You can't just kick me out!" Stephanie exclaimed, curious as to what her brother wanted to talk to their sister about.



"I brought Bailey along," Matthew replied, knowing it would make his other sister happy. "He's out in the back yard with Pops and Uncle Howie. You and Ana go out there while I talk to Jess. It isn't open for disscussion," he added.



"You're such a loser," Stephanie answered with a smirk, then left the room while motioning for Ana to follow her out the door.



Matthew was forced to roll his eyes as he watched his younger sister and cousin leave the room and he shut the door behind them. Turning around, he noticed Jessica sitting against the wall on her bed, looking at him with a questioning expression and he leaned against the door, crossing his arms over his chest. "I want an explanation," he immediately said, his eyes narrowing the slightest bit and his voice ever the more serious. If anything, he could see it caught Jessica off guard.



"What do you mean you want an explanation?" It was defenitely a lame attempt at trying to act innocent, but Jessica couldn't have cared less at the moment. Somehow she should have figured that this sort of conversation would have come up between her and her brother. Matthew was just a younger version of their father and sometimes they acted exactly identical. It bothered her extensively.



"You know exactly what I mean, Jessica Marie," Matthew repeated, the sterness rolling off his tongue.



"Dad got to you too, huh?"



"Yeah, Pops got to me too! Jess, I didn't come up here to start yellin' at ya, because Lord knows you don't need to hear it anymore today, but do you even realize how freaked out you had Pops last night?"



"No...why don't you tell me..." Jessica replied with sarcasm.



Matthew frowned as he went to take a seat next to his sister. "Hear me out, would ya? You really oughta let up on Pops. Last night was not fair at all-"



"And what's that supposed to mean?"



"The fact that you stayed out all night without even callin' to let anyone know if you were ok or where you were."



"I was with some friends."



"And you were also with Scott."



"So? I'm 18."



"Then act like it once in a while. You had Pops worried sick last night when you didn't come home. He kept callin' me every hour askin' if I'd heard from ya or seen ya. I'm tellin' ya, Jess, he was flippin' off the hook."



"Well, he needs to chill out then," Jessica scuffed.



"And you need to grow up."



"Why do you always take his side?"



"I'm not takin' anyone's side. I'm just trying to look out for you and your safety, the same way Pops is."



"I'm sure..." Jessica's voice trailed. "He's only trying to ruin my life-"



Matthew chuckled in a dangerously low voice. "See, that's where you're wrong. Contrary to popular belief, sis, he makes up these "rules", which you think "ruin your life", because he doesn't want to see you get hurt. Pops loves you alot, you're his daughter, his pride and joy, his-"



"Matt, stop trying to be overly sentimental."



Rolling his eyes, Matthew continued. "Well, do you at least understand what I'm saying?"



"Yes. Dad wants to ruin my life because he cares about me alot and he would just die if something happened to me."



"Something along those lines...and you say I have sentimental issues?"



"You're a jerk, you know that?" Jessica glared, leaning against her brother in an attempt to knock him off the bed. No success of course.



"But that just makes you love me all the more."



"You think too highly of yourself, bro."



"Your point?"



"No point."



"So, think you can swallow your pride and go apologize to Pops?"



"Not a chance."



"Jess-"



"No."



"Fine, suit yourself. But don't come running to me every time he "ruins" your life."



"Who says I do?" Jessica stood up to stretch her arms, staring at Matthew with a challenging look. She knew Matthew wasn't going to give up unless she agreed to make an apology towards their father. And even though she believed he didn't deserve one, she figured it still gave her a chance to get out that night. After all, there was no way she was planning on spending her Saturday night inside the house when she could be out doing better things. She would sneak out if she had to...

Chapter 2:



Around the time of eight fifteen and 31 seconds that evening, the Littrell household was far from calm and peaceful; rather it was turning chaotic, all thanks to a little bundle of joy known as Bailey Andrew Littrell, who insisted on throwing his dinner all over his pitiful grandfather to start off with, knock a picture frame off a shelf and causing it to break, throwing couch pillows and balls around the living-room in a dangerous manner as his grandfather and great uncle tried to keep up with him, pinching them when they got near...and now...just to make matters worse, something was becoming just a tad bit...hmmm, let's say...STINKY?



"Bailey Andrew Littrell!" Brian screeched as he watched his tiny grandson run away from him as fast as his little legs could carry his body. Brian groaned; of all nights, Bailey had to pick this one to become a hyperactive little monster?...just to put it nicely. "Howie, grab a diaper so we're ready once we finally catch him!"



"What do you mean "we"?" Howie asked, stopping dead in his tracks. Brian stopped and looked at him pleadingly, but Howie only shook his head "no". "Uh-uh...I don't think so, 'Rok."



"Awww, c'mon, D!" Brian continued to plead as he watched Bailey mocking him from behind the large couch. "I'll pay you big bucks to change it! Big bucks! Heck, I'll get Matt to pay you big bucks!"



"No can do, amigo! Knowing YOUR luck, it's one of those really runny diarrhea diapers and I haven't come near to changing one of those since Ana was a baby. And trust me, I don't plan to until Ana has kids of her own. You're on your own with this one!"



"But D-"



"Papa!!!" Bailey screamed at the top of his lungs as he climbed onto a chair that was fairly near his grandfather and stood straight up. Stretching his arms out at full length in front of him, he screamed again. "Papa!!!"



Consequently from letting his mind get thrown off track, Brian had just enough time to turn towards his grandson to see the little boy take a flying leap off the chair and come crashing into his arms. Unfortunately, Brian's balance was also thrown off and he went crashing to the floor, taking Bailey with him. "Argh!" Brian groaned as he laid flat on his back, Bailey bouncing joyessly on his stomach.



"Papa!!!" Bailey giggled with a cheeky grin.



'Just like Matt when he was two' Brian thought with a warm smile as he gently threw Bailey to the ground. "Alright, listen here, kiddo!" he grinned, tickling his grandson's sides and blowing a raspberry on his tummy. Bailey giggled louder. "You need to stop squirming so Papa can change your diaper!"



"No!"



"Yes!"



"NO!!!"



"Tough luck, Bailey. Papa needs to change your diaper! You's stinkay!"



"Way to go on lowering your grandson's selfesteem," Howie joked as he collapsed onto the couch, exhausted, watching the scene on the living-room floor.



"Whatever," Brian replied rolling his eyes and blowing another raspberry on Bailey's tummy. This time he grimaced as an even heavier putrid smell wafted through the air and entered his nose. "C'mon D, I'm givin' ya one last chance to take me up on my offer-"



"No thanks." And Howie was quick with his answer.



"Fine. Be that way," Brian answered childishly as he went to undo the hooks on the straps of Bailey's overalls, then quickly pulled them down. Next, with minimal difficulty, he was able to slip Bailey's yellow t-shirt over his head until the little boy was left dressed in nothing more then the dirty, stinky, diaper.



"No diaper," Bailey growled and tried to get up and crawl away, but Brian was even quicker to grasp hold of one of his legs and tug him back over. "No!"



"Nice try. I know how you work. Papa may be old, but he's not stupid."



"'Tupid?" Bailey asked with curiosity.



"No, only your Uncle Howie."



It took a few seconds for Brian's sentence to register in Howie's tired mind, but when it finally did, his eyes widened. "Hey!"



"Slow are we?" Brian chuckled.



"Watch it, amigo!"



"You really are getting old."



"You're coming right behind me, ya know?"



"But I'm still younger, and I sleep better at night knowing that."



"'Owie 'tupid?" Bailey asked again. Brian only grinned, instead of answering.



"Thanks alot, Bri," Howie moaned and smothered his face with one of the couch pillows that was within his reach. All he heard was Brian's laughter and Bailey's giggles.



"Anytime, buddy. Anytime."



"Poopy?" Bailey giggled in an upward tone as Brian worked at slowly removing the putrid diaper from Bailey's bottom and scrunching his nose as he did so.



"Yes, very poopy...and very stinkay!"



"Poopy!" Bailey agreed, nodding his head.



"And very stinkay!"



"Papa 'tinky?"



"No, Uncle Howie-"



"I'll murder you in your sleep if you finish that sentence!" Howie growled.



"Ouch...need some some midol, D?"



"Shut up!"



"Sorry...could you toss me the wipes and a clean diaper?"



*smack*



Brian glared at the shorter latino as he rubbed at his forehead. "Very funny, Howie..." he grumbled, picking up the soft pack of wipes from the floor after it had bounced off his forehead with the diaper. Rubbing the sore spot a second time, he finally set to the undesirable task of producing a wet wipe and cleaning the "split pea"-brownish goop from his grandson's bottom. Who knew a kid could have possibly pooped this much? "Hey, hey! Stop squirming, pal!" he spoke in a distracted tone as Bailey continuously wiggled his body in an attempt to get away...before he was even clean. His whimpering became more persistant. "C'mon, we're almost done. Just let Papa finish."



"No diapa! No diapa!"



"I can't let you run around nakey. It's too cold."



"Your house is sweltering, 'Rok," Howie stated his opinion.



"For one thing, I find the temperature in my house to be quite comfortable. And another thing, shut up, D! You're not helping!" Brian stated in return, smirking shortly afterwards. He wrapped up his task quickly as the stench became unbearable. "D! Take this to the garbage!"



"I'm not touching that thing!"



"But it stinks!"



"And that's why I'm not touching it."



"Thanks for all the help, man. Can you at least put on the clean one while I throw this away?" Brian's soft blue eyes pleaded pathetically with the latino to do him that favor.



"THAT I can do." Howie smirked, plopping off the couch and crawling the few inches over to the toddler so he was kneeling down to Bailey as Brian ran to throw the stinky diaper away in the garbage in the kitchen. 'He'll defenitely want to take the trash out to night' he thought with a chuckle.



"Papa!" Bailey cried out, his eyes scanning the room quickly after Brian had dissappeared from his sight.



"Hold on, 'Lil One. Uncle Howie is just gonna put this on-"



"No! No diapa!"



"Yes, diapa! Hold still!" It came as quite a surprise to Howie when he found himself struggling to get the diaper on because of the squirming the toddler was doing, but after moments of relentless attempts and failure, Howie was finally able to get Bailey's new diaper on. Much to his luck, too. He finished just as Brian came back, his face a little pale.



"That's why I hate changing diapers. The smell always gets me sick." Brian moaned, sitting down on the couch. Bailey toddled over to him seconds later and struggled to climb on his grandfather's lap. Brian ended up assisting him the rest of the way up and cuddled him tightly in his arms. Relief washed over him when he realized the little boy was extremely tuckered out. This defenitely meant it would be bed time soon for Bailey.



"AHEM!" Howie cleared his throat. "I'm the one who always got stuck changing your girls when they were little, I think you can stand to do it once in awhile when Bailey is over."



"That's not true," Brian attempted to deny as he placed a small kiss on the top of Bailey's head. "I changed their diapers!"



"Name one time!" Howie challenged.



"Um..."



"Ha. See, that's what I thought."



"I changed their diapers alot. You didn't live with me, so how would you know? I just happened to have the skill of bribing you into changing the twins' diapers whenever you were around. And anyway, that doesn't matter. I always changed Matt's diapers."



Howie chuckled as Brian continued to make his claim, then he looked to a tiny pair of drooping blue eyes. Little Bailey was snuggled deeply in his grandfather's arms and was nearly falling asleep. There was no denying that that boy was overly adorable, especially right at that moment. Dressed only in a clean diaper now, his short hair tassled, and his cheeks rosey from exhaustion, he could steal anyone's heart. "Looks like he's about ready to fall asleep, huh?"



Brian smiled as he looked down. "Yep," he answered quietly, kissing the top of Bailey's head again. He would need to take him upstairs and put some pajamas on the boy soon before Bailey actually fell asleep. "I'm going to take him upstairs and put him to bed."



"All right," Howie nodded as he watched Brian carefully get up and head to the baby nursery upstairs that he made for when he had grandchildren. Bailey was the first Littrell grandchild of Brian's to use it. And it made Brian proud.



"Night 'Owie," Bailey called quietly, resting his head on his grandfather's shoulder as Brian carried him up the stairs.



"Nighty night, Bailey," Howie replied, a smile on his face. He couldn't help but smile whenever he was around that toddler. Bailey was always surprising him and everyone else with each of his capabilities. Especially his high vocabulary. At times he would only speak a few words, and other times, it was as if he wouldn't ever shut up. It was those times you could actually hold a fragment of a conversation with the two year old. Turning his attention away from the staircase, Howie switched the TV on and began watching whatever channel it was already set to. A movie half way through was already playing and Howie immediately recognized it as "The Godfather". That's when someone knocked on the door, causing Howie to jump where he was sitting on the couch. 'Who the heck is that?' he wondered, getting up unwillingly to answer the door. Upon opening it, though, a grin formed on his face. "Kev!?"



"D!" Kevin's voice pierced the air with just as much surprise. For a moment, both of them stood in shock, before finally pulling each other into an almost forgotten "brotherly" hug. "Man, it's been a long time!" Kevin voiced as he stepped through the doorway and Howie shut the door.



"Too long!" Howie agreed, with a quick nod. "What brings you over here?" he questioned with curiousity and seeing that Kevin was alone, he added, "And where's Kristin?"



"Kris? Where's Kris? Argh! Don't EVEN ask me where that woman is!" Kevin exclaimed, his eyes bulging out in a sort of odd way.



Howie was a little surprised by Kevin's outburst. "The two of you having problems?" He was a little uncertain on how to ask the question, but the stress in Kevin's eyes pressed him to.



"No, WE'RE not having problems. SHE'S the one having problems!" Kevin answered as his dark eyebrows furled immensly. "D, I swear, I'm about ready to tear my graying hair out because of that woman's antics! I don't know what her problem is!"



Howie chuckled as he motioned for Kevin to follow him over to the couch. "I'm still not understanding," he replied, trying to stay as completely serious as he possibly could. It wasn't that easy though, not with the look Kevin held on his face.



"God, it's like she's pregnant or something! Every little thing sets her off!" Kevin paced the living-room in a furious manner; Howie was almost afraid that the older Ketuckian was going to go bang his head against the wall a couple of times. "Tonight was our anniversary and I had made this great dinner for her, right? Because I thought she'd really like it. And to make it even better, I accompanied it with a bunch of gifts and what not. I even did the "rose thing" because I know she loves roses. So what does she say when she gets home? The moment she steps through the door, she goes "What is all this for? Kevin, I'm tired, I don't wanna do this right now...". For Christ's sake, it's our ANNIVERSARY, D! Argh!" Kevin tugged on his dark hair, which was sparatically streaked with silver. Howie had to bite his tongue so he wouldn't laugh.



"Maybe she's going through menopause?" he suggested lightly.



Kevin's emerald eyes narrowed along with his eyebrows at the shorter latino. "Meno-what?" he asked with the slightest bit of confusion. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. "Oh! You mean that thing our moms' went through back in the day?"



Howie couldn't hold his laughter back. That sounded all too much like something Nick would have said years ago. "Yeah, that 'thing'. Just give her time, man, it takes awhile."



Kevin sighed, "Exactly how long?"



"Ah well, could take years, ya know? I mean, I've heard of women being in menopause for up to ten years or so-"



"TEN YEARS?!"



"Yeah."



Kevin growled out in frustration. "Just put me out of my misery now!"



Howie busted up at that moment. "Calm down, Kev. It's not always this bad."



Kevin rolled his eyes and collapsed onto the couch, crossing his arms over his chest in a stubborn manner. "Anyway, how's everything going with you and Ana?" he asked, forcing his mind towards other things besides his menopausal wife.



"Ana and I? We're doing good," Howie answered, nodding his head.



"She's doing ok?" Kevin clarified.



"Yeah, she's doing great."



"What about you then? How have you been? I mean, it's been a while since we've actually been able to talk to one another. It's kind of regretful, ya know?"



"We have our own lives. There's no real blame."



"I know. But seriously, Howie...how have you been doing lately?"



Howie raised his eyebrows as he glanced at his friend and saw genuine concern in Kevin's emerald eyes. "I'm doing better, if that's what you're wondering..." he answered quietly, looking back at the TV. "It's still hard, but I'm doing better..." His voice was near a whisper this time.



Kevin understood and dropped the subject there, seeing that Howie wasn't up to speaking about it. "Where's Bri-" he'd begun to ask, but didn't get the chance to even finish his sentence as a pair of feet came pounding down the staircase and the two men looked up just in time to see Brian's returning form. "I spoke to soon," he muttered as Brian stumblef off the last step upon seeing his cousin seated in his living-room.



"Kev? What are ya doin' here?" were the first words to slip from Brian's mouth. Howie rolled his eyes, Kevin let out a short laugh (more of a snort) as a smile played at his lips, and Brian's cheeks turned a shade of crimson. "Sorry," he apologized sheepishly, biting down softly on his bottom lip.



"Hi to you, too, cuz," Kevin replied with amusement at the sudden discomfort that his cousin was feeling.



"Well this is surprising," Brian noted as he walked over to stand in front of his cousin. "Why'd ya come over?"



"He never has been good with his greetings," Kevin told Howie, shooting the latino a side-ways glance.



"Funny," Brian shot back with sarcasm.



"He's here because he's having women trouble," Howie explained.



"Trouble doesn't even begin to explain it!" Kevin continued, that same look passing over his eyes as before. The "I want to tear all of my hair out and ram my head into a wall" look.



"What's going on?" Brian asked. "Wait, shouldn't you be at home? I thought it was you and Kristin's anniverysary-"



"Yeah, so did I," Kevin grumbled.



"Uh-oh..."



"Ok, tell me honestly, now...if you came home and found an awesome five star meal prepared for your enjoyment, gifts and roses to accompany it-"



"You trying to say I'm a girl?"



Kevin glared. "Shut up and let me finish."



"Sorry. Go ahead."



"If you came home to find all of this waiting for you, wouldn't you be the least bit...hmmm, let's say...happy?"



"Sure, why not?"



"Yeah, that's what I thought, too."



"So spit it out, Kev. What happened?"



"I had all of what I just said waiting for Kris when she arrived home from her errands. I really thought she would have been ecstatic. I mean, dang, I worked hard and all to make it perfect since it is our anniversary and what is the first thing she says when she walks through the door and sees everything? "What is all this for? Kevin, I'm tired, I don't wanna do this right now..."."



Brian's mouth was let slightly agape as Kevin explained why he wasn't at home on his anniversary with his wife. "Are you serious?" he asked dumbly, feeling a strain of pity for his cousin. Kevin looked more then dissappointed because of what had happened.



"More then serious."



"Man..."



"Yeah. Then she left me standing there, roses in my hand, and went to our room. Well, I figure, hmmm...might as well go talk to her and see what's biting her butt."



"Biting her butt, cuz?"



"Shut up."



"Continue."



"She locked herself in our room and wouldn't even answer me. So, finally, I just gave up and left. I needed to get out of the house, because trust me, I was steaming by then."



"That's a real drag-"



"I told him that Kristin's probably going through menopause," Howie chuckled, seeing the horrified look spread across Kevin's aging face for a second time.



"Good explanation, D. But for this to happen on your anniversary, that just...sucks."



"Yeah, tell me about..." Kevin trailed.



"But hey, it's cool you came over here. Haven't seen ya much lately."



"I figured you wouldn't mind. I didn't want to bother anyone else anyway."



"Oh, so you only came over here to bother me?"



"You know want I meant," Kevin answered, rolling his eyes. "So where were you when I got here?"



Brian grinned and motioned towards the ceiling. "I was putting Bailey to bed."



"Ah, got the grandkid tonight?"



"For the whole weekend actually. Matt talked me into keeping him for the weekend; he said he and Ariane needed some "alone" time."



"Not like it took much for him to talk you into it."



"Hey, watch it. You're just jealous that you don't get to see your grandkids as often."



"I wonder why, Bri...doesn't help that they live in another state." Kevin chuckled.



"Still!" Brian stuck his tongue out in an utmost immature fashion. This gesture caused all three men to bust up laughing as it was things like this that reminded them of their early youth. Those were the good memories, the ones most cherished.



"Real mature, `Rok," Howie continued to laugh as Kevin rolled his eyes.



"Shut up, man," Brian scowled playfully in return. "C'mon, Cuz, maybe if we watch the Discovery Health channel, we'll be lucky enough to catch some advice on how to handle teenage daughters and menopausal wives," he added hastily, plopping down in his lazy boy recliner that was next to the couch.



"Teenage daughters? Something going on with the twins?" Kevin asked.



"Not the TWINS. Jessica." Brian sighed, tugging at his own graying hair. He kicked up the foot stool and leaned back in the chair, resting his eyes shut for a second.



"Don't you just love being a parent?" Kevin chuckled, but fell quiet as Brian peaked his eyes open to glare at him. Kevin cleared his throat. "Ok, uh...so, what happened?"



"I'm gonna ground her for the rest of her life," Brian muttered.



"Or until she, Ana, and Stephanie leave to go to the movies tonight?" Howie said in a tone that was more of a statement, rather then a question.



Brian sighed. "Yeah, yeah...sure, whatever."



"Maybe if you watch the Discovery Health Channel long enough, you'll find some parenting advice on how to not be so much of a softy."



"Who are you to talk?" Brian shot, a wry grin on his face. "You wouldn't know, because Ana has never given you any trouble."



"I think it's genes. You see, both you and Leigh were stubborn. That's how Jessica is. Like I said earlier, she's just rebelling. Most kids do that at her age. Just be happy Stephanie isn't like that."



"Stephanie. Man, if all teens were like her, there would be no problems in this world!" Kevin and Howie laughed at Brian exaggerations.



"Yeah, she hasn't ever given me the trouble Jessica does!"



"Twins are always opposites, Bri. It was gonna be her or Jessica."



"And she'll grow out of it too," Kevin added with optimism for Brian's sake. "...Sooner or later..."



"Knowing my luck, if ever, it will be much later," Brian chose to say as his eyes were drawn up towards the ceiling when they all heard loud voices ring out from upstairs. He about ready to yell up at them to quiet down.



"Keep looking at it that way, cuz, and you'll jinx yourself. Trust me, Jessica will grow out of it. All of my kids went through their own stage of rebellion."



Brian nodded unwillingly as he continued to look up at the ceiling. "Hey! Y'all need to quiet down up there! Bailey's sleeping!" he yelled as he stood up from the recliner abruptly. The noise died down at once and he looked to see Howie and Kevin smirking at him. "What? You would have done the same thing if you were me! You don't want Bailey to be woken up. Trust me, that kid is a monster if he is woken up before he gets enough sleep. He's cute when he's awake, but if he's woken up, well, we'll just leave it at that."



"I have to agree with you on that, Brian. Especially if he needs a diaper change." Howie made a face as Kevin laughed.



"All part of raising kids."



"Yeah, yeah, yeah, old man." Brian snickered.



Kevin glared at him. "Yeah, but at least I know what I'm talking about." He had to chuckle at the stumped look that crossed Brian's face.



"That's besides the point!" Brian replied as Ana, Stephanie and Jessica chose that moment to come barreling down the stairs.



"KEVIN!" they all squealed after noticing the Kentuckian, running to him on the couch.



"Ahhh! Help!" Kevin cried out as the girls burried him under a massive set of three hugs. "Uh, girls? I can't breath!"



Kevin's voice came out muffled and the girls all jumped back. "Sorry Uncle Kevin," Ana apologized with a wide grin. "We just wanted to see how long you could actually hold your breath. Well, Steph, Jess...it wasn't long. Check him off on the "Old Fart" chart. He's defenitely ahead of Papi and Uncle Brian!"



"Hey!" three male voices chorused at Ana's reply.



"What?" Ana grinned innocently. "I said he's ahead of you guys."



"Anita," Howie spoke in a dangerously low voice, referring to his daughter as "Little Ana" in spanish. He couldn't help but chuckle as she turned to look at him, showing him that she was only joking around in good fun.



"Hey Papi? Can I borrow twenty?" Ana immediately asked, holding out her hand.



"What?!" Howie exclaimed in disbelief. "She disses on her father, then asks to borrow money? ¡Ay caramba!"



"Oh, come on, ¿por favor? It's only veinte! Besides, it's just to the movies, and those places are expensive."



"Please Uncle Howie? Please?" Stephanie begged.



"Yeah, Uncle Howie, let Ana come with us. It's no fun without her." Jessica added.



"Papi?" Ana asked again, batting her eyelashes as she continued to hold out her hand. She knew just exactly how to wear her father down and get him to cave in to what she wanted. Howie looked at Brian and Kevin, and they knew he was going to give in when they saw the puppy dog face Ana was now giving her father.



"All right, all right. VEINTE. No more than that," Howie answered, his expression dead serious that he wasn't going to give her anymore then what she'd asked for as he reached into his back pocket for his wallet. "And I expect you to be back here by your curfew. Understood?"



"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Ana rolled her eyes.



"Anita."



"Sí, papi."



"Overprotective much, Uncle Howie?" Stephanie giggled as Ana snatched the crisp twenty dollar bill from her father. "Don't worry...we'll bring her back safe and sound."



"Safe and sound?" Jessica repeated, looking at her sister with a mysterious look. "Actually, we can't garauntee that she will come back in one piece. So don't bet your money on it-"



"Jessica," Brian scolded.



"Yes, yes, I know. Bye," Jessica waved to her father, but hugged Howie and Kevin. "Bye Uncle Howie. Bye Kevin. We'll be back later. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine." She grabbed the keys to Stephanie's '67 red Ford Mustang and headed out the door.



"Bye, Daddy," Stephanie also spoke as she leaned down to offer her father a hug and kiss.



"Have fun, sweetie," Brian smiled, content that at least one of his daughter's cared enough to show a bit of affection towards him.



"Adios, papi." Ana hugged Howie as well when Stephanie started heading towards the door. After their short good-byes, both girls went out to the mustang where Jessica was already waiting in the driver's seat. Even with the doors shut, they could hear Jessica's Eminem cd blaring from the car stereo. The bass system in the car was being overworked from the volume.



"She acts as if she owns it. It's my car," Stephanie mockingly whined as she watched her twin through the window mouthing the lyrics to song and making hand gestures. "And who said she could drive it tonight anyway? I wanna drive!"



"Why don't you just open the driver's side door. Pull her out, then climb in yourself. After all, like you said, it is your car," Ana suggested, her voice dripping with amusement.



Stephanie only shrugged back in reply and went straight for the passenger side door, deciding it wasn't worth arguing with her sister over who would be driving that night. Stephanie was just like their father, so she knew she would end up relenting and letting Jessica drive. "Could you at least turn that down if you're going to drive?" she shouted over the music as her and Ana climbed in.



"What?!" Jessica called back, squinting at her sister.



Stephanie reached over and pressed the 'power' button. The music immediately died out. "I said, turn it down."



"You suck. That was a good song," Jessica glared.



"Well, if you're going to listen to it, then turn the volume down a notch. I don't plan on blowing my speakers anytime soon."



"Ah, can it!" Jessica grinned, pressing the 'power' button to turn the stereo back on again. Once more the car was filled with the blaring rap music as Jessica put the car into reverse and quickly directed the car out of the driveway. "Let's blow this joint," she muttered and sped off down the road.



*****



"So, D, what brought you here to Bri's today?" Kevin asked as they sat around the poker table in the rec room, deeply involved in an intense poker game. He reached for his soda and took a long drink before placing one of his cards down.



"Huh?" Howie replied in a distracted tone as he studied his cards carefully, taking note of what he could do. He needed to win this hand as he was betting big bucks with Kevin and he'd be damned to lose this time. Brian wasn't part of this round as he'd had to excuse himself from the table minutes earlier when they all heard the sound of Bailey's crying filter through the baby monitor Brian had placed on the table. Now they could hear Brian softly singing a lullaby to his grandson, and Bailey's whimpering was slowing dying out.



"I asked what brought you to Bri's today?" Kevin repeated himself, looking at Howie with a questioning glance. The shorter latino was deep in concentration. "D!"



"Oh! Sorry!" Howie grinned sheepishly, finally placing a card down and looking up at Kevin. His eyes lit up. "You remember that old plantation I mentioned about a while back and how I was thinking about buying it?"



"That one out on Shelton Rd?"



"Yep, that's the one."



"Yeah, I remember. What about it?" Kevin grinned as he smacked his card down and waited for Howie to make his move.



"I bought it," Howie answered shortly, drawing a card from the stack. "Alright. I got a two pair. Whatcha got?"



Kevin's grin widened even further. "Full house."



Howie's mouth dropped open when Kevin showed him his cards. "¡Hijo de la puta!" he exclaimed in frustration as Kevin pocketed the money both he and Howie had bet. "¡Caray!"



"Say what?!" Kevin laughed at the expression on the latino's face.



"Nothing," Howie grumbled, throwing his cards onto the table.



"Aw, c'mon...you only lost fifty dollars..."



"Yeah, exactly. That makes me fifty dollars poorer now."



"Bet me again and try to win it back. You were dealt a bad hand."



"Fine. Deal," Howie challenged.



"Anyway, tell me about the plantation. You actually bought it?"



"Yeah, and I'm glad too. I just feel like Ana and I need to get out of the house we have. I know she's been gone for a year now, but it's so hard with all the memories in there..." Howie trailed off, reading the hand he was just dealt and getting deep into his bout of concentration again. Kevin nodded, understanding completely. "So, I bought the house. The papers were finalized a couple of days ago."



"Whoa. That's a huge project, man. How much is it gonna cost for you to hire a crew to fix the place up for you?"



That's when Howie looked up at the older man with a weird smile on his face. "Not gonna cost me anything at all," he answered.



"Nothing at all? Where'd you find that crew?"



"Actually, I was thinking about getting us all together. Ya know, invite everyone to the plantation to help renovate it ourselves. I mean, how long has it been since the five of us have been together?"



"You really want to do that?"



"Yeah, I already discussed it with Brian and he agreed to help out. He'd like to see everyone together again and so would I. I was thinking that after I discussed it with you, I would get a hold of AJ and Nicky and see what they have to say. You have to admit that it would be cool for all of us to get together again. It's been too long."



"You're definitely right about that," Kevin agreed with a nod of his head as he drew a card from the deck.



Howie was about to open his mouth to continue when he saw something sticking out of Kevin's sleeve. He narrowed his eyes. "Hey! What's that?"



"What's what?" Kevin asked, trying to look innocent.



"You little cheater! You have a card in your sleeve!"



"I do not!" Kevin defended himself.




"You do too, amigo!" Howie claimed.



"Man, D, I can't believe you would accuse me of such a thing!"



"Then what's this, huh?" Howie reached over and snatched the card from Kevin's sleeve and held it in front of his face. "Explain!"



"Hmmm...wonder how that got there," Kevin shrugged with a smirk.



"¡Eres el cerdo sucio!"



"Man, that's not fair! Stop with the spanish! For all I know, you could have just called me something like a hairy pig!"



"Actually, I called you a filthy pig, but that's besides the point. You cheat. I want my money back."



"Aw, but I-" Kevin stopped short, noting the glare he was receiving from the Latino. "All right, all right," He took out the money in his pocket and handed it to Howie unwillingly. "Sorry man, but you're easily tricked."



"You still shouldn't cheat! Ay, yi, yi!" Howie had to chuckle. A pair of feet came pounding down the stairs to the rec room at that moment and Brian came bounding into the room. That's when the two men realized that they no longer heard any sound coming from the baby monitor.



"Hey, y'all. Who won the game?"



"At first, it was your primo. Now it's me!" Howie cackled as Kevin frowned.



"He called me a filthy pig," Kevin noted as Brian took his seat again.



"For shame!" Brian mockingly scolded Howie.



"In spanish," Kevin added.



"Good job, D!" Brian cackled along with Howie.



Kevin frowned further. "I no longer like the both of you."



"We're heartbroken, Kev. Really, we are," Howie joked.



Kevin rolled his eyes just as his cellphone rang from within the confines of his pants pocket. Undisturbed from the ringing, he reached in and pulled the device out, glancing at the caller id screen. "Uh-oh..." he mumbled.



"Who is?" Brian and Howie asked in unison with curiosity. The two of them looked at each other and busted up.



"It's Kris..."



"Dun, dun, DUN!" Brian laughed.



"Shush up, man!" Kevin glared as he proceeded to answer the phone. "Hello? Yeah, I'm at Brian's... What? Yeah, I had done it for you, it is our anniversary, you know. Uh-uh, yeah... okay. Yup, I love you too. Bye." He hung up with a smile on his face.



"Well?" Howie asked.



"Kris wants me to come home. She feels bad about tonight and wants to make it up to me. I gotta go." Kevin got up from his chair and walked over to the staircase to head to the first floor and gain access to the front door.



"Oooh, Kev's gonna have fun tonight-- minus the money he lost to me!" Howie laughed.



Kevin only grinned. "I'll call ya guys later." And with that, he was gone.



*****



"You better lose yourself in the music / The moment / You own it / You better never let it go / You only get one shot / Do not miss your chance to blow / This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo!" The lyrics blasted from the stereo in Stephanie's mustang as Jessica directed the car down one of the busy streets of the city where they lived. "Man, I love this guy! Too bad he ain't around in the music business anymore!" Jessica stated as she bopped her head to the beat, tapping her hands on the steering wheel.



"Where'd you get this cd?" Ana called loudly from the backseat as she leaned forward a bit to try to be heard.



"Uh, I think Uncle Nick gave it to me! It used to be his cd!" Jessica answered. "You better lose yourself in the music / The moment / You own it / You better never let it go / You only get one shot / Do not miss your chance to blow / This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo!"



"Why'd he give it to you for?" came Stephanie's question.



Jessica looked at her sister as if she'd been offended. "Because I was looking through his cd collection the last time he was visiting dad and I popped the cd into my cd player. He walked into the room and saw that I was listening it. He said something like, "Oh, didn't know you liked old time rap from when I was your age." I laughed and he gave me the cd."



"That's Uncle Nick for ya."



"Yeah, my dad said he was always acting blonde back in the day," Ana noted.



"I wouldn't doubt it," the twins replied in unison.



"Uh, Jess...you just missed the street the theater is on!" Stephanie spoke as she looked out her window in confusion when Jessica directed the car straight on past the street they were supposed to turn on to.



"I know," Jessica answered, staring straight ahead.



"What do you mean you know?"



"We're not going to the movies."



"Excuse me?" Ana asked from the backseat.



"Prima, hand me my purse, ¿por favor?" Jessica kept her eyes glued to the road as she held her hand behind her head in anticipation of Ana handing her what she wanted. When she felt the object hit her hand, she brought it in view and began to blindly dig inside until she finally found what she was looking for. Pulling three objects out, she handed them to Stephanie. "Here, find your's and give Ana's to her."



Stephanie took only a second to look at them and her jaw dropped. "FAKE IDs?! Where did you get these?!"



"I have my ways," Jessica grinned, side-glancing at her sister. "Just give Ana her's so we can have some fun!"



Ana and Stephanie exchanged worried looks as they looked at the plastic cards they had been presented with. "Where are we going?" Ana decided to ask for both her and Stephanie. She could feel something nagging at the pit of her stomach as she looked at the card again.



"Oh, just this place downtown."



"Jess-"



"It's a club I heard about and I've been wanting to check it out for quite some time now. But you need to be 21 to get in, so I got us these IDs made up."



"You're nuts! We can't go there!"



"Yes we can. That's what the IDs are for."



"They'll never let us in."



"C'mon, Ana! Live dangerously for once! It'll be fun!"



"The one time I live dangerously will be the time I get killed by papi," Ana replied, shaking her head in disgust at the idea her cousin was brewing. Just looking at the prospect of the idea, Ana knew it was no good.



"We won't get caught, don't worry about it!"



"Jessica, this is the most dumbest thing you have ever made us do. If dad ever finds out-" Stephanie had begun to argue, but Jessica shot her a stern glare, silencing her immediately.



"He won't, all right? Let's just have fun!" With that said, Jessica grinned. Sighing, Stephanie and Ana nodded in defeat, watching as the car was directed into the parking lot of the club. The place had to be popular as the lot was jammed with cars and a line of people stood outside the entrance doors, waiting anxiously to get inside. All three girls climbed out of the car once Jessica had killed the engine, and began making their way up to get in line.



"Jess-" Stephanie tried one last time.



"Just c'mon! I'm not gonna let you ruin my Saturday night! This will be fun. Nothing is going to happen!" Jessica reassured her sister as she tugged on their arms and pulled them into line.



'That's what you say every time you get one of your crazy ideas like this...' Stephanie thought, listening to the music pounding through the walls from inside. If it was this loud outside, then she could only imagine how loud it was inside. Glancing at her side, she saw the same nervous stare pass through Ana's eyes and she playfully nugged the girl in the ribs, trying to get her attention. "Let's just get this over with," she told her loud enough to be heard over the music, but quiet enough so it wouldn't catch Jessica's attention.



"Yeah, yeah," Ana groaned as they moved up in line. Groaning, she looked down at the ID again, skimming the information. "Well, at least she made me an inch taller then I actually am..."



Stephanie grinned at her cousin's sense of humor as a stream of people were let inside and they suddenly found themselves standing face to face with the club's bouncer. The two girls gulped while Jessica stood up to the bouncer casually. "Hey," she greeted.



"ID," the bouncer growled in a monotone voice, clearly not wanting to strike up a conversation of any sorts. Jessica shot the bouncer a dark look, but handed him her ID. The burly man looked over the ID carefully, looking up at Jessica every few seconds as if to compare what he was reading and seeing. Finally, he handed her the card back and motioned for her to go inside. Jessica grinned, snatching the card back and waiting for her sister and cousin. "Go," the bouncer growled towards the other two, and together, with Jessica, they stepped inside.



The music inside was a magnitude of ten times louder then it had been outside. Bodies swarmed all over the place; couples danced close to one another (some casually and others more freakishly), groups sat at tables trying to be heard over the blaring music as they held conversations and drank what ever it was that was in the glass in front of them, others were making their way onto the dance floor, through the crowd with a drink, or up to the bar to order a drink. Jessica's eyes quickly scanned the dance floor, a grin on her face, before leading Stephanie and Ana over to a high table with three stool-chairs. "You guys want anything to drink?" she yelled.



"No," Stephanie and Ana answered, their voices barely heard in unison.



"All right, suit yourselves. Meet me at the front door when this place closes if we lose each other." Jessica turned around when all she recieved was a nod from both of them and headed to the bar, noticing a lot of guys checking her out. That made her smile. Scott wasn't around that night...so what would a little bit of harmless flirting do?



Stepping up, the bartender, who sported green spiked hair and a dark t-shirt that clung to his abs, looked her over closely. "What can I get ya, honey?" He asked finally.



"A strawberry margarita, please," Jessica replied without hesitation, smiling. He nodded, making it quick as she placed the money down on the bar. After placing the drink on the counter, he reached for the money, but from nowhere a hand grabbed his wrist, catching the bartender in surprise.



"Give this pretty lady her money back. The drink is on me," a raspy voice sounded, suddenly so close to Jessica's ear. If she wouldn't have been thinking clearly, she would have guessed it was her Uncle AJ who had spoken, but that was HIGHLY unlikely. She watched as the bartender nodded and pushed the money back towards her as this mystery person's money replaced it. The fingers sported several silver rings. 'Too much like Uncle AJ...' Jessica thought with a shudder.



"Thanks for the drink," Jessica spoke as she turned around to see exactly who this person was, immediately becoming face to face with short brown spiked hair, deep chocolate orbs, and a decent six pack that was shown off from his tight-fitting wife beater he sported.



"Name's Brett," he answered, seemingly reading the question on Jessica's mind.



"Well, Brett..." Jessica began, hinting a bit of seductiveness in her sapphire eyes. "Was that the best pick up line you could possibly have come up with?"



He chuckled. "Naw, I have better, but you looked so damn good from where I was standing, it was all I could think of right then."



Jesscia giggled, kind of liking this Brett. 'A lot more fit than Scott, that's for sure,' She thought, looking over Brett's body again. "So, how old are you?" She asked casually as she watched him lean against the counter with a sly grin on his face.



"23. How about you?" Brett replied, his dark eyes seeming to go straight through her soul.



"21," Jessica replied, remembering the age on her I.D.



"Cool. Is anyone else with you?"



"Yeah, my sister and cousin. They're over at that table right there." Jessica pointed to Stephanie and Ana, finding that they were flirting with some equally cute guys that looked to be around Brett's age. 'Ha, I told them tonight was going to be fun,' she thought with a grin.



"Ah, my friends and I have the same taste," Brett mentioned, following Jessica's gaze.



"Pardon?"



"Your sister and cousin are talking to my friends."



"Oh, I see," Jessica replied, getting even more confident about her being right.



"Let's go and see how my boys are doing," Brett said and grabbed Jessica's arm a little tightly as she struggled to drink her margarita and keep up with his pace.



*****



The guy standing closest to Stephanie, stepped even closer and rubbed himself against her. "How about we go to my apartment tonight?" he asked in a low and seductive voice.



"How about you take a jump off a cliff?" Stephanie spat back, pushing him away and grabbing her Vanilla Coke. She quickly threatened to throw it in his face if he didn't back off further.



"Hey, Ana, why don't we leave these two and go out on the floor?" the other said to Ana.



"I'd rather get my teeth pulled," she snapped, finding absolutely no interest in this person whatsoever. She was just going along with it at the beginning to have fun, now he was just becoming annoying. He was like an annoying bug and she just wanted to squish him between her fingers.



"That can be arranged." He snarled, grabbing the back of her neck.



"You wouldn't dare throw that," Stephanie's 'date' replied, daring her to even try.



"Wanna bet, asshole?" Stephanie growled as an answer and without second thought, threw the soda directly in his face to prove her point.



The guy steamed as the brown liquid dripped from his face and stained his shirt. "You blonde bitch!" he screeched, reaching forward to slap Stephanie across her right cheek.



"Don't fucking touch my sister you bastard!" Jessica screamed as she slammed her body against the guy that was getting ready to harm her sister. Her blood boiled through her veins at such a thought and she fell into her infamous protective mode.



"Jess!" Stephanie cried out in shock as her sister came out of nowhere.



"Fuck you, slut!" the guy who had been doing the harassing cursed as he stumbled back onto his feet. This time he went towards Jessica, all the while Stephanie and Ana watched on in shock.



"Don't even think about hitting me. If you do, I swear I'll hand you your balls in a doggy bag!" Jessica growled.



"Jess, this isn't worth it, let's just-" Ana started to say as the other guy grabbed the back of her neck, causing a screech of pain to escape her lips."



"Let go of her!" Stephanie yelled, trying to get Ana free of his grasp. Brett took this opprotunity to slap Stephanie across the face, breaking her lip open.



"That's for causing all this shit to happen, you stupid fuck!"



Upon seeing what Brett had done to her sister, Jessica turned away from the jerk she was yelling at and lunged at Brett. Before he could even react, she had tackled him to the floor and began to send her fist into his face, not caring that a large crowd had begun to gather and who was watching. All she cared was that this guy had just violated her in one of the worst ways and she was going to make him pay. "You stupid son of a bitch! How dare you touch my sister like that! I'll kill you!" she screamed as Brett struggled with her helplessly.



"Jessica! STOP!" Ana screamed at her cousin.



"You fucking asshole!" Jessica raged as Brett tried to swing at her, but she quickly dodged the blow and kneed him in the crotch.



"FUCK!" Brett cried out in pain. He kicked Jessica in the side, causing her to fall backwards into Stephanie and Ana's arms.



"Jess, c'mon, we gotts get out of here!" Stephanie ordered in a hurry as they tried to weave through the crowds.



"Come back here, you little bitches!" the three guys called.



"Fucking say that to my face!" Jessica yelled as she broke away from Stephanie and Ana and charged back at the guys. This time she succeeded in knocking two of them down, but was more inclined to causing damage against Brett. "Stupid motherfucker!"



"ALRIGHT! BREAK IT UP! BREAK IT UP!" a loud voice boomed and a strong pair of hands pulled Jessica off of Brett. Jessica struggled for a moment before the voice spoke again. "COOL IT DOWN NOW, MISS!" Jessica turned her gaze behind her and nearly fell limp when she saw who it was. An officer from the police department...a person she most dreaded to see that night. She was really in for it now. "This is officer Taney! I'm down at Club Fiesta responding to the disturbance that was dispatched a minute ago! I'm going to need assistance here right away!"



*****



"Well, it's almost time for the twins' curfew. I swear, if Jessica brings them home one minute late..." Brian trailed off as he and Howie played some pool in the rec room, after having gotten bored of the endless poker games after Kevin had left. He missed the pocket by mere centimeters.



"`Rok, calm down. With Steph and Ana there, I'm sure nothing will go wrong," Howie replied with concentration , taking his turn and easily sinking in the striped 6 ball.



"You don't know my daughter very well, do you?" Brian asked dryly as he got ready to take his shot. Right when he did, the doorbell rang, causing him to yelp and make the 8 ball fly off the table. He grinned sheepishly as Howie laughed at his mishap, tossing the ball back onto the pool table.



"I'll go answer the door," Howie offered and began to hurry up the stairs. "Take your shot, but no cheating!" he joked back over his shoulder.



"Who said I ever cheat?" Brian mumbled and began to line up his shot. Once he was sure he had a defenite sinker shot, he pulled the pool stick back...



"Brian!"



Brian yelped again and watched as the 8 ball flew off the table a second time. "Dangit, Howie! What is it?!" he growled under his breath, dropping his pool stick on the table and running up the stairs. Upon reaching the living-room, he noticed Howie standing by the open front door and came to a halt, ready to question him when he saw the officer from the police department standing in the doorway.



"Mr. Littrell?" the officer asked.



"Y-yeah, that's me," Brian replied nervously, fear sinking into his stomach and forming a ball.



"I'm officer Taney," the officer explained, then stepped aside and in walked the hesitant forms of Jessica, Stephanie, and Ana.



Brian stood there in shock as he watched them walk through the doorway, none of them looking up to lock gazes with him. Looking at Howie with confusion and recieving the same stare back, Brian looked at the officer again. "What's going on?" he almost demanded the answer.



"Well, it seems like these young ladies decided to get some fake IDs, go to 'Club Fiesta' and get into a little fight," Officer Taney explained. Stephanie and Ana winced at the story, but Jessica just folded her arms over her chest. "I just happened to be driving by the club when the disturbance was dispatched over the radio, so I witnessed a little of what happened."



"Excuse me? Did you just say the words 'fake IDs', 'Club Fiesta' and 'fight' which concerned my daughters?" Brian asked in disbelief. He looked at his girls, eyes bugging out as he saw dried blood on Stephanie's lip and shirt. He reeled with concern, but the feeling was quickly replaced with anger and dissappointment.



"And my daughter?" Howie added.



"I'm sorry to say so, but yes. Did either of you know this was going to happen?" Taney asked, crossing his arms over his chest in the same manner Jessica had.



"No, no clue at all," Howie answered, now looking at Ana in disbelief.



"And you didn't know about the fake IDs they had in their possession?"



"Once again, no. They claimed they were going to the movies tonight." The words dripped from Brian's lips in an icy tone. He couldn't believe the sight he was seeing or the story he was being told.



"You do realize that it is a crime to obtain fake IDs and enter a club underage?" Taney seemed to be directing the question more towards the girls, but Brian answered with a "yes" as Taney silenced his walkie-talkie that was on his shoulder. "It's actually a misdemeanor charge."



Ana looked away in shame when she felt her father's dissapointed stare baring down on her. "How big of a misdemeanor?" Howie asked, not taking his eyes off his daughter. This was unbelievable.



"That all depends sir. But not only did they enter a club underage with the use of fake IDs, but they proceeded to start a fight with three others-"



"We didn't start the fight!" Jessica exclaimed, her eyes masked with fury.



Brian shot his daughter a death look. "Hush your mouth, NOW, Jessica Marie!" he growled.



Stephanie nudged Jessica, which made her shut up. "Daddy, it wasn't our-"



"Stephanie Holly, you're in enough trouble as it is, just keep quiet!" Brian snapped. This startled her, but she quickly obeyed, knowing not to push it.



"As I was saying, they did start a fight, BUT witnesses say the men had started it more so. So, the misdemeanor stands at an eighty dollar each. They're very lucky, this isn't going to be on their records." Brian and Howie sighed in some relief. "But, they are now forever banned from that club, as are the men who harrassed them."



"That's perfectly acceptable," Howie nodded in agreement. "I apologize for this happening, officer."



"I apologize too. And I hope I don't hear of this happening again with them. Otherwise, next time, they won't get off so easily."



"It won't happen again. I can gaurantee you that," Brian replied, tapping his foot dangerously on the ground.



"Well, sirs, if you can handle this from here, I will be leaving now."



"Yes. And thank-you for bringing them home."



The officer nodded and walked out the door, shutting it behind himself.



The three girls looked at each other nervously as Howie and Brian stared at them.



"Well? Where's the explanation?" Howie demanded.



"Papi, it wasn't our fault! Those guys-" Ana started to say.



"It doesn't matter who did what in that club! The point is that you went to it in the first place!" Brian interrupted.



"Daddy, Ana and I didn't know we were going there, but Jess-"



"And Stephanie! What happened to your lip?!"



"One of the assholes slapped Steph across the face!" Jessica growled as they all were forced to collapsed onto the couch to be interrogated.



"Watch your mouth, young lady!" Brian hissed.



"Jess, just shut up for once! You're the one who got us into this mess by buying those IDs!" Stephanie bluted. She immediately slapped a hand over her mouth and winced when she hit her open sore.



"WHAT?!" both Howie and Brian exclaimed. Jessica stared at her sister with hatred.



"Um, that's not what I said. I meant-"



"You better start explaning right now, Jessica Marie Littrell!"



"No! It's not that big of a deal!" Jessica claimed, glaring at her sister with even more hatred.



"Not a big deal?!" Howie exclaimed. "¡El infierno eso es no importa, Jessica! ¡Está comprando la licencia falsa, está tirando sus ellas con tu, y está llevando a cabo esto ejercicio! ¡Tiene mucho atrevimiento a pretender eso es no importa!"



Brian's mouth dropped open as he blinked in shock, listening to the words racing off Howie's tongue freely. He could tell that it had shocked Jessica too, as her eyes snapped up to look at her uncle in fear.



"This is great. I get a lecture in Español and English," Jessica muttered.



"Jessica, this is what you deserve! Who in Hell gave you the idea to do this?!" Brian exclaimed.



"It was my own god damned idea, you hijo de la puta! Just lay off, okay?!"



"Don't you dare call your father that!" Howie roared.



"What? What did she say?" Brian asked. Jessica quickly gave her uncle the look that said 'If you tell him, I'll hate you'.



"Jessica called you a son of a bitch," Howie answered.



"¡Malditolo, tío Howie!"



"¡Vela su boca!"



"¡No dices a me como hacer! No es mi padre!"



"¡Gracias el Dios de arriba eso no soy!"



"¡Papi!" Ana exclaimed.



"¡Anastacia, no intenta! Estoy mucho desilusionante en tu! Pensar esa harías algo del ejercicio de Jessica y estar escolta a la casa a la policía? Como es mala con tu? Como estuviste pensar? Contesta a me!"



"Papi..." Ana whimpered, sinking into the couch in fear.



"¡Deja ella solo, tío Howie! Este no es falta de ella-" Jessica tried to come to her cousin's aid, but she was interrupted.



"I have nothing more to say to you, Jessica," Howie growled, his eyes narrowed and his teeth gritted.



It was only a mere second of silence after Howie said that to Jessica that Bailey started wailing from in the nursery upstairs. Brian looked towards the ceiling and sighed. "Stephanie, Ana, go upstairs and check on Bailey. We'll talk about this later." he instructed in a calmer voice, clenching his fists. The girls looked at Jessica one last time, and headed upstairs to the nursery.



"Ooh, it's time for the double team," Jessica spoke rather sarcastically, flipping her hair behind her shoulders.



"Jessica Marie Littrell, this is the most outragous stunt you have ever pulled! Do you even realize what could have happened to your sister and cousin if those guys were alone with 'em?! I can't believe how irresponsible you've been actin'! I really am sick of your attitude, especially since you weren't like this two years ago!" Brian ranted, his Kentucky accent dripping over every word.



"Why am I getting all the blame for this?!" Jessica cried out in an exasperated sigh.



"Why are you getting all the blame for this?!" Brian clarified in disbelief.



"Yeah, that's what I said estúpido!"



"I don't appreciate your language and attitude you are using with me right now!"



"Well I don't appreciate you bitching at me all the time!"



"Stop that swearing!"



"I'll speak however the Hell I want to, damnit!"



"Jessica, stop this right now! All I've been trying to do is be your father! Why do you insist on always giving me crap?!" Brian sighed, tugging on his graying hair.



"Maybe it's my mission in life!" Jessica snapped, standing up from the couch. "Why won't you just treat me like the adult I am?!"



"An adult?" Howie laughed cruely. "You want to be treated like an adult, but you act like a niña! I really don't undetstand your logic at times, Jessica."



"I thought you said you had nothing more to say to me, Uncle Howie!" Jessica answered back snidely. She glared darkly at her uncle.



"You better learn to start showing some respect, ¡dama menora!"



Jessica scuffed. "Show some respect?" she asked in disbelief. "Niether of you deserve respect from me. Screw you both. I'm out of here!" Jessica pushed past her uncle, causing him stumble backwards, and headed towards the door.



"Jessica Marie! Where do you think you're going?!" Brian yelled, hurrying after his daughter.



"Away from this Hell hole!" Jessica screamed.



"Get back here!"



"No way in Hell!"



"Jessica!" But Brian found no reason to waste his breath any longer as Jessica ran the length of the driveway and dissappeared down the darkened night street. Brian stood helplessly on the front steps, his stare blank when he could no longer see his daughter. His heart pounded in his chest.



"She'll come back, man. Probably went to her boyfriend's house," Howie offered, resting his hand on Brian's shoulder.



"I should have let her live with Leigh after the divorce. Maybe things would be different." Brian's voice was coated with defeat, sadness, and a sense of failure. Howie didn't like the sound of it.



"She would have acted like this, whether she was with her mother or not."



"Maybe, maybe not," Brian replied, still trying to see where Jessica went. After he still caught no sight of her, he and Howie turned around to head back inside.



"Just give her a chance to cool off for the rest of the night, and when she comes home tomorrow, try talking to her about what happened. But be civilized about it so another blow up doesn't happen," Howie suggested, even though he was still very much angered towards his niece. Catching a nod from Brian, he walked over to the base of the stairs. "Anita! Come downstairs! We are going home!"



Within a few moments, Stephanie and Ana came down the stairs, though, accompanying the girls was a wailing Bailey held tightly in Stephanie's arms. "Daddy, I think Bailey's sick. His forehead is really hot," Stephanie said, her voice coated with concern, worried about her nephew.



Instantly, Brian's features softened as he looked at his grandson. The little boy's usually tan face was now pale and his cheeks were flushed a rosey red color as he clung to his aunt. Salty tears streamed down his little cheeks as he continued to cry. "Oh no..." Brian cooed, "Baily boy! Come see papa!" He walked towards Stephanie and when Bailey saw him, the little boy stretched his arms out helplessly. Brian pressed his hand lightly against Bailey's forehead and winced. He could just feel the heat radiating from Bailey's skin. "My poor Bailey," he continued to coo as he brought him into his arms and hugged him tightly. Bailey, in return, continued to wail. "Stephanie, go get the thermometer."



"We're gonna head home now, Bri," Howie noted, seeing now was a good time to leave so Brian could tend to his grandson without any distractions. Brian nodded. "Anita? Do you have something to say to your uncle?"



"I'm so sorry, Uncle Brian," Ana whispered, her head hung down in shame.



Brian nodded, giving her a hug with his free arm. "We'll talk about this more tomorrow, okay?"



"I'll give you a call tomorrow," Howie said. "And Stephanie?" he added when his niece walked back into the room with the thermometer.



"Yes, Uncle Howie?" Stephanie hesitantly asked.



"Stay out of trouble the rest of the night, huh?" Howie offered Stephanie a small smile to hint that he had calmed down a bit.



"I will," Stephanie answered.



"Adios, prima," Ana called as she and her father headed to the door.



"Bye, Ana," Stephanie replied as she handed her father the thermometer. Howie and Ana left without another word as Brian placed the device carefully in Bailey's ear. "Daddy, is he gonna be all right?" she asked timidly. She still didn't know if Brian was as mad at her as he was at Jessica. When she didn't recieve an answer, she spoke again. "Daddy?"



"Hmmm?" Brian questioned in a distracted tone as he heard the thermometer beep. He removed it from Bailey's ear and looked at the reading, frowning.



"Is he going to be alright?" Stephanie repeated.



"He's got a temperature of 102.1...that's not very good. But yeah, I'm sure he'll be alright," Brian answered softly, placing a tender kiss on Bailey heated forehead. "He seems a bit dehydrated. Could you go get one of those Pedialite freezies from the freezer?"



"Yeah. Be back in a sec." Stephanie turned around and hurried off to the kitchen, crossing the tile floor and going over to the fridge. Opening the freezer, she had to rummage around for a bit before she found the box of Pedialite freezies in the very back. Stephanie reached into the back without looking and withdrew her hand, pulling out a red one. She smiled, knowing that was Bailey's favorite.



"Stephanie! Quick!"



Stephanie heard her father yell out to her, followed by the level of Bailey's wails rising. She rushed back into the living-room, finding her father placing Bailey on the soft carpet and removing the clothing. "Daddy-" she began to inquire, but realized why her father was doing this. Bailey's clothing was covered in throw-up and so was the front of her father's shirt.



"Steph, get me a fresh diaper and a clean set of pajamas," Brian instructed his daughter as he stripped Bailey down to his diaper. The little boy screamed out as his whole face turned a deep crimson color. "Bailey boy, it's ok...shhh, Papa will make you feel better. Shhh..."



Stephanie ran upstairs as Brian gave Bailey the freezie, which he sucked on immediately. The color in his face became a little less red by the time Stephanie came back with the new pajamas, diaper, and some wipes. "Here, daddy," she said, handing Brian everything. "Do you need me to get anything else?"



"No. Thanks, honey. I've got this. Why don't you go and get some sleep? We'll talk about this tomorrow."



"Are you sure?"



"Yes. Clean your lip up. Is it ok?"



"It'll be fine. Where'd Jess go?"



"You're guess is as good as mine," Brian mumbled, cuddling Bailey on his lap as he sat on the floor. "I'll talk to you in the morning."



"Ok. G'night, Daddy."



"'Night sweetheart." Brian watched as his daughter hurried up the stairs, then focused all of his attention on his grandson, with a thought lingering in his mind. Why did his life have to seem so frustrating lately?

Chapter 3:



Rain beat against the windshield as Scott directed his car into the Littrell driveway. He looked over at his girlfriend when he heard a sigh escape her lips and he raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure you want to go home right now?" he asked as Jessica turned to look at him.



"Yeah," Jessica answered with a nod. "I need to speak to my dad."



"Alright. Call me if you need me."



"I will." Jessica opened the passenger door and stepped out into the rain. "I love you."



"Love you too, babe," Scott answered, backing out of the driveway once the door was shut.



Jessica stood there for a minute as she watched her boyfriend drive off down the road, longing to go with him. But she knew she needed to get home and talk to her father. He had to of been worried sick about her last night after she'd run off. Sighing quietly, she jogged up the front steps and pulled her house key out of her pocket, letting herself inside.



There was no sound coming from inside except for the "tick-tock" of the grandfather clock against the wall in the living-room. 'It's still early in the morning' she reminded herself as she headed for the stairs. Most defenitely they were still asleep, but she figured she would wake her father up now to let him know she was home. Ascending the stairs, Jessica walked down the hallway to her father's room and was greeted with his door being open. Peeking inside, she didn't see him anywhere. She continued down the hall and on instinct, headed for Bailey's nursery. This door was half-way closed and Jessica pushed it all the way open quietly. Walking in, she instantly noticed her father sitting in the rocking chair over by the window, cuddling Bailey tightly in his arms. Both were in a deep sleep. 'Awww...' she thought as she tiptoed over to her father. "Dad?" she called out quietly, not wanting to wake her nephew up. When she recieved no answer, she shook his shoulder gently. "Dad?"



Brian stirred from within his slumber and his eyelids fluttered before a tiny bit of clouded blue could be seen. He looked up at Jessica groggily. "Steph?" he asked, his voice a bit strained. He went to sit up, but Jessica gently pushed him back, knowing if he got up right then he would be sure to wake Bailey up.

"No, it's Jess."



Brian woke up fully and sighed in relief. Jessica was home and okay. "Why did you run off like that? You scared me half to death. I had no idea where you had gone," he spoke in a quiet tone, gently rocking back and forth.



"I needed to get away because I didn't want to listen to you and Uncle Howie yelling at me anymore. And I wasn't doing any good by staying and yelling back at ya," Jessica answered with a small shrug as she took a seat on the floor and looked up at her father. "How come you slept in here with Bailey?"



"He's sick," Brian replied shortly, looking down at his grandson with a frown. The little boy's fever had gone down a little, but was still present. Bailey had thrown up several other times during the night hours, leaving Brian to sit up with his grandson in the rocking chair all night. "Did you think we wouldn't have yelled at you for what you did? Why did you do that? And drag your sister and cousin along with you?"



"I..." Jessica couldn't explain, for she didn't even know why. "I guess it was to have fun. I thought Ana and Steph would have fun, too. It always seems like I'm not allowed to have any when I'm at home. Like I'm still a child, but I'm not, dad. I'm an adult now."



Brian sighed. "I know you're an adult, but you're my baby. Both you and Steph, and I care about you so much."



"But you need to lighten up sometimes. No need to be such a rough head when it comes to me."



"Maybe if YOU would lighten up towards me, Jess. Try putting yourself in my position and deal with all the crap you dish me 24/7. You don't make it very easy."



"I know..." Jessica looked down in shame. "I'm sorry."



"Do you not like me? Is that why you act the way you do towards me?" Brian blurted at his daughter.



Jessica looked up at her father in surprise. "What?"



"Do you not like me?" Brian repeated.



"No! Dad, I love you."



"Well, sometimes I don't feel you do," Brian whispered, looking down at Bailey as he heard the little boy whimper. He saw a tiny pair of eyes looking up at him and he smiled. "Hey Bailey boy."



"Papa..." Bailey whimpered, his bottom lip quivering.



"Awww, does your tummy hurt still, buddy?"



"Tummy hurt."



Jessica kneeled down in front of Bailey and softly smiled. "Hey, buddy. Do you want to come with Auntie Jessie and get a freezie?"



"No...papa..." Bailey cried as he turned away from his aunt.



"How come he's sick? He was fine yesterday."



"I don't know. Must be just a 24 hour bug." Brian stood up from the chair. "C'mon, Bailey, let's go get a freezie, it'll cool you down." Bailey clung onto his grandfather tightly as Jessica followed them timidly down the stairs.



"Dad, did you believe me when I said I was sorry?" Jessica asked her father as they headed into the kitchen.



"Huh?" Brian asked, walking over to the fridge.



"I said I was sorry, Dad. Don't you believe me?"



Brian sighed as he grabbed a red freezie and handed it to Bialey, but the little boy refused to take it. "Jess, you have tried me so many times...how do I know you're sincere?"



The words stung Jessica's heart as she blinked back tears. "So, you don't think I'm sorry?"



"No, I'm asking how do I know if you actually mean it when I've heard it so many times from you before?"



"But-"



"Jess, you have done this so many times, and you always say 'I'm sorry'. Did you ever mean it?"



"I can't believe you would even think I don't mean it-"



"No, I can't believe you would keep doing things over and over."



Jessica couldn't take hearing this from her father anymore. "Maybe I'll just sit in my room, like Steph does. She's always been your favorite, right?"



"Don't say that, Jessica. I don't play favorites."



"Obviously you do. You treat Steph so much differently then you do me. What the heck is that supposed to tell me, huh?"



"You're always the one talking back to me, sneaking out, breaking curfew...your sister doesn't do that. Obviously there's going to be differences."



"Oh yes, since Stephanie is the PERFECT teenager, am I right?"



"Jessica, stop," Brian sighed as Bailey continued to whimper, still refusing to take the freezie from his grandfather.



"Why? Because I'm right?" Jessica sneered.



"Listen, I don't need this right now. Bailey's sick, I need to take care of him. Why don't you go upstairs and sleep?"



"You don't need THIS? Maybe you just don't need me!" Jessica spun around on her heels. She walked quickly through the living-room and ran up the stairs.



Brian sighed angrily. He looked down at Bailey, who had finally taken the freezie. "I hope you never have teenage girls to worry about."



*****



Jessica pounded up the stairs with fury flowing through her. She felt the tears brimming her eyes, but she quickly brushed them away. She would not allow herself to cry over the fact that her father hated her and that he always chose Stephanie over her. Or the fact that...No! She wasn't even going to think about it. Forget him! She could care less that he hated her. Reaching her and Stephanie's bedroom, she threw the door open, not caring that it slammed against the inside wall loudly. "Stupid jerk!" she growled loudly, kicking off her shoes.



"Hey! Quiet down!" Stephanie grumbled in a muffled voice from her bed.



"Shut up!" Jessica spat, glaring in her sister's direction.



Stephanie sat up sleepily. "Jess? What the Hell are you doing? Why did you run off like that? Daddy was-"



"Oh shut the fuck up, little miss perfect! I don't want to hear it!" Jessica snapped, throwing herself into her bed.



"Wha-" Stephanie looked at her sister in shock, mouth wide open and eyebrows raised.



"You heard me!"



"What did I do to you?! All I did was ask where you were!"



"No, you were being dad's perfect little girl, like always! God, I am so sick of him playing favorites!"



"He does not think I'm perfect and he doesn't have a favorite! How can you even think that?" Stephanie asked, not believing what was coming out of her sister's mouth.



"Why don't you just think about it smarty!"



"Jess-"



"Haven't you ever noticed he treats you like a princess and treats me like dirt? Or how he gives you everything and gives me shit? Or-"



"Jess, shut up!"



"Screw you! And screw dad!"



"What are you trying to say? You wanna live with mom? Do you really hate me and dad that much?"



"Obviously, you two hate me, cause I'm always in the fucking doghouse around here!"



"We DON'T hate you!"



"Bull fucking shit, Stephanie!"



"Just calm down! You're overreacting!"



"Overreacting?! I don't think so! This is all the truth!"



"What do you want? To live with mom and have her give you everything you want?!"



"If that's what it fucking takes!"



"Jess, please...just calm down."



"Why the Hell should I?"



"Because I don't like to see you like this."



"Why would you even care?"



"Because you're my sister. My twin. It comes with the job."



"Sometimes you slack in that department. Now shut the Hell up, I'm going to bed." Jessica pulled her comforter over her head, leaving Stephanie in shock.



"Jess-" Her voice dropped as her misty green eyes filled with tears. What Jessica had just said hurt Stephanie really bad. How could that even be true? Their father didn't have a favorite.



*****



Brian's head pounded in frustration and exhaustion as he carried a wailing Bailey around the living-room. His grandson had gradually become sicker throughout the morning, and now it was the afternoon and Bailey was even worse. His fever was as high as it was the night before and he'd already thrown up two times. Brian was baffled about the whole thing, too. Bailey's sickness had come on out of nowhere. The little boy had been so active and full of energy the night before and then he suddenly fell ill and Brian couldn't think of a reason why. All Brian could do was hold him and cuddle him lovingly in his arms as the little boy cried in misery. There was nothing Brian had been able to do to stop his grandson from crying. Bailey refused to take any freezies and had drank little fluids the whole morning. Any fluids he had intaked had come up when he threw up. This worried Brian more then anything because he knew Bailey was becoming dehydrated, which accounted for his fever not lowering or going away. He also knew that if Bailey didn't take any fluids, his fever would continue to raise and he would be in real trouble then.



"Awww, Bailey boy...shhh," Brian cooed in his grandson's ear as he rubbed Bailey's back in a circle motion. Bailey's only reply was to cry back in return. Brian frowned and went to sit down in the lazy boy chair, but when he attempted to, Bailey screamed out so he continued to walk around the living-room. That was the one thing that was frustrating Brian. Bailey wouldn't let him sit down or let him put him down. It was getting to be a very tiring situation.



Bailey continued to cry as Brian walked around the living-room. This was definitely not a pleasant weekend in the Littrell household, and it seemed like it was just getting worse. After his 10th time around the living-room, the phone rang, much to Brian's displeasure. Groaning, he walked across the room to where the phone was and answered it. "Hello?"



"Bri? It's Howie," the voice on the other line greeted as soon as he answered.



"Oh, hey..." Brian replied with no enthusiasm. He really wasn't in the mood to be talking on the phone and he was still waiting for Bailey's pediatrician to call him back. He'd called the pediatrician hours ago and was told he would be called back soon... At that moment, he really wanted to know what their defenition of soon was.



"Everything alright?" Howie asked with concern. He couldn't miss hearing the sound of Bailey's crying since the little boy was in Brian's arms.



"No, not really. Bailey's really sick. Worse then last night," Brian answered, kissing Bailey's burning forehead.



"Have you tried calling his pediatrician?" Howie suggested.



"Yeah, earlier this morning. Still waiting to hear back from her," was Brian's reply as he sighed. "I really don't know what brought this on. He's been puking all night and already twice this morning. He won't take any of his pedialite freezies, he won't drink any fluids, and any fluids he did drink came up when he threw up. I'm becoming really worried because his fever is getting worse and I've run out of things to do about it."



"You might end up having to take him into the ER if he doesn't get any better and you don't hear from his pediatrician."



"Yeah, I know. I was thinking about that."



"Just calm down though. He'll be alright."



"Yeah... I just feel so bad for the little tyke, you know? He can't tell me what's hurting him, and there's nothing he can do about it." Brian kissed Bailey's hot forehead again as the little boy let out another agony-filled cry. "All he can say is 'tummy hurt' or 'no good'. That doesn't help me or him much."



"I know what you mean. So, did Jess come home alright?" Howie asked, changing the subject.



Brian made a sour face. "Yeah, we had another fight," he answered through semi-clenched teeth.



"Another fight? What happened?"



"Where should I start? The part where I don't treat her the way I should? Or I don't believe anything she tells me? Oh! Or when she told me I played favorites between her and Stephanie? Take your pick, man."



"She gave you a hard time, huh?"



"In her opinion, yes. In my opinion, I don't know anymore. I don't know what to do anymore. She stormed upstairs and I heard her and Steph arguing and...I don't know. I heard her say something along the lines that she doesn't want to live here anymore."



Howie sighed. Brian really didn't deserve all this trouble; he had basically raised Matt and the twins since Leighanne was never around unless it was to spoil the kids to death. He just coudln't understand what was making Jessica act like that. "Wow. I'm sorry, man."



"I'm really close to giving up right now, D. I just don't know what to do anymore."



"You can't say you want to give up."



"Can't I?"



"I really don't know what to tell you because...well, heck, I'm still mad at her about last night and she isn't even my daughter. But you can't give up on her. You just gotta keep in mind that she is your daughter and you love her. No matter how crappy she is towards you."



"Yeah, I guess your right." Brian was silent for a moment and all that was heard on Brian's end of the line was Bailey's persistant wails. But even that quickly died out, though not for long. Howie heard small coughing, gagging, and then loud screaming wails as Brian groaned. "Ah, man, D, I gotta go. Bailey just threw up again!"



"Maybe you oughta take him to the ER?"



"I think I'm going to have to. He's not getting better and obviously his pediatrician isn't going to be calling back any time soon. I'll give you a call later if I can, ok?"



"Yeah. Good luck with Jess. Things will work out sooner or later between the two of you."



"Yeah, thanks. Bye, D." Brian quickly hung up the phone and let it drop to the floor. Without even thinking twice, he turned around and rushed up the stairs with Bailey. "Shhh, Papa is going to get you cleaned up. You'll feel better soon, Bailey boy. Shhh..." He hurried into the nursery and worked on pulling a clean pair of clothes from the drawer, including grabbing the container of baby wipes so he could clean the throw up off of Bailey. "Steph!" Bailey struggled with him as he tried to place him on the floor, making Brian's task all the more difficult. After several minutes of struggling with the little boy and still no appearance of Stephanie, Brian was able to get the yucky clothes off Bailey body. 'God Bailey, you really are burning up' Brian thought as he rested a hand on Bailey's chest which was rising and falling in a staggering motion in sync with the wailing cries. "Steph!" Brian yelled again as he produced a baby wipe and began to clean the throw up from Bailey's face. That only seemed to upset Bailey even more and Brian cringed.



"What's going on?" Stephanie asked as she rushed into the nursery. She came to a halt when she saw the horrible state her little nephew was in. "Did he throw up again?"



"Yes," Brian answered in a timid tone. "He just keeps getting worse and I haven't heard back from his pediatrician yet. I'm worried about his high fever so I'm going to take him into the ER."



"Is he really that bad?"



"Yeah. I need you and your sister to go with me-"



"Jess isn't talking to me."



"She isn't?"



"Not since this morning, she's not."



"Yeah, I heard." Brian sighed as he brought Bailey into his arms again. The little boy was falling weak as he rested his head on his grandfather's shoulder, clinging tightly to Brian as if for dear life. "Do me a favor and go get one of the blankets out of the closet in the hall. I want to wrap him in one-"



"What about his clothes?"



"We'll bring a pair with us. But right now he is burning up too much to have too much one him. A blanket will do just fine."



"What about you?" Stephanie couldn't help but smirking, despite the situation they were dealing with.



"What do you mean? What about me?" Brian asked in confusion.



"Are you trying to start a new trend by going around sporting baby throw up?"



Brian had to keep himself from gagging as he remembered he had the yuck all over the front of his shirt. "Right...here," he quickly handed Bailey over to Stephanie, which only produced a fresh set of wails from his grandson. "Go get the blanket then meet me out in my car. I'm going to get on a fresh set of clothes."



"P-p-papa!"



"I'll be right back, Bailey boy!"



*****



"You need to work on your defense more," Nick explained with a toothy grin to the shorter blonde boy he had just spun around, doing a perfect lay up shot at the hoop. He heard a groan come from behind him as he retrieved the ball and he walked back over to his twelve year old son who had such a look of frustration on his face that Nick had to fight to keep from laughing. "One of the key points to basketball, Jordan, is defense. When the other team is in possession of the ball, it's your job to prevent them for scoring, or at least make a good effort."



"I know what defense is, Dad," Jordan replied, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest.



"Well good. So start showing me you know what it means," Nick said and ruffled Jordan's short spikey blonde hair. Jordan swiped at his father's hand and Nick handed him the ball. "You've got possession of the ball and I'm defending you. I want you to pivot around me and go in for a lay up shot. Ok?"



"Yeah," Jordan nodded and dribbled the ball a few times as his father got into defending position.



"Alright, go!" Nick instructed. He watched as his son began to pivot, becoming frustrated as he wasn't able to make his way around his father's tall form. "Pivot, Jordan! Pivot!"



"I'm trying to!"



"Manuever around me!"



"I said I'm trying to!" Jordan gritted and shoved his father with his elbow.



Nick stumbled backwards and immediately grasped the ball from his son's hands. He shot his son a dissapproving look. "Offensive foul. The other team now has the ball. You can't pull that type of move out on the court. Your team will lose possession of the ball if you do."



"You're not playing fair!" Jordan argued as he reached for the ball, but Nick was quick to hold it away from him.



"Yes, I am. And you're not always going to encounter opponents who play fair. The game of basketball isn't always easy. You gotta work and you gotta play hard. Minus the shoving you just tried to do, because in a real game, you'd have gotten penalized for that."



"Yeah, yeah..." Jordan muttered and held out his hand for possession of the ball.



"Here. Work on your free-throw shots for a while. I'm going to go check on your sister." Nick gently tossed Jordan the ball and turned around to jog inside. Opening the front door, he entered into the living-room but was met with no sight of his eight year old daughter. "Kel!" he yelled out as he made his way into the kitchen to grab a couple water bottles for him and Jordan. "Kelly Anne!"



"Yeah, daddy?" A little girl with bright green eyes and long blonde hair ran into the kitchen moments later. She had a thin blue activity book from her 2nd grade class in one hand and a glass of cherry Kool-Aid in the other. Her lips and teeth were stained red.



"I was just wondering where you were. How's the homework coming?" Nick asked, bending down and kissing the top of his daughter's head.



"It's hard," Kelly answered, looking extremely stumped. She shoved the activity book into her father's hands. "They have us adding and subtracting BIG numbers," she added in exaggeration, showing her father the page she was working on.



Nick chuckled as he skimmed over the page, noticing his daughter's very sloppy scrawl and smudges of pencil all over the paper from being written on and erased over and over again. "Hmmm...ok," he spoke thoughtfully. He looked at his daughter with a raised eyebrow. "What's five plus two?" he asked, looking back down at the book again. That was one of the problems that his daughter hadn't answered yet. Or rather had tried to, but just hadn't succeeded.



"Uh..." Kelly furled her eyebrows in deep thought and licked at her cherry red lips. "Nine!"



"Try again."



"Um...eleven!"



"Kel..."



"Ten?"



"Kelly Anne. I know you can do this problem. This one is very easy."



"No it isn't!" Kelly pouted as she placed her glass on the counter and crossed her arms over her chest. "It's too hard!"



"I know you don't like math, but if you keep trying, you will eventually understand it."



"Will you help me?"



"Ok. Let's see..." Nick looked around the kitchen for something he could use to help demonstrate the math problem to his daughter. Finally noticing the fruit bowl on the counter by the sink, he picked his daughter up and took her over to the counter. "What's this?" he asked as he placed her by the fruit bowl.



"Duh. It's Mommy's bowl of fruit."



"Exactly. How many pieces of fruit are in the bowl?"



"I dunno."



"Well, let's count." Nick reached into the glass bowl and pulled out five oranges and two apples, placing them on the counter next to his daughter. "Right here, I've got one...two...three...four...five oranges," he said, counting each orange as he placed them in Kelly's lap. "And right here I have one...two apples." He held one in each hand. "How many pieces of fruit do I have?"



"Two."



"How many pieces of fruit do you have?"



"Uh...five."



"Ok, now add your fruit in the bowl with mine and how many pieces of fruit are there in total?"



Kelly bit down on her bottom lip as she began to place each piece of fruit back into the glass bowl. "...four...five...six...seven!"



Nick grinned. "So what's the answer to five plus two?"



"Seven, duh!"



"See? That wasn't so hard," Nick replied, chuckling.



"You made it easier, Daddy." Kelly gave her father a sloppy kiss. "Thank you!"



"Ick, girl germs!" Nick teased, wiping his cheek. Kelly giggled. "You're welcome, honey. Why don't you go and finish your homework? Mommy should be calling from work soon."



"Ok. And then we'll go out for ice cream tonight?" Kelly asked hopefully with a grin.



"We'll see," Nick answered his daughter.



The phone rang right at that moment and Kelly ran out of the kitchen, determined to get to the device before her father. "I'll get it! I'll get it!" she screamed as Nick stayed behind in the kitchen. "Hello? Carter Residence," she answered in a chirpy tone as she brought the phone up to her ear.



"Is this Miss Kelly Anne Carter?" the voice on the other end asked.



"Yes it is. Who are you? Because Daddy says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers and if you're a stranger then I can't talk to you. So, are you a stranger, mister?"



The voice chuckled. "No, Kel. This is your Uncle Howie."



"Hi Uncle Howie!"



"Hey sweets. Is your daddy around?"



"Yeah, he was helping me with my math homework. But ya know what Uncle Howie?"



"What?"



"I don't like math!"



"You inherited it from your daddy. He never liked math either."



"But he's really good at it! He helped me figure out the answer to five plus two!"



"Really? Five plus TWO?"



"Yeah! Do you know what the answer to five plus two is, Uncle Howie?"



"No. You want to tell me?"



"Duh, Uncle Howie! It's seven!"



"No!"



"Yes it is!"



"Really? The answer is seven?"



"Yeah! Me and Daddy figured it out together!"



"That's really great, sweetie. Can you do me a favor and put your daddy on the phone? I need to talk to him."



"Yeah, hold on!" Kelly dropped the phone on the floor and opened her mouth wide, taking the deepest breath possible. "DADDY!!!"



Nick jumped as he ran back into the living-room. "Kelly! What is it?! You scared me!"



"Uncle Howie is on the phone," Kelly replied innocently, pointing to the phone on the floor.



"What's Uncle Howie doing on the floor?" Nick asked dumbly.



"He's not on the floor. He's in the phone! Duh!"



Nick rolled his eyes; his daughter sounded just like Brian at times. "Thanks for answering it, honey." He bent down and picked it up. "Hello?"



"Hey, man!"



"D! Man, what's up?" Nick asked,happy to hear his older friend's voice.



"So, I'm on the floor, huh?" Howie teased at his friend's expense.



"Hey! No encouraging my impressionable eight year old daughter!" Nick replied, a grin on his face. He watched as Kelly stuck her tongue out at him and ran off with her activity book. Once she was gone, Nick headed back outside with the phone to sit on the lawn next to the driveway and watch his son practice as he talked on the phone. "Man, D! It's been a while! How have you been?"



"I've been doing better," Howie answered, hoping that Nick wouldn't be like the others and try to touch into something that was a sore subject for Howie. "What about yourself? I hear you've been keeping yourself pretty busy lately?"



"Yeah! Jordan tried out for the summer basketball league and I was assigned as head coach for that. So we're workin' on his b-ball skills right now," Nick exclaimed proudly as he watched his son carefully. He grinned. "And Kelly's doing better on her summer math tutoring, even though she still hates it."



"She gets that from you," Howie answered. "But yeah, she was telling me how you helped her figure out the answer to five plus two. I guess you're pretty bright, huh?"



"Shut it!" Nick growled playfully as Jordan came around and did another lay up shot. Nick had to admit that his son was becoming really good at making those sorts of shots. Now all Nick had to do was teach Jordan to put a little style into it and Jordan would be on his way.



"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Howie replied with a small laugh.



"You never could, old man," Nick teased as Jordan made another basket. He gave a thumbs up and a grin when his son looked over at him. Jorndan grinned back and kept on working with his shooting.



"Hey, watch it, boy. Or else I won't tell you what I got," Howie replied, making a face as he walked outside to his back porch.



"Is that something I want to know?" was Nick's playful question, tossing the basketball back to his son after it had bounced off the backboard and rolled over to him.



"I don't know, is it?"



"That's why I asked you."



"And that's why I asked you in return."



"Stop trying to play with my mind, D."



"Who said I was?"



"D!"



"Hey, I'm not like that. Kev, maybe. Brian, most likely. Aje, most defenitely!"



"Yeah, Lord knows how many times he's tried to play with my mind since I've known him. Speaking of J, have you talked to him lately?"



"No. I was gonna ask you the same question."



"Why would you ask me? You're supposed to be his best friend."



"Who knows. AJ's living his own life. What can I say? We've all lost a bit of touch over the years."



"Ditto to that. Anyway, what brings ya to call me?"



"Besides wanting to just chat with one of my old buddies for a while?"



"Ah, c'mon D, who you tryin' to fool?"



"Noone. Figured I hadn't talked to ya in quite a while so I thought I'd give you a call and see how you and your family were doing."



"And?"



"And...I have something I want to tell you about."



"Yeah? And what's that something?"



"Well, there's this old house I've been looking at for awhile. You know, that plantation house out on that backroad? Um...Shelton Rd."



Nick squinted his eyes, trying to remember the place Howie was talking about. His eyes oepned suddenly when he remembered. "Oh! Yeah, I do. What about it?"



"You're never gonna believe this."



"I will too, just tell me, man!" Nick growled playfully, but getting slightly frustrated with Howie's stalling.



"All right, all right. That old house is mine now."



Nick's mouth dropped open in surprise. "You bought what?!"



"Yep. I bought it!" Howie repeated, just imagining the expression that had crossed the blonde's face. "I finalized the papers a few days ago. I'm pretty thrilled about it."



"So that means you're going to be moving out of your place in the city?"



"Yeah. Ana and I have already started packing."



"I bet she's thrilled too, huh?"



"Well, no, not as much as I am."



"Figures. She's a teen. Never could understand them."



"So you couldn't understand yourself when you were her age?"



"Shut up, you know what I meant. But wait, doesn't that place need a little fixing up?"



"Yeah, that's another thing I wanted to talk to you about."



Nick groaned. "Man, can't you give me all the news at once?"



"Oh, hush up and listen!" Howie laughed, loving to boss around his younger friend like he used to back in the days when they were still a music group.



"Okay, what else do you need to spring on me?"



"Would you be willing to drive to the plantation and help us renovate it?"



"Us?"



"Us as in Brian, Kevin, A.J., Stephanie, Jessica, Ana, you and me."



Nick's eyes grew wide in surprise. He jumped up and cheered. He missed being with all the guys, like back in the old days. Howie held the phone away from his ear until Nick stopped yelling. "D, that's a great idea! It's been too long since we've all been together!" he exclaimed as he caught the odd glance Jordan was shooting him. Nick grinned sheepishly, not caring that he had just jumped up like a fool because he was excited.



"That's what I thought. So, would you be able to come? I still need to get a hold of Bone, but I'm sure he'll come here, too, if he can get away from Sarah and the kids for a bit."



"Man, you don't even have to ask me twice. You know I'd be more then willing to help ya out. I'd like to see everybody anyway. Brian and Kevin are already in?"



"Yeah. I talked to them about it last night actually. I was over at Bri's house to talk and then the twins and Ana went out and decided to get themselves into trouble-"



"What-"



"But that's another story and I don't feel like getting into it right now," Howie interrupted with a chuckle. "Anyway, Bri and Kev said I could count them in to help. And I can count on you too?"



"Of course!"



"Thanks, Nicky. This means alot."



"Awww! D's getting sentimental! Hey Jordan! Your uncle is getting sentimental!"



Howie rolled his eyes as he heard Jordan came running to his dad. "Which uncle?" Jordan asked, panting from playing basketball.



"Uncle Howie. He's doing that gushy Spanish blood stuff."



"Nick, what the hell are you talking about?!" Howie laughed.



"Can I say hi to Uncle Howie?" Jordan asked.



"Yeah, sure. D, Jordan wants to talk to you."



"Good. I'd rather talk to him then you any day," Howie answered, hinting in his voice that he was only joking.



Though, Nick decided to take the dramatic response and held his hand up to his chest, even though Howie couldn't see his gesture. "Ya know, D? That hurt. It really hurt. I think I'm emotionally scarred for the rest of my life!...Or something like that-"



"Hey Uncle Howie!" Jordan grinned as he snatched the phone from his father's hand. "Dad's being a moron again. Did he always act like this? I mean, back when he was younger?"



"Sadly, yes. He did. But it was worse back then and the four of us--your uncles and I, had to deal with him 24/7. So many times we were on the brink of being shipped off to a mental hospital from being around your dad so much. He's gotten better over the years. Just be glad you didn't have to deal with him back then."



"Aight. Gotta go shoot some more hoops. Bye, Uncle Howie."



"Stay out of trouble."



"Yeah, yeah..."



"What'd he say to you?" Nick immediately asked.



"Nothing," Jordan shrugged, tossing the phone back to his father and returning to his "practice".



"Alright, D...what'd you tell my son?" Nick questioned, bringing the phone up to his ear, keeping a stern eye on Jordan.



"I just answered his question!" Howie laughed, holding a hand up in defense. Ana walked down from her room to get a soda, when she saw her dad out on the porch, talking loudly and laughing. She headed out there as well, curiosity getting to her.
"Uh-huh... yeah, I know. Well, I'll see you in a few days then. Okay! Bye, Nicky." He hung up the phone and turned around, only to be facing Ana. "Argh! Anita, you scared me!"



"Sorry," Ana replied and took a sip of her soda, eyes sparkling. For a brief moment, it reminded Howie of his wife and he closed his eyes sadly until Ana interrupted his thoughts.. He shook the sad memories away as she spoke. "Were you talking to Uncle Nick?"



"Sí. He's gonna come and help us, too."



"Are you serious? Uncle Nick is actually going to come?" Ana asked to clarify what she had just heard. She grinned from ear to ear; she loved being able to spend time with her Uncle Nick. She didn't understand it, but they had always bonded really well. Ana got along with him great. But she was also smiling for the fact that her father seemed so happy that her Uncles Brian, Kevin, and Nick were coming. It would do him alot of good to get together with all of them. "What about Uncle AJ?" she asked, realizing her father hadn't said anything about him.



"I don't know, Anita," Howie answered with a sigh and leaned back in his chair. His face was taken over by a troubled expression, mixed with disappointment. "I haven't been able to get ahold of him. I tried calling him earlier, but he wasn't home. The more I think about it, though, I probably wouldn't count on it."



"Try calling him again later, Papi," Ana suggested, knowing how much it would mean for her father to see his best friend.



"Yeah, I probably will. I'm just saying, I can't gaurantee I'll get ahold of him. So don't count on him absolutely coming."



*****



Stephanie slumped further in her seat as she watched her father up at the receptionist’s counter in the ER. She felt a bout of uneasiness course through her at the expression that crossed her father’s face; Brian was becoming peeved and angry at the fact that they were having to wait so long before Bailey could be looked at. Surprisingly, the ER wasn’t as busy as one would expect it, yet, nobody had been out to speak to them and it was pushing Brian’s temper. And poor Bailey...he was suffering the most. Stephanie frowned as her father came walking back over, carefully holding a sleeping Bailey in his arms. The little boy had only shortly fallen asleep, exhausted from all the crying he had been doing. But it wasn’t a deep sleep. Any harsh movements on Brian’s part would jolt the little boy from his restless slumber. "What’d they say?" Stephanie asked, keeping track of her father pacing in front of her.



"Same thing they’ve been saying since we got here an two hours ago. ‘We’ll have someone out here to see you shortly’. Well, what the heck is their definition of ‘shortly’? This place isn’t busy, for Christ’s sake! We should have talked to someone by now!" Brian ranted as Bailey stirred in his arms. Thankfully, the little boy continued to sleep.



"Daddy, sit down. Not only are you making me dizzy by watching you, but you’re going to become dizzy yourself," Stephanie replied, understanding her father’s concern. She, too, wanted to know why her nephew had become so ill. It was probably a nasty case of the flu, but it didn’t leave her resting assured when her nephew had a high fever and was continuously throwing up.



Brian nodded and carefully took a seat next to his daughter. "I hate hospitals," he grumbled, carefully adjusting Bailey into a comfortable position against his chest.



"Bailey will be fine," Stephanie reassured her father, knowing how much he really did feel uneasy while being in a hospital. "It’s probably just a bad case of the flu."



"Yeah, that’s probably what it is," Brian mumbled and looked down at his grandson. Bailey’s cheeks were a deep rosy red while the rest of his skin was a sickly pale color. It made Brian’s blood run cold. "Did you get ahold of your brother?" he asked.



"No," Stephanie shook her head. "I tried his cell, but he’s not answering. He never left another number that we could reach him at. I left a message on his cell’s voicemail. Don’t know what kind of good that’ll do."



"What about Ariane’s cell?"



"Tried that too. Got a message that it’s been disconnected."



"Great...just great..."



"Daddy, everything's gonna be fine. Just keep calm, okay? Bailey needs that." Stephanie rested her hand on her father's shoulder.



"I know. How your sister's been acting hasn't helped, though. And you know how she's been towards me."



"Yeah, I know what you mean," Stephanie answered quietly. "But she'll change. It's nothing against you. She's just...Jessica."



"I really feel like she hates me."



"She really feels like you hate her."



"You know that's not true."



"I know. But she doesn't, Daddy. She thinks that since you and I never fight, it means you play favorites. And that makes her even more angry, which causes her to rebel." Stephanie looked down sadly. "Daddy... I don't want Jessica to go to Mom's. She's my twin, I want her to stay with us."



"But maybe I should send her to live with your mom. She'd obviously be happier if she wasn't living with me anymore," Brian answered reluctantly. "I really don't know what to do with your sister anymore. She makes me feel like I'm the worst father in the world, and ya know what? I'm starting to believe her."



"Daddy-"



"I don't know...I'm frustrated, I'm tired, I've got a headache...and where's the damn doctor?!" Brian's outburst resulted in the sudden awakening of Bailey, filling Brian and Stephanie's ears with a fresh set of wails that had yet to be forgotten. "Awww, Bailey boy...Papa's sorry. He didn't mean to yell. Shhh...it's ok. Go back to sleep Bailey boy...shhh..."



"He's not going to go back to sleep now," Stephanie sighed and rested back in her chair. She glanced at her father looking helplessly down at Bailey and she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm going to go try Matt's cell again," she added shortly and hurried off.



Shortly after Stephanie left did a doctor finally approach Brian and the crying child. She had an apologetic look etched on her face. "I'm sorry about the long wait. We just had a traffic accident brought in a while ago. Took up alot of the ER docs. I assume you're Mr. Littrell?" the woman spoke softly as she bent down in front of Brian, having kept in mind what the nurse had told her. When Brian nodded, she spoke again. "My name is Dr. Annie Franklin; I'm head of the Pediatrics unit in the ER. What do we have here?"



"This is my grandson, Bailey. He's really sick and to tell you the truth, I have no idea why," Brian answered in a helpless tone as Dr. Franklin rested a gentle hand on Bailey's forehead, then on his bare chest. "I see he has a very high fever. Has this been persistant?"



"Yeah, since last night."



"Alright, follow me and we'll head back to one of the exam rooms so I can examine your grandson."



"W-wan' Daddy!" Bailey cried out as Brian followed the ER doctor across the lobby of the ER.



"I know you do, buddy...but Daddy is away with mommy right now," Brian tried to explain quietly as Dr. Franklin lead them into an exam room. But he knew that didn't matter to Bailey at the moment; all that mattered to the child was he was terribly sick and he couldn't have his daddy.



"If you would lay him on the bed, we'll get started," Dr. Franklin explained, motioning to the small gurney/bed Brian was now standing next to.



Brian nodded and proceeded to gently place Bailey's body down, but the little boy cried out fearfully and grasped onto Brian's arms, refusing to let go. "It's alright, Bailey. Papa needs you to lay down so the nice doctor can take a look at you. She's going to make you feel better," he tried to coax his grandson, still trying to place Bailey down with the assistance of Dr. Franklin. There was no such luck and Brian looked to the doctor with a helpless expression.



"That's alright. You can just hold him if it works better for him," Dr. Franklin suggested, pulling up a chair as Brian sat down on the edge of the gurney/bed. "How old is he?" she asked, removing her stethoscope from around her neck and placing it in her ears.



"Two," Brian answered.



"Such a big boy!" Dr. Franklin smiled, bringing the round metal part onto Bailey's chest. The little boy became startled from the cold touch and cried out, trying to shy away. "Awww...I'm sorry it's a bit cold." She sat there for a moment, listening to Bailey's heart rhythm, admist his crying. "You said he's had a persistant fever since last night? Can you remember approximately what time it started?"



"I'm not sure. He was fine during the evening and when I put him to bed. Then, around...9:45 or so, my daughter brought him downstairs when he woke up crying and that's when I noticed he had a high fever."



"Do you remember what his temp was at that time?"



"Um...yeah. It was...102.1."



"I see. And has it fluctuated at all since then or has it pretty much stayed the same?"



"Well, the first time I took his temp last night and saw how high it was, I gave him one of those Pedialite freezies. That lowered his temp a little, but afterwards it went back up again."



"That's not a good thing. What about his intake of fluids?"



"He's had very little fluids. He's been refusing to drink anything since very early this morning and anything he had drank, came up when he threw up."



"How many times has he thrown up?" Dr. Franklin got up from her seat and went across the room to retrieve a thermometer, similar to the one Brian had used at his house. She brought it back over and worked on slipping it into Bailey's ear unnoticed.



"Six times since he became sick last night," Brian answered, trying to think of the exact count. "Five times at home and once in the car on the way here."



The thermometer produced a tiny 'beep' and Dr. Franklin removed it from Bailey's ear, frowing at the reading. "His temperature stands at 103.1 right now and that doesn't note a good thing. Especially since you say he hasn't been intaking any fluids. From the paleness and clamy state of his skin and his high temperature, he has become very dehydrated. That's the main reason why his temperature hasn't gone down at all. Does your grandson like ice?"



Brian raised his eyebrows at the question. "Oddly enough...yes. Why?"



"I'm going to get some ice chips that I want you to try to feed to him. We need to get his fever down because that is my biggest worry right now."



"What about all of the throwing up? I mean, the last he ate was his supper last night and he hasn't drank much, yet he keeps throwing up."



"I can't give you an answer to that yet, but I want to do a couple of blood work tests to check for the normal sicknesses or anything else. I assure you we will find out what's making your grandson sick. But I also want to start him up on a fluid IV incase the ice chip approach doesn't work, because we really need to get his fever to lower."



"Ah, he ain't gonna like that," Brian thought outloud, looking down at Bailey. The little boy was staring up at him with fear and whimpering quietly. Brian hadn't even realized he had stopped crying.



"Well then, it will be your job to distract him," Dr. Franklin joked softly, jotting down some quick notes. "A nurse will be in shortly with the ice chips and to start your grandson on the IV. I am going to go order those blood tests right now. Oh, and the waste basket is right there next to the bed in case he decides to throw up again."



"Thanks." And with that, Brian and Bailey were left alone.



*****



"Pops," a soft voice pierced into Brian's cloudy mind, willing him to open his eyes and bring him back to the land of the living. He fought against the urge of conciousness, not wanting to wake up and go back to feeling exhausted like he had been feeling all day. Or lately in general. "Pops," the voice called again and this time he felt a hand rest gently on his shoulder. It caused him to jump the slightest bit against his will and Brian unwillingly forced his eyes to flutter open. At first, he didn't recognize his shoulders, but when his vision had fully cleared, he realized he was still in an emergency room at the hospital and he remembered why. Eyes travelling downward, Brian caught sight of his grandson sleeping peacefully, tucked tight in his arms. The little boy rested against his grandfather's chest as Brian sat propped up on the gurney/bed, both of them covered with the blanket that had been brought from home. Bailey was clinging onto a light blue bunny the pediatrician had given to him. Brian smiled softly, glad that Bailey was finally getting rest. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Pops."



Brian let his gaze travel to his side as he heard the voice chuckle. "Matt? What are you doing here?" his voice croaked with a hint of confusion. The last he knew, Stephanie hadn't been able to get ahold of Matthew or his wife Ariane. But Brian felt relief wash over him, now that he knew Matthew was here for Bailey.



"Steph called me," Matthew answered, gently caressing Bailey's cheek with his thumb. The little boy's cheeks weren't as rosy as before, Brian noticed. That had to mean that his fever had gone down. "I got her first message and I tried getting back to you to let you know I was on my way, but niether of you have your cell phones with you. I'm lucky to have had my phone on when she tried calling the second time, 'cause I didn't know if I was supposed to head to your house or come here. I really didn't understand what was going on."



"I still don't know, somewhat. All I know is that this little guy is pretty sick," Brian motioned with his eyes down to Bailey. He slowly thought back to when the nurse had come in to hook Bailey up to an IV. Brian had barely been able to get his grandson to eat a bit of the ice chips he had been given, then the nurse produced the needle to stick into Bailey's arm and the little boy flew off the hook. He went ballistic. Though that was only the beginning. He acted even worse when the nurse was taking blood samples and finally Dr. Franklin had to administer something into Bailey's blood stream to calm him down and it worked like a charm. Shortly after all of that had happened, Bailey slipped into slumber and Dr. Franklin instructed Brian to sit propped up with his grandson on the gurney/bed while the little boy was hooked up to the IV and slept. Looking at the clock, Brian saw that was over two hours ago.



"Yeah, the doctor said it's a nasty case of the flu, that's all," Matt replied, running a finger through Bailey's soft blonde hair. "So, how did everything go last night BEFORE my boy got sick?"



"I don't want to talk about it," Brian mumbled and rested his eyes shut for a second. He was so exhausted, his body ached. God, he hoped he wasn't coming down with anything. He opened his eyes to find his son looking at him with a questioning gaze and he shook his head. "It's not something I'm in the mood to get into right now."



"All right, Pops, don't worry about it. Listen, I got Bailey now. Why don't you and Steph go home and get some rest?" Matt replied, knowing that his younger sister did something to really upset their father.



"He's been asking for you since he got sick," Brian spoke, looking down at his grandson. He looked back up at Matthew. "I'm sorry this happened, Matt. I really don't know what happened."



"No blame on you, Pops. It's not your fault," Matthew quickly interjected against his father, seeing the stress in the older man's eyes. "He already had a small cold anyway. I guess it was bound to happen. So don't worry about it. But like I said, you should go home and get some rest. I can stay here with Bailey now until they release him. You look like crap, Pops."



"Thanks..." Brian muttered with small sarcasm as he rolled his eyes at his son. He rubbed at his temples with one hand as he tried to sit up straight without disturbing Bailey.



"Hold on, I got him." Matt leaned down so Brian could carefully place Bailey into his arms. "Now get going. Ariane and Steph are in the waiting room. Just have Ari come in here, okay?"



"All right," Brian nodded, standing up from the gurney/bed so Matthew could take his place. "You take care of my grandson?"



"No, Pops," Matt rolled his eyes, which were the same emerald color as Stephanie's. "Of course we will. Just go and get some sleep, old man."



"Give me a call to let me know when you get home?" Brian asked, slowly heading towards the door. He was uneasy about leaving his grandson, but he knew Matthew was perfectly capable of taking care of his own son. Brian pushed the feeling aside when Matthew said "Yes" and offered a small smile. "Sorry you had to come back early from your "alone time" with Ariane."



"Oh well, no big deal," Matthew grinned. "Bye, Pops."



"Bye, son," Brian replied and left the room.



Walking down the hallway, Brian could see his daughter and daughter-in-law talking intently. Coming closer, he could see tears in Stephanie's eyes as Ariane's voice soothingly floated to his ears.



"Ari, I don't want to lose my sister. It's like losing a part of myself. If Jess goes to live with Mama... I might never see my twin again," Stephanie replied to what Ariane had said.



"Then you don't let yourself lose your sister. I know there's a part of Jessie who doesn't want to leave her home with you and your father. Jessie's not a bad kid, she's just really rebelling and that's one reason why she claims to not want to live with your father anymore. I'm sure this will all just blow over. Try talking to her about it again. I'm sure if you approached gently about she would be more willing to talk. That and she will have calmed down from what's happened," Ariane explained, offering her sister-in-law a comforting smile. "I know you love your sister, and I know Dad does too. Just keep proving that to Jessie."



"I know. I just wish all this rebelling shit wouldn't have ever started. Our lives were fine until it started to happen."



"Nothing can go right all the time, sweetie." Ariane replied.



"Yeah, I found that out. Now I'm just praying that I won't get a hard punishment for the whole nightclub thing... it was Jessica's idea."



"So she wanted to have fun and picked the wrong place to go. Jessie made a mistake."



"Yeah. A big one."



"Don't hold it against her. That's only going to cause more problems to arise."



"I know. I'm not mad at her anymore, I just don't like the way she's treating Dad. Dad doesn't deserve it."



"I don't deserve what?" Brian asked as he made himself noticed by his family, deciding to play it as if he hadn't heard any of the conversation. Ariane smiled at her father-in-law and stood up to give him a warm hug. "Hello, Ari."



"Hey Dad," Ariane replied. "How is my son doing?"



"Better. He's still sleeping; has been for about two and a half hours," Brian answered, releasing from the hug. "Matt has summoned you back to the room, trauma room three. Steph and I are gonna head home, by orders of Matt."



"You should head home, Dad," Ariane agreed. "You're not looking too good. Are you ok?"



"Yeah, I'm just tired."



"All right," Ariane turned to Stephanie and hugged her as well. "Get some sleep, sis."



"I will, I will." Stephanie gave a half smile.



"Bye, guys." Ariane turned and headed to the room her husband and son were in.



"Bye," Stephanie and Brian replied in semi-unison.



Stephanie turned to her dad and looked at him. He really didn't look good. "Daddy, do you need me to drive home?" she suggested.



"No, I'll be fine," Brian answered.



"But-"



"Let's just get home, ok? Maybe your sister will be willing to talk to you when we get there."

Chapter 4:

Dark and depressing. No rays of light; artificial or natural. A cloud of sadness hung over the nearly empty McLean household, which was usually so very loud with the voices of its occupants running around and living life. But now, it seemed so empty and cold. Well, at least it did to the only person who had been living in it alone for the past two days. Any person who passed it on the outside would take a wild guess that the family who resided there was only away on vacation, but for AJ, it wasn't a vacation. No vacation at all. His family was not away on a vacation outting or in town doing things. No, they had left and they had left him behind to wallow in his own confusion, sadness and depression. He had been left without so much as a "We'll be back soon" or "I'll miss you. Love you." More so his wife didn't leave him that. His children on the other hand, his three pride and joys...his heart ached just thinking about them.

He hadn't been seperated from all three of them together for more then a day and now it was going on past the two day mark. Why he didn't try harder to keep them home instead of letting his wife take them with her when she left, he didn't know and he had been beating himself up over his stupidity of not trying harder to keep them with him from the moment they were gone. His children didn't want to leave. They weren't thrilled over the fact that their mother was taking them away from their father when they didn't even understand what going on.

Treyden James, AJ's five year old son, had reacted the worse when the cab pulled up in front of their house to take them to the airport and it was time to say goodbye. He'd screamed continuously with tears falling down his little cheeks as he clung tightly to his father, begging to stay or for AJ to go with them. All AJ had been able to do was hug his son tightly and tell him everything would be ok, that they were only going away for a little while. Sarah, his wife, was growing impatient with the moment and quickly snatched Treyden away from AJ to buckle him into the cab. AJ had wanted to ring her throat for pulling such a cruel move towards a five year old being seperated from his daddy, but it would have only amounted more to the present problem.

Xavier Alexander, 14, and Kyrena Alexandra, 10, were only allowed a minute to each hug their father one last time. "Daddy, I don't wanna go," Kyrena had pleaded, wrapping her arms around her father's neck. AJ held her just as tightly as he had held her younger brother. "I know you don't, baby girl, but you need to go with Mommy, alright? I promise you and your brothers won't be gone long. Mommy and Daddy just need time away from each other to think. But I love you so much and I don't want you to forget that, ok?" It had hurt him so much to not tell his daughter that she didn't have to go. It wasn't worth adding another problem to his and Sarah's relationship, though. Ruffling his eldest son, Xavier's hair, he gave him a tight hug. "Stay out of trouble with your mom, ok?" Xavier only nodded and mumbled, "This sucks" as he climbed into the cab.

AJ had stood up only to be met with an icy glare from his wife. He had opened his mouth to plead one last time for her not to go, but she refused to grant him that chance. "I will be at my mother's house, but don't bother calling. We'll call you if we want to talk." With that, she climbed into the cab and it sped away. AJ had been left standing alone at the end of his driveway, blinking in disbelief and carrying a broken heart.

Two days had passed and AJ was still carrying his broken heart, moping around the lonely house in depression. He hated to be alone, hated to be away from the ones he loved most. He hadn't left the house since they had been gone, fearing that he would miss a call from one of his children or all three, or in fear that his cell would crap up and he wouldn't be able to recieve a call on it. But still no phone call and that's what he wanted most right now since he knew he couldn't have them back at the moment.

Thinking about it for a second as he lazily laid on the black leather couch in his spacious living-room, he realized he hadn't recieved a call from anyone lately, to his knowledge that is. For all he knew, he could have recieved a call while he had been asleep, considering he had turned into a deep sleeper the past two days. But he figured noone wanted to call him. AJ couldn't remember how long it had been since he had last heard from his mother...she left to go visit a sick distant relative a week before? Two weeks maybe? She was busy so AJ couldn't be angry at her for not calling. His friends? Well, they all had lives too, even though a phone call from them every now and then would be nice. But none of that really mattered to AJ when all he wanted was to hear the phone ring, for him to answer and hear, "We're coming home."

It wasn't going to happen though and AJ knew it. As much as it hurt to think about it, he knew it wasn't going to happen. He wouldn't be hearing from Sarah, at least not for a very long time for that matter. Why his children hadn't called him yet, he wasn't sure...but if he found out that Sarah was preventing them from calling him...his blood boiled at the thought. Just the thought of it was cruel. Would Sarah actually keep their children from talking to their father? AJ could only hope not. But then again, was a simple phone call so much to ask for?

*ring*

The sound suddenly seemed so foreign as it echoed throughout the quiet house. It caused AJ to slip off the couch with surprise and he stumbled into the standing position. Phone! Phone! Where was the damn phone?! AJ looked around in a frantic manner, his eyes searching the area furiously.

*ring*

Why was it that when he needed something he could never find it?! He hadn't even used the damn thing in two days!

*ring*

Quickly, he began throwing pillows and couch cushions to the floor in his search for the missing phone. But it was still M.I.A. "Where is the damn thing?!" he screeched, fearing that this was possibly one of his children and he was going to miss their call. A string of profanities escaped his lips as he kicked at the coffee table and pain ran it's course through his foot. He grimaced as another string of profanities escaped. Then...so quickly out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a black object all the way across the room, laying atop the entertainment center. AJ took off running, imagining Xavier, Kyrena, or Treyden's voice at the other end of the line as he answered the call. He got no more then a foot when *smack* he slipped on one of the couch pillows and went crashing to the floor as the phone rang for the fourth and final time.

The answering machine picked up the call as AJ laid there paralized and breathing hard.

"Hey there! You've reached the McLean household of Alex, Sarah, Xavier, Kyrena, and Treyden. We're obviously not here right now. But we're sorry to have missed your call and we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a message, that way we know to get back to you. So leave your message after the beep!...Beeeeeeeeeeeee-...Xavier! Knock it off!...Sorry, Dad! Couldn't resist!...Yeah, yeah. I probably can't get to the phone y'all because I'm ringing my son's neck-HEY! Trey, give me the phone back! Daddy's recording our message!...But I wanna talk!...No, let Daddy-...I WANNA TALK!!!...Fine, say something...*giggle* Daddy says to leave a message after the noise!...The beep, Trey, the beep!...Oh yeah! I mean the beep!"

AJ squeezed his eyes together as hard as he could, lying there on the floor, waiting.

"Aje! It's D!"

'No shit...'his mind grumbled as he heard the voice of his best friend filter through the speaker of the answering machine. Man, he hadn't spoken to Howie for going on nearly two months and he was sure if Howie would have called at any other time, AJ would have picked up the phone in less then a second to talk, but right now, he just felt like disconnecting the answering machine.

"I guess you're out of the house again? You, Sarah, and the kids go on a vacation? Or did the kids drag you into an early grave at the age of 47?"

AJ cringed at the chuckle evident in the Latino's voice.

"Just can't seem to get ahold of you lately; I've called you several times over the past two days. What's up with that, man? No love for us anymore? Nah, I'm just kidding. But seriously, we gotta talk sometime. I miss talking to ya, buddy."

"Same to you, D," AJ whispered in a choked voice.

"Anyway, I'm calling you for a specific reason."

'Maybe a way to get my family back?'AJ's mind pleaded.

"Remember that plantation I was looking at purchasing a couple of months ago? The one I told you about that is out on Shelton Rd.? Well, I finalized the papers on it several days ago. Yep, the old place is mine now; I bought it. The thing is, the place needs a bit of renovation...ok, it needs alot, but that's not a bad thing, ya know? See, I plan on moving there with Ana within the next week to start renovating it. I don't plan on hiring a crew to renovate it for me, because...listen Aje, I was thinking...I want to get everyone together to come to the plantation next week to help start the renovation. Kind of like a reunion. I mean, it's been way too long since the five of us have gotten together and I don't know about you, but I'd like to see us together again as a group. Kinda for old times sake? Anyway, I've already proposed the idea to Brian, Kevin, and Nick...they said they're coming. So it's all up to you. The offers open to ya, Aje...I'd really like for you to come. We're heading there next Friday. Um... Oh, getting to the place isn't all that hard either. When you get to Orlando, head out towards the backroads, take Messing road to be on the right track. Drive about five miles and you'll come to a 'Y' shaped road. You'll wanna take a left on that road, which would be...crap, let me think...oh yeah! It would be Long road. Ironic name, huh? Drive another mile and you'll come up upon Shelton Rd. on your right. The plantation is down that road on your left, you can't miss it. Well, I guess I'll try calling you again later, or you can give me a call when you get in or get home. I really hope you consider coming, Aje...everyone would like to see you again..."

There was a moment of silence and then a click. Howie had hung up.

A.J. sighed, running his stinging eyes. 'A reunion... yeah right. So I can hear about how all the guys still have their wife and children around? I don't think so,'he thought, getting up from the floor. Slowly striding across the living-room, he reached for the phone. "Piece of flying pig shit," he mumbled, picking up the device. Thoughts about calling Howie back at that moment came through his mind, but A.J. pushed them away. 'I ain't gonna go.'He threw the phone onto the charger and headed outside to the back patio. The backyard was the ocean, which was crashing onto the large and jagged rocks that edged the shore. The sky was dark, matching the turbulent waters...and A.J.'s feelings.

"Why my children? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TAKE THEM, SARAH?!" A.J. screamed up to the sky.

Thunder crackled in the sky in reply to his screaming. Moments afterwards, the gray clouds broke and threw a hard down pour of precipitation on the earth below. "Go figure..." he mumbled a snicker, glaring out at the ocean as the wind picked up and tossed droplets of rain into his face. But it never phazed his expression; he didn't blink once as each dropplet stung his eyes. Instead, he stood there growing cold and his clothes becoming soaked. 'No, I'm definitely not going to that damn plantation'he repeated in his mind once more.

*****

Stephanie was awoken by thunder that shook the large house. Groaning, she opened her green eyes and looked over at the clock on her nightstand. The bright blue digits read 7:55 am. 'Too early!' she thought, pulling the comforter over her head. For the last two days since Bailey's hospital visit, Brian and Stephanie had been sleeping most of the day and night, their bodies trying to regain its' normal pattern. 'I swear, if anything tries to wake me up, it's going to die a painful death,' she thought again, finally falling back into a deep sleep. This deep sleep, however, didn't last long.

The door to the bedroom was thrown open rather rudely and a rather obnoxious voice pierced the air, making Stephanie's head pound. "You don't need to bother. I don't need to be. I'll keep slipping farther. Once I'm gone, I won't let go until..." It was Jessica's voice that was producing the obnoxious sound, singing the lyrics rather messed up to one of Stephanie's favorite songs by an old group called "Stone Sour". The song was called "Bother", and by the sound of it, Jessica was ruining the song.

"Jessica Marie Littrell, if you sing one more syllable of that song, I WILL hurt you. One, you woke me up. Two, you are destroying a classic! Now shut up!" Stephanie snapped, rolling over in her bed.

"Ooooh, she's crabby. I must have disturbed her beauty sleep. Why don't you make me, Little Miss Perfect? I can sing if I want to," Jessica snapped back, continuing to sing the song, even more so off-key to further irritate her sister. She walked over to headed into their walk in closet and began to sort through the loads of clothes hanging up. Walking back out, she screamed out some lyrics, which resulted in being hit in the back of the head with one of Stephanie's pillows. Jessica froze in her spot and bent down to pick the pillow back up. "What the HELL is your problem?"

"You're my problem, duh! Shut the fuck up, I'm trying to sleep!" Stephanie yelled, placing her other pillow over her head.

"Like I said, make me!"

"Don't even say that, you will regret it."

"Whatever. Be a piss head because I couldn't care less."

Stephanie removed the pillow from her head and sat up. "Yeah, just like you don't care about anything or anybody but yourself."

Jessica turned towards her sister, her eyes dark and angry. "Don't you EVER Call me selfish!"

"Why not? It's the God damn truth!"

"Fuck you!" Jessica stalked over to Stephanie and hit her with the pillow hard.

"I could say the same to you!" Stephanie screeched as she retaliated against Jessica with her other pillow and she jumped up from her bed. Her face stung from the impact of the pillow and she glared at her sister with hurt.

"Then why don't you! Oh wait, I forgot..." Jessica snickered, preparing for anything to happen. Full out brawl or what not. She just wanted to pound her sister at that moment. "You're too damn perfect!"

"I AM NOT!" Stephanie yelled, pushing Jessica hard. She flew backwards into the wall.

"See? You can't even fight right! You gotta do shit like this!" Jessica raised a hand and slapped Stephanie across the face.

"You little bitch!" Stephanie yelled, her cheek turning beet red as she tackled Jessica onto her bed. Fists were flying, and so was some blood.

Profanties were spat at every second and the fight would have surely continued much longer, had a pair of feet not come bursting through the open doorway. "What the damn Hell is going on in here?!" Brian's voice shouted, his voice confused and clogged with sleep. "Jessica Marie-" Jessica paused for the slightest moment when she heard her name, but Stephanie took this to her advantage and tackled her sister to the floor, crying out at her. "STEPHANIE HOLLY LITTRELL!!!"

Stephanie didn't answer, she just kept on trying to hurt Jessica. To make her feel the pain she did. "STEPHANIE! STOP THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW!" Brian reached down and pulled his daughters apart.

"She deserved it!" Stephanie screamed, trying to get at Jessica again.

"I don't give a fuck who deserved it!" Brian screamed back at his daughter and that's all it took to get the girls to stop. They both looked at their father in complete shock; he rarely spoke with such profanity as he had just done. "I want to know what the Hell is going on!"

"She...Daddy, I..." Stephanie stuttered, hating the grip her father had on her arm. She stared back at her sister in sorrow; what had they just done to each other. Jessica's features had softened despite the deep red tone to her face.

"I want a damn explanation now before either of you push my buttons any further," Brian growled.

"Daddy, I was trying to sleep... and Jess came in, singing loud and off key, knowing I was sleeping. I told her to stop--"

"No, you told me to shut the fuck up!" Jessica interrupted.

"Because you were being obnoxious and annoying!"

"Freedom of speech, Stephanie! Learn the damn constitution!"

"It was not freedom of speech. You were being vicious and you know it!"

"And you weren't being vicious just now!?"

"STOP IT!!!" Brian screamed, once again interrupting the arguing twins. All traces of exhaustion had suddenly left his face and was replaced with a shade of crimson. His narrowed dangerously and had grew extremely dark.

Both Stephanie and Jessica looked at their father, a little scared of how angry he was. Sure, their arguments irritated him, but this was far beyond that.

"If you guys argue one more time while explaining this, you WILL be punished," Brian hissed.

"I give up," Jessica and Stephanie growled towards each other in unison. This only caused another spark to ignite.

"First you gotta call me fucking selfish, then you have to be unoriginal and copy every damn thing I say?!"

"Very mature thing to say, Jessica!"

"Stop! You," Brian pointed to Jessica. "Get your cuts cleaned up." He looked at Stephanie. "You're gonna talk."

"Why? So she can whine to you about how it's all my fault? How it's always all my fault and how you'll just cave into her and shit on me!?" Jessica spat towards her father. "Just like always!"

"Jessica Marie, that's enough! Go clean your cuts. NOW."

"NO!"

"JESSICA! NOW, GOD DAMN IT!"

"I SAID NO!"

Brian grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her out of the room, locking the door behind her. "GO CLEAN YOURSELF UP!"

"Daddy..." Stephanie whispered.

"Stephanie," Brian turned around, rubbing his eyes. "I didn't expect this from you."

"But, Daddy, I-"

"No. What I saw when I came into the room is something I never wanna see again. You and your twin sister were PUNCHING each other. Look at your face in the mirror," Brian took Stephanie by the shoulders and turned her to face the dresser.

Stephanie had no choice but to stare at her reflection; she became dazed when she saw the healing cut on her lip from the other night had been reopened and finally noticed the stinging pain radiating from deep down. Her stomach churned as she caught the dissapproving stare her father was giving her; her heart fell at that moment. "Daddy..."

"Steph, why?" Brian asked, his voice soft. Her father's blue eyes, so identical to her sister's, were glazed over with sadness.

"I..." She hung her head down. "I don't know. I just got sick and tired of they way she treated you, and how she was to me... I didn't plan on that fight, Daddy."

"Do you even realize how scared I was when I walked in to find you guys like that?"

"I was scared too. But she made me so mad, Daddy. I just wanted her to listen-"

"You think fighting is going to get her to listen?"

"Words sure as Hell didn't work!"

"Watch your mouth," Brian sighed at his daughter.

"I'm sorry. I can't take this anymore. I want my sister back," Tears formed in her emerald eyes. "I want Jessie."

"Yeah, well, I want my other daughter back," Brian whispered, looking at the ground for a second. "Get yourself cleaned up, alright?"

Stephanie nodded. "I'm sorry, Daddy."

"I know." Brian left his daughter frozen near the full length mirror as he walked out of the room.

Stephanie sighed, pulling at her hair in frustration. "I really fucked things up." She whispered to herself, heading to the bathroom to clean her lip.

*****

Brian walked down the stairs to the living room, the scene he had just seen ran through his mind. Two of his offspring were fighting... his little girls were throwing fists at each other. It was something Brian never wanted to see again. He collapsed onto the couch, mindlessly turning on the tv without really watching it.

There wasn't much on tv at that hour, considering it was only 8:13 in the morning. He couldn't really focus on much at the moment anyway. His brain was becoming fried, still in shock from the scene upstairs. Shaking his head, Brian sighed in frustration. He wanted to know where he had gone wrong as a parent. He thought he had given his daughters everything...all the love they needed to grow up to be emotionally healthy. Stephanie seemed to believe that...so where had he gone wrong with Jessica?

One name came to his mind. Leighanne. The girls and Matt's mother. Since the divorce two years ago, it seemed like it was then that Jessica started to change. Brian knew they should have seen her more often, but Leighanne had really hurt him during the divorce process. And now, even if Stephanie or Jessica tried to call their mother, she wasn't home many of the times. And even if she was, there was no time to talk. Leighanne always had 'errands' to run for her job.

The more he thought about it, the more Brian began to wonder if Jessica blamed him for his and Leighanne's divorce. He couldn't think of why she would. True, he had been the one to say he wanted the divorce, but it was Leighanne that caused it all. If only the girls knew the full extent of what Leighanne had done to him...maybe Jessica would treat him differently?

'Maybe a visit with her mother to see how she really is would set Jessica right again...' Brian thought, still flipping through the channels in a pre-fabricated manner. His eyes were glazed over as he seemed to be taking a vacation from the stress of his world. This of course led to Brian not hearing the front door open and close rather quietly, nor did he hear footsteps walk into the house. "Hey, Pops. Don't answer the door anymore?"

Brian visibly jumped a mile as the voice pierced the air and the TV remote flew from his hand, falling quickly to the floor. His eyes turned to the source of the voice. He was more then surprised to see his son standing in front of him with an amused expression plastered on his face, obviously satisfied in having scared the living daylights out of his aging father. "What are you doing here, Matt?" Brian asked, not realizing the rudeness dripping from the corners of his mouth.

Matthew stared at his father with a puzzling look. "What do you mean what am I doing here?" he asked, raising both light colored eyebrows. "The last time I checked, I was still allowed to consider this my other home."

Brian sighed, realizing his less then welcoming greeting. He rubbed at his temples for a moment before offering his eldest child an apologizing smile. "Sorry, son. It's just that...well, never mind. No need in ruining someone else's morning."

This caught Matthew's attention by surprise. That was clear proof that his father wanted him to persue the subject, instead of letting it go like Brian had just stated. "Who said it will ruin my morning?" he replied, casually placing his hands in his pocket. Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he stared his father down, waiting for the older man to speak about what was troubling him.

"Would you hate me if I would have sent you to live with your mother, had the divorce taken place when you were younger?" Brian asked, unsure of how to use his words or if his son would actually understand him.

Matthew bit down on his bottom lip, attempting to read into his father's expression. All he could make out was a deep sense of frustration and sadness. He had to keep himself from frowning at this and parted his lips to answer. "Yes, in some ways," he explained, furling his eyebrows. "because I know how Ma treated you. I mean, I love her because she's my ma, but, I wouldn't want to live with her after how she treated you and how I know she would treat me. That's an odd question to ask, Pops. Why?"

"Why?" Brian clarified in a small voice, not once breaking gazes with his son. "Because I'm think of flying Jessica to your mother's place...with a one-way ticket."

To say the least, Matthew was shocked to hear his father say such words. "What are you gettin' at, Pops? What'd she do NOW?"

"This time it wasn't just her," Brian answered in a reluctant tone. He felt pathetic in the sense that he was having to...complain to his son about his problems at home.

"Meaning?"

"Throw Stephanie into the picture this time."

"Somehow I don't like the sound of that." Matthew fell onto the couch next to his father and the two of them sat there in silence. Matthew quickly stole a side glance at his father and was surprised to see his father doing the same towards him. It was obvious each of them were expecting the other to take the initiative to speak. Matthew decided to break the sudden ice formation. "So, you gonna fill me in on what the chaotic twins have done to give you a hard time now?"

"They were fighting," Brian shrugged and fidgeted with his fingers.

"Well, that's nothing new. They fight all the time. I mean, that's what siblings do."

"No, Matt...they were REALLY fighting."

"I'm still not gettin' ya...you mean really bad argument?"

"No, I mean fists flying, a little bit of blood-"

"You're not serious, Pops!"

"After what I just saw a little bit ago, I wish I wasn't..."

Matthew blinked at his father in a bit of shock. His sisters involved in a fist fight towards one another? He'd seen them in fights before, sure, but those had only been typical arguments over stupid things like misplaced clothes and who saw what boy first. He never thought he would hear of them in an actual fist fight. "How bad of a fight was it?" he questioned, excluding the fact that his father mentioned 'blood' and 'fists' in the same sentence only moments before.

"Well, let's see...Stephanie's lip was cracked back open and I wouldn't be surprised if Jessica develops a black eye later on today."

"Oh, man..." Matthew groaned, just picturing the state of being his sisters were in. "That's horrible, Pops."

"I know...and I don't know what to do anymore," Brian replied with a reluctant sigh. He stood up and unconciously motioned for Matthew to follow him into the kitchen. Willing his feet to move across the equisitely-tiled floor, Brian headed over towards the coffee maker set next to the stove. Much to his dismay, he had forgotten to set the timer the night before and there was no freshly made coffee waiting for him to devour. He frowned. "Damn..." he grumbled and pressed the power button to get the device running.

"Pops?" Matthew called out, taking a seat on the stool at the kitchen bar. Crossing both arms atop the counter, he continued to watch his father's back facing him. "Pops?" Matthew pursed his lips when he still didn't recieve an answer. His brows furled once again.

Brian's shoulders sagged in a depressing manner as he leaned tiredly against the ashen-black marble counter. He knew Matthew was waiting expectantly for him to answer, but his mind had begun to wander elsewhere. He couldn't help but no longer feel as angry towards his daughters, but more so concerned. He prayed to God that he would never have to see any of his offsprings fighting as such ever again and he wondered what both of them were doing upstairs. Stephanie had been left hanging without a word when Brian had left the room, and Jessica...Brian had demanded that she go clean herself up. He had heard her storm into the bathroom and slam the door after he had locked her out of her and Stephanie's bedroom. He knew he wouldn't be speaking to her for quite some time, considering how stubborn Jessica could choose to be.

"Pops? Do you want me to go speak to them?"

Brian turned around when he realized Matthew had spoken to him once again. He shook his head, unsure. "No, I don't think that would be a good idea..." he whispered, crossing his arms over his chest and resting the small of his back against the edge of the counter.

"Well, what are you going to do then?"

"I don't know, Matt. I honestly don't know. Do you think I'm a terrible father?"

Matthew sat in a stunned manner. "D-do I think you're what?"

"A terrible father. Do you think I am?" Brian repeated.

"No, of course not. Did Jess say you were?" Matthew scowled.

"Not in those exact words."

"Then-"

"She just doesn't make me feel like I'm doing a good job."

"That's insane, Pops-"

"Maybe I'm just complaining or whining, but I'm starting to believe her. Ya know, maybe I'm not being the best father I could be."

"Ok, stop right there, Pops," Matthew interrupted, removing his arms from the counter top. "Don't go saying that, because that's asinine. You're a good father and you know it."

"Then why can't I get Jessica to see that?"

"You are asking the wrong person."

"Well, like I said, I don't know what to do anymore. Maybe she doesn't belong here any longer. Maybe she would be better off living with her mother."

"Do you honestly believe that, Pops?"

"I don't know, son. All I want for Jess to see is that I really do love her, no differently then I love you or Steph. And that I truly want her to be happy. If that means sending her to go live with her mother, then that's what I'll have to do."

*****

Ana sighed, flopping down on her bed as music floated through her stereo. It was the soundtrack to a classic movie 'Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone', which was based on famous books that her father had once told her about. The tales of wizardry had immediately snagged her interest and her father had gone out and bought her the whole series, including each movie that had been made for each book.

After a long talk with her father days ago about the club incident, Howie had just grounded her from going out at night and surfing the Internet for two weeks. Ana was surprised that her father had been so lenient, considering the amount of anger he had expressed that night, she took the punishment lightly. It wasn't that bad and she figured that Jessica's had to be a hundred times worse than her's.

Ana just laid on her bed, letting the music carry her off to another place. This place was Ana's favorite place to go to in her mind; it was a time when her mother was still alive. Not wasting away from a disease that the doctors could find no way to cure. Ana trembled at the thought and felt the tears brimming her eyes as she closed them and was able to picture her mother's beautiful smile perfectly. Her mother's sparkling chocolate eyes, long brown curls, an image so much like Ana's... The phone rang a shrill noise that jerked the teen back to reality. Groaning, Ana reached over to her stereo, switched it off and threw her hand for the phone. "Hello? Prison of the Damned, how may I help you?"

"Ana? It's Steph," the familiar voice rang with it's slight southern twang.

"Hey! I didn't think Uncle Brian would let you near anything that connected you to the outside world!" Ana replied back with a giggle, finding herself happy to hear from her cousin. The two hadn't spoken since saying their farewells that past Saturday...after being escorted home by an officer.

"I don't think he would be that cruel towards me," Stephanie said, grinning slightly despite the stinging pain in her bottom lip. She dabbed at it gently with a soft baby pink cleenex. "He never did really say I couldn't use the phone. He doesn't know I'm using it right now anyway. What about you? Prison of the Damned, huh? Did Uncle Howie go pretty harsh on you?"

"Not really...not as badly as I thought he would have," Ana explained, "I mean, the whole way home he yelled at me in spanish, which got to be kind of scary because he ain't ever done that before and that only meant he was really mad...majorly! He didn't talk to me the rest of the night and for part of the next morning until I forced him to talk. He told me that he was more dissappointed then anything in my lack of judgement and that he worries about me. He even went so far as to say that maybe he overreacted a little on the way home. But get this...you are never going to guess what he said next."

"What?"

"Papi even said he went a little overboard towards Jess and that he feels bad about it. Sure he was angry at her as he was towards all of us, but he hadn't meant to react the way he had. He worries about her too, ya know?"

Stephanie cringed at the mention of her twin's name and she dabbed at her lip again. "Yeah, we all do..." she managed to reply.

"Anyway, he said he was going to give it a couple of days and call to speak to her, to apologize for being so hard towards her. So I'm guessing he might call your place sometime later today maybe. Just shows my Papi is a big softy. He never stays mad long. I mean, heck, my punishment is being grounded from going anywhere at night and not being able to surf the net for two weeks. Can't beat that deal, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess..." Stephanie mumbled.

Ana paused for a brief moment. "Heh, what's your problem? Get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

"Not funny, Anita... today has been a bad one," Stephanie less then lightly snapped.

"Already? It's only 8:30 in the morning," Ana replied, confusion hinting in her voice. She knew her cousin wasn't a morning person, in fact, niether of the twins were, but this didn't sound like a case of not being a morning person.

Stephanie sighed. "Jess and I had a fight."

"Another fight? But I thought you guys-"

"No. I mean we FOUGHT. With our fists."

Ana's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding me!"

"Nope..." Stephanie sighed again.

"Why?!" Ana exclaimed, her eyes widening as she bolted upright.

"I really don't know anymore."

"Steph, that's insane. There has to be a reason!"

Stephanie groaned, had she REALLY called to talk to Ana about what had just happened not too long ago? Maybe she had subconciously been looking for a way to not think about it for a short period of time. No matter what, though, she knew she would be getting into a long drawn out explanation because of Ana's persistent questioning. "Jess walked into the room this morning after her shower and was singing horribly and loudly," Stephanie explained in a lame manner.

"And y'all got into a fist fight over that?" Ana replied in disbelief.

Stephanie could just imagine her cousin rolling her eyes at her. "No," she continued. "I was trying to sleep, so I told her to shut up."

"Yeah, uh-huh...and how exactly did you tell her to shut up?"

"Well, the first time I think I acted rather polite and just told her to shut up."

"There's a second time?"

"Yeah. I...uh...don't think she liked the fact that I threw a pillow at the back of her head when she wouldn't stop singing. Then I sort of told her to...shut the fuck up..." Stephanie cringed as her words slipped from her lips. She usually didn't speak like that.

Silence draped over Ana's end of the line.

"You told her that?" Ana finally spoke a moment later, shock dripping from the corners of her lips.

"It sort of slipped. I wanted to go back to sleep, I was tired, she was singing horribly! Not to mention she was totally ruining the song she was singing. And you couldn't even call it singing; it was more like screeching."

"So then what happened?"

"We started arguing over the fact that she thinks I'm too perfect...blah, blah, blah."

"And you started fist fighting over THAT?!"

"She slapped me across the face!" Stephanie exclaimed. "What was I supposed to do?!"

"How about being the better person and walking away from the situation. Or you could have gone and told Uncle Brian."

"Well, Miss Know-It-All who doesn't have any siblings," Stephanie tried to tease lightly, feeling her heart sting with remorse for what had happened. "Anyway, Dad came in and pulled us apart, but not before the formation of some bruises and blood."

"Oh, man," Ana groaned. "I bet he was mad major, huh?"

"Oh yeah..." Stephanie answered. She tossed the blood splotched Kleenex into the small trash can by her bed and reached for a new one. "Let's just say that some of his choice of vocabulary was less then his daily normal."

"Ouch."

"Yeah."

"Man, Steph...I really don't know what to say. Sounds like to me that you and Jess started fighting over something really stupid. What's going on between the two of you anyway?"

"I don't know what's happening! I feel like I'm losing a part of me, my sister, my best friend. Jess never used to be like this towards me or Dad and I don't know what to do. It hurts that she's treating me like this, but it hurts even more to see the way she treats Dad. He doesn't deserve it."

"I know what you mean..."

"I'm truly afraid I'm going to lose my sister, Ana. I can't handle that."

*****

Jessica’s brain pounded with intensity as she held her head in her hands, sitting on the edge of the Jacuzzi bathtub in the bathroom that connected to her and Stephanie’s bedroom. There were two doorways in the bathroom decorated with bright blue walls; one door, of course, led to and from the hallway and was located near the marble counter across the room, the other door was located directly to Jessica’s left and created a direct route to and from the bedroom to the bathroom. This door, however, usually remained locked, as it was right now.

Gingerly touching her upper right cheek bone, Jessica cringed from the pain and knew she would most likely have somewhat of a black eye by the end of the day. Her gaze was drawn to the bathroom door and she continued to sit there, wondering. Foolishness was coursing through her along with sadness and frustration and any other proper emotion to fit her situation at the moment that she could think of. She was still shocked, by all means, that her and Stephanie had gotten into such a horrible fight. It wasn’t so much her pounding head and stinging cheek that was making the shock stay with her, but more so the mere fact they had gone through such a thing. They’d had their share of fights in the past, but none of them had ever escalated into an actual…fist fight. And Jessica had never become near as angry towards her sister as she had this morning. Nor the same for Stephanie towards Jessica.

Jessica didn’t understand what was going on with her and between her and her sister. Why she had such a cold attitude lately, Jessica couldn’t even begin to explain. And the way she had been treating her father, it was never intentional really. She did love her father and looked up to him so much, but it was lately that she just couldn’t find it in herself to get along with him. The fact that he was always getting after her about everything, or so it seemed, started to total up until she began to feel animosity towards him. And she saw how it was affecting him, too…

But still…

"I was trying to sleep, so I told her to shut up… Well, the first time I think I acted rather polite and just told her to shut up… Yeah. I...uh...don't think she liked the fact that I threw a pillow at the back of her head when she wouldn't stop singing. Then I sort of told her to...shut the fuck up…” Jessica was suddenly tuned into the fact that Stephanie was still in their bedroom and now talking on what had to be the phone. She had been too deep in thought a moment before to have realized her sister was having a conversation, but now that she did realize it, Jessica couldn’t help but listen in on bits and pieces of the conversation Stephanie was having with most likely their cousin Ana.

"It sort of slipped. I wanted to go back to sleep, I was tired, she was singing horribly! Not to mention she was totally ruining the song she was singing. And you couldn't even call it singing; it was more like screeching… We started arguing over the fact that she thinks I'm too perfect…” ‘Can you blame me for being a little bit jealous?’Jessica thought as she unconsciously rubbed at her eyes.

"She slapped me across the face! What was I supposed to do?!” Jessica cringed; she hadn’t meant to do THAT. But it had happened on the spur of the moment and Stephanie had succeeded in pissing the Hell out of her at a very early hour in the morning. At that moment, though, Jessica wasn’t going to hesitate in saying slapping her was uncalled for.

"I don't know what's happening! I feel like I'm losing a part of me, my sister, my best friend. Jess never used to be like this towards me or Dad and I don't know what to do. It hurts that she's treating me like this, but it hurts even more to see the way she treats Dad. He doesn't deserve it… I'm truly afraid I'm going to lose my sister, Ana. I can't handle that." Her breath froze as she listened to Stephanie speak such words. After all that had just happened, Jessica never would have imagined that her sister would still care so much to the point that she was worried about losing her. Those words instantly stung Jessica’s heart and before she knew what was happening, tears were stinging the backs of her bright sapphire eyes and threatening to fall.

“I just hope us going to the plantation to help you and Uncle Howie out will change my sister and bring back the real Jessica, ya know? I don’t want to lose my twin, Ana.”

“Jessica!” The voice was followed by a loud pounding on the door across the bathroom. Jessica tore her tear glistened eyes away just long enough to look at the other door before it was slammed wide open and in the doorway stood none other then her older brother Matthew. For a moment Jessica wanted to laugh at the fact of how her brother always managed to show up during bad times, but the feeling diminished as more tears slid down her red cheeks, seeing the look of disappointment etched in Matthew’s emerald eyes. His look immediately softened, though, as he stepped into the bathroom and was replaced by an expression of concern “Jess…you’re crying.”

*****

Howie had not been able to sleep well the night before, the late hours spent tossing and turning in a fitful manner until he had finally gotten up around 7:23am, losing all hope of a good rest. Following his daily routine, he started out with taking his morning shower, then headed downstairs for a cup of coffee afterwards. All of which took place in a time span of less then twenty-five minutes. Afterwards, he’d headed out to the garage to bring in several of the cardboard boxes he was using for packing all of his and Ana’s belongings for the move to plantation in four days. Over half of their stuff was already packed and Howie couldn’t think of anything better to do then to continue the job that morning while deprived of sleep. So he found himself sitting in the middle of the floor in his rather large walk-in closet, rummaging through a few old boxes, surrounded completely by things from papers to priceless pictures scattered all over the floor. He was un-phased, though, by the mess he had made.

A smile crept across his aging face as he reached for a photo to his side that was half hidden under a sheet of light blue stationary that had been taken years and years before Ana had been born, years before he had met his late wife. Five young men all striked whatever pose they were told to and smiled for the camera like there was no tomorrow. If Howie could remember correctly, it had been one of the very first group photos they had taken together. Not too long after Brian had flown down from Kentucky by request of his cousin Kevin and auditioned for the group, shortly after being told he would be the fifth and final member of the Backstreet Boys. Howie had to laugh, though; they were all so very young in this picture. Nick was…oh man, he had to be thirteen, Howie thought. The kid’s blonde hair was shaggy and he looked like he needed a hair cut, but it was a style that always seemed to work him back then. It got the girls screaming, that was for sure. Standing next to Nick in the picture was a fifteen year old version of AJ and Howie had to bust up laughing at the pair of sunglasses his rebel friend had been wearing. For one thing, they looked too big to be wearing in the first place, but what humored Howie the most was the fact that AJ had rested the nose bridge on the tip of his nose and was trying to sport a…a…what AJ would have called a "totally cool!" look back then and for many years to come after that photo. Brian stood in the middle with a shy expression mixed in with his young features, a smile playing at the corners of his lips ad he crossed his arms over his chest. The younger Kentuckian had actually been really shy when he’d first shown up to Florida to audition and even for a short while after he had been sworn into the group. His thick accent was always getting a laugh out of the others, but Brian had always taken their teasing lightly when it came to that. He had been their biggest comic relief back in the early days. Howie cracked a lopsided grin as he caught sight of himself standing next to the younger Kentuckian. My God, had he changed over the years. In this captured moment, his hair was cut extremely short and curled at the top. Not a style he had stuck with for too long. He remembered how over the years he had gone from short to semi-long and tying his hair in a low ponytail. Then he’d gone right back to short, but not nearly as short as in the beginning. Even now his hair was at a longer length, but not long enough to produce even the smallest ponytail. Howie was satisfied with it, though. All except for the appearing gray that was already popping up admist the dark brown. Last, but not least, was the one Howie had looked up to the most during all the rough years they had endured as a group. Kevin. The tall and older Kentuckian stood towering behind his shorter cousin, arms draped over AJ and Howie’s shoulders. Emerald eyes sparkled at the lens and brought a unique life to the picture. Kevin had been their rock, their shoulder to lean and cry on when things got tough, the one who held everyone together when he, himself, wasn’t sure how to hold himself together. Howie couldn’t even begin to imagine what the group would have been like, had Kevin not been apart of it.

‘The good ol’ days’ Howie thought as he placed the picture down in a small pile he had started. Once he and Ana got settled down in the plantation and everything was renovated, he would have to go through all of the pictures again and put them into their rightful places. He never realized he kept so many pictures in all of these boxes in the closet. The next few pictures that Howie picked up were along the same content as the first one, but his eyes suddenly came across a 5x7 picture that caused his heart to seemingly cease from beating. Moving a shaking hand slowly forward, he allowed his fingers to curl around the picture and bring it closer to his eyes.

For a moment, he sat there in silence and took in everything about the picture. It was something that had been taken right after they had been wed together; on their honeymoon if Howie remembered correctly. They had gone to the Caribbean for a two week honeymoon vacation, compliments of Howie’s parents. It had been one of the best two weeks in his entire life; he remembered detail after detail as if it had happened just yesterday. They had spent a lot of their time just enjoying each other’s company while relaxing in the luxurious suite that was located right on the beach with easy access to the water and was for the most part private. Their evenings were spent eating dinner by candlelight and their nights were filled with moonlight strolls on the beach, barefooted.

The more Howie took a trip down memory lane to that time, the more he remembered when this picture was taken; he had been the one to take it. It had been during one of their walks on the beach, only this time, they had finished with dinner early and found themselves on the beach at sunset. The sun was just beginning to sink into the ocean out on the horizon, so the sky was lit by an array of magnificent oranges and reds. He’d only happened to bring their camera along that evening and for hours they spent their time walking along the soft white sand, holding their shoes and one hand and talking of future plans. Her voice still rung in Howie’s ears as he stared at the picture; her laugh, the softness of her voice and how it had just floated from her lips. He’d felt like the luckiest man in the world.

Tears slowly began to brim Howie’s chocolate eyes as he used his other hand to trace over her figure; long chocolate curls that cascaded down her back, deep brown eyes that Howie had fallen in love with the first time he had looked into them, her perfectly shaped rose colored lips, her slender figure… She had been wearing a long flowing white sleeveless summer dress. The fabric had fitted her just the right way, allowing the camera to capture the essence of her beauty without a flaw.

The tears began to slowly slip from Howie’s eyes at that moment. He missed her more then anything in the world and still had trouble looking at a picture of her without being able to keep the tears from falling. What he wouldn’t do just to be able to hold her in his arms one more time and kiss her softly on the lips, to tell her he loved her and hear her say it right back. Only in memories could he experience such a thing now. She was gone and wasn’t coming back. There was nothing he or anyone could do to bring her back to him and the family that missed her so much. Howie knew he would be haunted for the rest of his life with images of her final days; the pain and suffering she went through, trying to hold on and beat what was draining the life from her but in the end, failing. He, himself, felt like the biggest failure of all. He should have been able to protect her and it should have been him that had gone through all the pain and suffering. In a way, though, Howie had. He never left her side once. From the day she had fallen ill to the moment she took her last breath, Howie sat by her side, holding her hand and promising her that everything would be ok. What a foolish promise that had been. Nothing was to be ok and it had been out of Howie’s power. Not even the doctors who saw her could do anything for her. All Howie had been able to do was sit there and watch his love slowly slip between his fingers until she was gone forever.

Howie continued to stare at the picture, his cheeks stained with salty tears that burnt his skin. No one would have ever been able to guess that years down the road from when the picture was taken, the woman portrayed would fall to a deadly illness that would take her in a short amount of time. Heck, the thought had never crossed his mind. He had always imagined himself dying before his wife, not the other way around. He wasn’t supposed to have to go through the misery of placing her in her final resting place. No, he was never supposed to go through such a thing. And Ana…he had never planned for his daughter to be motherless at the age of sixteen. How could he have failed his family so badly?

"Papi?"

Howie struggled to keep a strangled sob from actually escaping his lips. His closed his eyes as tightly as he possibly could and focused on breathing a steady stream of air. He could feel a few stray tears slip further down his cheeks, though, as he felt his daughter gently rest her hand on his shoulder. Howie jumped from the touch and felt the foolishness wash over him.

"Papi? Are you alright?" Ana asked her father with a deeply felt concern. She could tell by quietness that he was troubled by something. When she still received no response from him, Ana removed her hand from her father’s shoulder and moved around so she was kneeling on her knees in front of the older man. Her deep chocolate eye glazed over with unshed tears when she saw that her father’s cheeks were already streaked. "Oh papi…" she whispered, throwing her arms tightly around his neck after looking down and seeing the picture he was holding.

"I’m sorry, Anita…" Howie’s quiet voice choked. He let the picture fall from his hand and flutter to the ground before he wrapped his arms around his daughter. "I was just going…through some pictures…and I saw…I’m sorry…"

"I miss Mamá, too," Ana replied, burying her face in the crook of her father’s neck.

"I don’t mean to get so upset," Howie told his daughter with embarrassment as they mutually broke the embrace. He rubbed at his dark eyes to rid them of salty tears and foolishly stared at the ground. Howie heard Ana stifle a sob and he looked up with a pang of guilt in his heart. He hadn’t meant to get her so upset. "Don’t cry, Anita."

"I know, but it’s ok to cry, Papi," Ana answered her father as he reached forward with both hands and wiped away her tears with his thumbs. "It’s ok to cry because you miss her."

Howie forced a smile; he didn’t know what he would have done had his daughter been taken away from him also. She was his whole world now. "I know," he whispered.

Ana smiled also as she reached down to pick up the picture that her father had been holding only moments before. "When was this picture taken?" she asked with interest, studying the picture carefully to drink in as many details as she possibly could. Her mother had been beautiful; her father was always telling Ana how she inherited her mother’s beauty. Her eyes and her hair.

"On our honeymoon in the Caribbean," Howie answered.

"Was this when you were still a Backstreet Boy?" Ana asked, running her finger over her mother's hair.

"Yeah, it was right after we got done touring," Howie smiled slightly, remembering how happy his late wife, who had been his girlfriend at the time, looked when he stepped off the plane. "The night I came home, I proposed to her. We got married soon after that. Abuelo and abuela's present to us was a trip to the Caribbean."

"I bet it was awesome, huh?"

"One of the best times of my life, Anita."

"I'd like to go there."

"Well... maybe one day you and I can go there?"

"Papi, that would be great!" Ana smiled and placed a small kiss on her father's cheek.

Howie smiled back as the depressing thoughts of his late wife filtered out of his mind. Ana always knew how to make him happier, even though she didn't conciously know she was doing it.