Change the world where'er you are."
- Richard Le Gallienne
Epilogue
One Year Later
Nick reached to knock on Barry's office door when a hand grabbed the edge of his shirt. "Mr. Nick," the little girl looking up at him was pouting, with a big wet crocodile tear in the corner of her eye. "I hurted my knee." She pointed to her knee.
Nick dropped to her level. "Aww no," he stuck out his lower lip and examined her. "Okay, let's get you a bandaid..." He scooped her up and carried her further down the hall, turning into an office with a blue door. He set her down so she was sitting on the edge of his desk. He reached for a lunchbox that sat on top of his book case and opened it, rifling through he vast assortment of colorful bandaids inside. He held one up. "Hannah Montana?" he asked. The little girl, whose name was Ashley, shook her head. "Hmm," Nick dropped that one back into the squall of bandaids below and continued searching. "Disney Princess, rainbow colors, flowers, Toy Story..." he paused. "Ah... no. I know just the trick." He looked up, a smile spreading across his face. He closed the lunch box.
Ashley watched, wide-eyed, her tears having stopped in the thrill of expectation for what he would bedazzle her knee with. He winked and reached for the drawer of his desk. "I have," he said very quietly, glancing at the door, "A very, very special reserve... saved for very, very special people..." Ashley leaned so far over to try to peek at what he was pulling from the drawer that she nearly fell off the desk and he steadied her, "No peeking now," he commanded, rooting about in the drawer.
"Aha," he exclaimed, "Eureka." Nick looked up at the little girl, his eyes wide and twinkling with excitement. "Close your eyes."
Ashley covered them with her fingers, but peeked out between.
"I see those baby blues of yours," Nick said in a warning tone, "You gotta close'em and keep'em closed," he added, "Really, really tight..."
"They're cloooosed," Ashley whimpered, "They're cloooosed!"
"Okay." Nick bent down in front of her, like a knight to a princess, and carefully placed the bandaid on her scarcely scratched knee. Then he stood up. "Okay," he said again, "You can open your eyes now."
Ashley opened them and let out a squeal of delight. There was a brilliantly colored butterfly adorning the bend of her knee. Her fingers traced the wings, and a grin covered her face. "Now you can't tell anyone about the very special secret store, okay?" Nick said, lifting her down off the desk, "It's our secret."
"What, may I ask, is the secret?" Barry Williams had come around the corner of the office door, his glasses lowered on his nose.
Ashley looked at Nick with wide, goggly eyes.
"Well sir," Nick said, smirking, "If I told you that, it wouldn't be a secret, now would it?"
Barry chuckled. He looked down at Ashley. "Hey, that is a fancy bandaid you have there." Ashley let out a peal of giggles and ran out of the room. Barry turned to Nick. "I do believe we had an appointment some ten minutes ago?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Medical emergency," Nick said, "You understand how it rolls... you're on your way and the next thing you know, you've got a 9-1-1 shirt tug on your hands..." he balled the wrapper from the bandaid and dropped it into the rubbish bin.
Barry smiled, "Yes, I'm aware of how it rolls," he said. He held out an envelope.
"What's this?" Nick asked, taking it.
"My desperate attempt to get you to stay here," Barry replied.
Nick opened it. "That's a lot of zeros, sir," he laughed.
"There is also an unwritten job offer for your wife included," Barry added.
Nick smiled and, out of habit that had formed in the last six months, rolled the wedding band on his left hand. "But I wasn't really planning on going anywhere..." he said, his eyes leveling with Barry's.
"Just in case you were," Barry replied. "You know, the kids would be devestated.... They ceratinly adore you, Nick."
Nick laughed, his cheeks pinkening. "Well I adore them, sir."
"Then welcome to the pernament team?" Barry asked.
Nick held out his hand and they shook on it. "Thank you, sir," Nick added, waving the envelope as Barry turned to leave, "I think this will make a perfect down payment on a bigger house for my family..." he winked.
"Speaking of your family..." Barry held open the door as Max came barrelling around the corner.
"NICK!" he cried, jumping up and wrapping his arms around his brother's waist, "You will never guess what Raine and me did today. You will never guess."
Raine came around the corner and Barry winked to Nick and bowed his head to Raine politely before disappearing down the hallway, retreating from the family moment.
"What did you did?!" Nick cried, trying to match Max's level of enthusiasm with his own voice. "What did you did?!"
"We went to this butterfly garden place and I took a whole loooaddd of pictures," Max cried, "We took so many pictures it was crazy!" He held up the digital camera that Nick had finally been forced to invest in and flicked it onto preview, sliding through the images for Nick to see.
"Wow, I'll say you did," Nick laughed, watching the photos fly by on the LCD. He pulled Raine closer, wrapping an arm over her shoulder, and watched as Max showed him photo after photo of butterflies.
