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Author's Chapter Notes:
7/10/20 - I could have sworn I uploaded the whole story years ago! Unfortunately, the original file was lost on a corrupted flash drive. While the original only had two more chapters, I've had to rewrite the end... and subsequently adding FOUR more (so far. I still haven't reached the end yet). While I post these newer chapters once a week, I'll also go back and do a little editing on the older chapters.

Chapter 17

“Grill’s finally ready,” Kevin pronounced as Brian brought the first platter of burger patties and hot dogs.

“Good. What seasonings does Kristin add to this meat? They’re not even on the grill yet and they smell delicious.”

Kevin smirked. “Oh, you know. A little of this, a little of that, maybe some Worcestershire sauce.”

Brian scoffed and shook his head with a grin. “Fine, keep your secrets.”

“Well, we gotta keep something a secret from the family chef. Otherwise, what would be the point of us bringing anything to a potluck?”

“Aw, come on. I’m not that bad.”

The cousins looked toward the pool at the sound of shrieking laughter. Their children had all changed and jumped in within minutes of arriving at the Richardson home. Baylee, of course, had complained about having to wait long enough to put on sunscreen; and even then, his mother had to fill in all the spots he had missed. It had amused Kevin to see the Littrell children and Leighanne in American flag swim trunks, swimsuit, and bikini respectively. It made sense; the twins were born on Independence Day, which was just a couple days away now. And Brian and Leighanne were just the sort of parents who would get a kick out of having matching outfits with a slight difference, especially to celebrate a birthday. Brian’s trunks were probably black and white flags, or neon, or something else crazy.

“We should have been doing this more often,” Brian murmured as they watched Baylee pop up -underneath Spencer and slip the toddler onto his shoulders. Spencer held tight to Baylee’s curls, squealing with delight. “This is the first time Spencer’s met us, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is,” Kevin realized.

They watched the kids a little longer before Kevin threw the burgers and hot dogs on the grill. Brian moved to take the empty platter back inside, then paused.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen,” he said. “I guess time got away from me.”

Kevin met his gaze and realized that Brian must have been carrying just as much guilt as he was. Sure, Kevin had talked to them all when he had decided to leave the group--had given them his blessing to continue as a foursome--but they had hardly visited each other except for Howie over the last several years. “Well, I’m just as much at fault. Broadway, movies…”

“Family,” Brian added. “Battles and tours for us. But I still could’ve--"

“Smiles, daddy!”

Kevin turned in surprise at Liberty’s shout. The little girl flapped around in the pool and pouted at them. “Smiles!”

Kevin turned to Brian and raised an eyebrow. Brian’s mouth lifted into a half-smile as he shook his head.

“What’s that about?”

“She just hates to see anyone not smiling,” he explained, “not happy. I guess there were lots of times when there weren’t any smiles at home.”

“What do you mean?”

Brian hesitated, and Liberty took that chance to shout at him again to smile. So, he put on a big, cheesy grin to make her giggle. But the smile disappeared as soon as she turned away.

“Everything just… wore me down over the last few years. Sometimes I’d take it out on them. But the kids were always so quick to forgive. Especially Libby.”

He motioned to the house. “I’ll get the next batch.”

Kevin watched his cousin walk away, shoulders drooped a little. He should have come back to the fight sooner. Giving up his amulet had broken the spell over their wives and Nick, but he’d chosen to stay out of the fight ever since, even before he’d left Backstreet. But he couldn’t change the past. All he could do was work to make things better for the future. Whatever that brought.

He turned back to the pool at a loud splash and shrieks of laughter. The diving board was still vibrating from whoever had just jumped off it. Bubbles hid whoever it was until a head broke the surface. Nick made exaggerated spluttering noises as he shook his head, flinging water at the kids around him, making the laughter louder from them and the adults around them. The man growled playfully as he reached for Benjamin, fingers wriggling. Benjamin squealed and tried to get away, but Nick caught him and pulled him close.

Brian returned just then with the next round of burgers and hot dogs, a platter of buns, and a stack of cheese slices. His kids spotted him and begged him to join them. When he pointed out that he didn’t have his trunks, Howie said he had some extra pairs Brian could borrow. Brian was soon in the pool with the others, he and Nick trying to outdo each other with their silly antics. Baylee impressed them all with his diving skills. Apparently, Leigh had started teaching him in the last month.

As the food cooked, Kevin darted back inside to see if Kristin and Leigh needed any more help with dinner prep. He found them in the middle of a hug, Kristin squealing.

“What’s going on?”

The women turned to him with enormous smiles.
Leigh was practically glowing as she declared, “We’re gonna have a baby!”

Kevin let out a whoop and pulled her into a tight hug. He knew that Howie and Leigh had been trying for years without success. “Does Howie know yet? Have you told him?”

“Not yet,” she replied. “I was going to tell him as soon as we all got back, but the kids wanted to get in the pool, and Howie’s been the one to get in with them first while they’ve stayed with us, so…”

Kevin was already at the back door. “Howard! Get your butt in here right now!”

“Oh, very nice, honey.”

Howie was soon toweling off just outside the back door. “What was that about?”

Leigh didn’t let him finish drying off before she joined him at the door and whispered in his ear. Howie’s eyes widened. He dropped the towel and took her face in his hands. “Really? You’re serious? You’re really--”

Leigh’s response was to pull him into a kiss, interrupting further talk. Howie picked her up and spun her around, the kiss breaking to fill the air with the couple’s joyous laughter. They all heard shouting from the pool, probably asking what was going on. Howie and Leigh turned and called out in unison, “We’re gonna have a baby!”

Kevin stepped back outside amid the cheers and whistles to check the food on the grill. What a beautiful end to a crazy week, he thought.

Within half an hour, dinner was ready. He called everyone out of the pool, and the group quickly spread out between the big picnic table and all the smaller ones. When the twins started to fuss over who got to sit in their dad’s lap at the table during dinner, Brian solved the problem by moving one of the lounge chairs over to one of the smaller tables where Baylee and Leighanne sat, and let the twins share with him. They were so delighted that they nearly flattened their dad in their hurry to climb up. Finally, all three were situated and eating. Kevin noticed that Brian devoured his food almost as fast as the twins.

“Hungry much, Brian?” he teased.

All Brian said in reply was, “Yep.”

The short response made him chuckle. Brian had just taken another bite when AJ called out, “What’s the matter? Zator not feed you or something?”

Brian shook his head, swallowed, then said, “Getting stuck in the astral plane with the Queen of Darkness kinda takes it out of you.”

“Who’s that?” Baylee asked.

Natalie looked up. “Is it like the Queen of Hearts?”

“Or Narnia?”

“Stuck a airplane?” Benjamin asked.

Brian and AJ winced at the rapid-fire questions.

“So who’s the Queen of Darkness, dad?” Baylee asked when nobody answered right away.

“A bad lady who played a pretty nasty trick on me,” Brian replied, after a quick glance at the others. “If your uncles hadn’t helped, I could have been in trouble a lot worse than I already was.”

Baylee started to ask for an explanation, but Leighanne skillfully deflected and redirected him, making sure all the kids were eating before the food got so cold it was nasty. The group was silent for a while as they ate. Trays and bowls passed from table to table, along with a couple attempts at belching contests.

Slowing down for his second burger, Kevin took a moment and studied the group, grieving a little that it had been so long since they’d all been together like this, that it had taken an emergency to do it. He still saw the scars from old battles on his companions, but with the way they all laughed and enjoyed the company, the scars didn’t seem like marks of failure like they had when Kevin had first rejoined them a week ago. Now his friends seemed to carry those scars like badges of honor.

“Baylee, get that out of your nose,” Brian scolded, though his voice was laced with laughter. “Stop giving your brother ideas. It’s disgusting.”

The boy had stuck a fry up his nose, setting his brother and sister and cousins into fits of giggles, and now Benjamin was trying to imitate him. Kevin smirked at Brian, remembering their own childhood well. It had probably been Harold who’d stuck something up his nose when they were kids and Brian tried to imitate it, idolizing his older brother. Or maybe it had been one of Kevin’s own brothers. So much fun and mischief the five of them were wrapped up in as they grew up. Brian saw the look, and grinned back.

Before long, the kids had eaten and slipped back into the pool, too impatient to wait while Leigh and Howie darted back inside for the desserts. Zanell and Kristin offered to join the kids and keep an eye on them while the others cleaned up the lunch plates.

Howie came back outside after several minutes, the fruit salad bowl in one hand and Brian’s amulet in the other. “Rok, I totally forgot I still had your amulet.”

“Why’d you have it?” Brian asked, brows drawn together in confusion.

“So we could combine them all in the astral plane and defeat Nerezza.”

Brian made a face. “And you did it without some fancy machine.” He shook his head. “One more thing I shouldn’t have trusted Zator on. Thanks for hanging on to it.”

He hesitated a moment before taking the amulet back. Seconds later---

“Yeow!”

The amulet hit the ground with a loud crack. Kevin looked over to see Brian cradling his hand, staring between it and the amulet. They heard a splash, then Zanell’s voice.

“What happened?”

She had reached Brian’s side by the time he looked up, his face clouded in confusion. “It… burned my hand.”

“What?”

“I was holding it,” Brian explained, “and it was like it suddenly superheated. It hurt like crap.”

Zanell carefully took his hand in hers. His palm was bright red. Kevin stepped closer to get a look and spotted a faint circle design, like the amulet had branded his palm.

Zanell shook her head. “I would have thought what you did for us in the astral plane would have…”

“Would have what?” Brian asked when she trailed off.

“Shown you regret what you did and wanted to fix it.”

“But?”

Howie returned just then with an ice pack. Kevin hadn’t even seen him run back inside. He handed the pack to Brian, who rested it gingerly on his palm.

Zanell sighed. “It looks like that wasn’t enough. It’s rejected you as a guardian.”

Kevin stared. The pain in Brian’s eyes wasn’t just from the burn now.

“At least, that’s what I’ve heard from old stories,” Zanell admitted.

“An amulet can reject a guardian?” Nick asked in disbelief.

“Considering they’re magical amulets that give power to whoever uses them,” Howie remarked, “doesn’t it make sense that they could do that, too?”

“Daddy gotta owee?” Liberty asked from the pool.

“Yeah, I do, honey,” Brian called back.

The little girl started wriggling toward the edge of the pool. “I kiss it better!”

“It hurts too much to kiss it right now, Libby,” he said. “Maybe later, okay?”

Liberty had already grabbed onto the side of the pool and started to climb out, but Kristin gently pulled her away and whispered to her. Her little pout was both one of the saddest and silliest things Kevin had ever seen.

“I could heal that, Brian,” Zanell offered.

“No. But, thank you.”

Zanell frowned. “No? Why not? You said it hurts too much for Libby to kiss it. Let me--”

“Consider it part of my punishment,” Brian suggested bitterly. “I screwed up big time. I’ll deal with it.”

“But--”

“Really,” Brian reached out and settled his good hand on her arm, “I appreciate the offer. But I don’t deserve it. Let me deal with it my own way.”

“Brian,” AJ scolded, “stop beating yourself up. Zator and Nerezza did that enough. Let her help.”

At last, Brian allowed Zanell to heal his hand just enough so it wouldn’t hurt when Liberty kissed it. When his daughter was back in the pool, Brian turned back to Zanell.

“What needs to happen with that amulet now? Does it still work? Or did I break it?”

A quick test found that it still worked perfectly; it just wouldn’t allow Brian to touch it. Kevin had thought he’d seen everything. Maybe now, with this odd rejection, he had.

“So what happens?”

“I’ll have to look for a new guardian, I guess,” Zanell said. “Hopefully I can find one before my father tries to get them back again.”

An awkward silence settled in the group before Howie broke it by calling everyone else back out of the pool for dessert.