Their mañana came and went, with a few more mañanas following. Nick was enjoying his time off, working now and again on promotion of another single, but mostly just relaxing. He’d missed it. He’d missed Ben. He’d missed just goofing off with his friends. He’d missed his family and took a trip to the Keys to be with them, enjoying the rare absence of time constraints that always seemed to cloud their lives.

Tonight he had been invited to Liz and Jack’s school for an achievement fair, displaying work that the kids in the gifted program had done. Jack had to do a miniature talk on his subject, sharks, and Liz’s was a class wide project on the rain forest. Ben had to be the supportive older brother, but was not in the mood. So, Nick agreed to take him separately and they’d go out for some one on one time afterwards. It worked.

“Hey…come on in. Almost ready.” Ben plopped back down on the living room floor, sitting behind a laundry basket overflowing with white clothes. “My turn to fold.”

“I hate folding clothes.”

“Tell me about it. I swear all we have is underwear.”

Nick sat on the couch, raising his eyebrow at the new fabric covering the old furniture. “New couch?”

“New cover…guess who mom talked to tonight before they left?”

“No idea.”

“A realtor. We’re getting the hell out of here.” Ben held up one of Kitty’s bras and shook it. “How many bras does one girl need!?”

“Uh, no idea.” Blushing at seeing Kitty’s under things…she was a child for god’s sake…Nick grabbed at the pile of socks and started matching them up. “Put that thing down…god.”

Tossing it to Nick, Ben continued to tease. “What’s wrong, Nicky…lingerie make you nervous?”

Nick ducked and gingerly picked it up off the couch, tossing it back. “Your sister’s does, yes…” Going back to sorting, Nick stuck his finger through a hole in the toe of one of the boys’ socks. “You’ve worn these out already?”

“Jack. Long assed toe nails.”

Chuckling, Nick changed the subject. Sometimes you learned a little too much about a family while folding their underwear. “Okay, so you leaving Tampa or just the house?”

“House…none of us wanna leave here.”

“Good…seems things are finally going well; it’d suck if you had to leave.”

“Yep. Mom loves her job, school’s as good as school can be…we all have friends. But we gotta get a real house.”

“So, what’d the realtor say?”

“We gotta paint. Get the roof fixed, um…fix the back stoop, somehow dry out the basement. Get rid of the picnic table…generally just fix up the place.”

“Sounds like a lot of work.”

“Work and money. We can do the work…”

“Paint’s cheap.”

“Yep, but a roof isn’t and the basement’s gonna be a pain. He said he’ll get an inspector, but thinks it’ll have to be fixed up. Mom’s all worried now.”

“Who was the idiot who put a basement in a Florida home anyway?”

“No idea…there’s like 5 on the street with basements. They’re always wet, always moldy…it’s just gross. I don’t know what Mom’s gonna do.” Finding a smaller version of Kitty’s bra, he held it up. “Oh look…a mini bra. Liz. She has to hold up what? Two peas?”

“She wants to be grown up like Kitty…”

“Mmmm…and still acts like she’s three half the time.”

“Coming from Sir Maturity.”

“Oh shaddup. Are you done matching?”

“Yep…you’ve got an extra and so does Liz…unless you wear the ones with lace around the top.”

“Yeah, I wear those to bed.” Ben grabbed the extras from Nick and shoved the basket to him. “Stick ‘em all in here…I’ll toss these back in our dirties. Somehow they match up next time.”

“You ready to take off?”

“Yup…ready to be bored off my ass.”

“Ben…didn’t you help Jack with his thing?”

“Yeah…drew some of his pictures and stuff.”

“Then kwitcherbitchin and let’s go see what they’ve got…they’re both proud…”

“I know, I know…” Ben kicked the basket into the hall way and smacked a ball cap on his head. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Nick! Come over here…come look!” Liz must have had her radar up and running. Ben and Nick had barely walked through the doors to the school, no less to the gymnasium where their displays were set up, before she ran up to them.

She dragged him past the older students’ displays to the back of the room where her class’s rain forest project decorated the entire wall.

“Woah…Liz…look at all of this…did you guys do all of it?”

“Yup. All of grade 2 in the GT class.”

He stopped to take it in as a whole, not letting her pull him to a specific point…which frustrated her. But, he was impressed. A bunch of 7 year old kids had, with the simple tools of paper, pen and crayon, created a beautiful temporary mural showing plants and wildlife from the rain forest. Monkeys swung from trees, birds flew and perched on branches, various flowers and shrubs decorated the imaginary walkway.

“Come on, Nick…whatcha lookin’ at?”

“I’m lookin’ at everything…this is incredible!”

Even Ben was amazed. In spite of himself. “Yeah, Liz…where’s yours?”

“Well, I’m TRYing…” She yanked on Nick’s arm one more time and he finally cooperated, following her to a point in the center of the mural. “Here…the blue macaw. By Liz Casey.”

It was sort of a macaw anyway. “Oh cool…where’s your paper on it?”

“Um…” she leaned into her index card by her bird to find her number. “I’m number 24…all the papers are over there.”

They looked at all the collected items from the area, trying some of the foods and admiring other students’ work before getting to the papers. Liz was very proud, as were all of the kids here. They all beamed. At least in this portion. The older kids, who all had to do presentations before judges, weren’t quite beaming.

They were nervous. You could almost feel the tension shift in the room as you walked from the showcase of the second graders into the rows of display tables for the older students. Third grade did animal projects, fourth graders covered important people and fifth grade could pick any topic they wanted. Everyone had a display board, a paper, some form of artifact or item to show and anything else they felt would aid them in sharing what they’d learned about their topic. It made Nick and Ben nervous just looking at the stuff.

Finally, they found Jack, who was busy giving his presentation for a judge. His penchant for talkativeness was guiding him along, helping him charm the socks off of his judge. He could have been talking out of his ass, but she wouldn’t have cared. He was a cute kid with lots to say. A good grade was in the bag.

Once he was done, he shook the hand of his judge and looked up to Nick and Ben, grinning from ear to ear. “This is so cool!”

“You like this!? I’d be a wreck!”

“Yeah, I practiced and stuff, so I don’t have to think about it…just hit ‘play’ on my tape on time is all.”

“What’s on your tape?”

“Lemme rewind.” As Jack messed with his boom box, Nick and Ben snooped through his paper, checked out his display, both impressed with the research Jack had had to do to get some of this information. Even more surprisingly, they both learned something…the little snot. “Okay…here.”

He hit ‘play’ and Nick and Ben cracked up. The Jaws Theme. “You do not do that during your presentation.”

“Yeah, I do…when I talk about the Great Whites. Makes people smile anyway. I got it off the internet!”

“You’re a riot…has your mom seen it yet?”

“Yeah, she was hoping you could take me and Liz home? I think Amy’s sick or something…they went home.”

“Yeah, I’ll hang out…how much longer?”

“Fifteen more minutes.”

Ben groaned and slid down the wall, looking forlorn and dejected. Poor thing. “You can live 15 minutes, Ben. I’m gonna go look at some more stuff.”

“I’ll wait here.”

Nick walked around, hoping no one would recognize him, quietly taking in the students’ work. He’d missed so much of this type of thing in school, always running around to auditions, lessons and performances. Even when he was in school, it was hardly full time. He was beginning to realize how much of normal life he’d really missed.

He was beginning to realize how much of normal life he still longed for. Or was it that his normal was just different from everyone else’s?

“How the HELL do these people get my address?” Nick gingerly pulled his mail out of the over-stuffed box, cradling the letters and packages in his arms. He could move every week and he’d still be found. It amazed him.

Making his way into the kitchen, he dumped the mail onto the counter and immediately started sifting through it, tossing the junk, pulling out the fan mail, stacking the bills and…

…from the courthouse. Finally.

His last report. The final one. The year was almost up. His ‘punishment’ was almost fulfilled. He pushed aside the rest of the mail and sat down on a stool, slowly opening up the envelope.

Sure, he’d done this for three other quarters. Sure, he knew what would be inside. But this one was different. What was the most different was how he felt about it compared to how he thought he’d feel about it almost a year ago.

He figured he’d celebrate. Whoop and holler. Rejoice. Party. Get drunk even. But here he sat with the ugliest cloud surrounding him. And the calmest peace. They had made it, he and Ben. They’d done what they were set out to do. They’d grown, they’d learned, they’d taught and they’d fought. He couldn’t imagine being where he was in his life without Ben’s presence. He also knew that Ben couldn’t be where he was without Nick.

And what about the future? In so many ways it was unknown. And it was exciting. The Casey’s house was officially ‘on the market’. Ben had been on the honor roll since the beginning of the school year, and he only had 2 more months to make it through. Hell, it even seemed that Steve had killed his desire to combat the good in the world. He got the girl and he hung up his devil horns.

Patty was still losing weight, keeping up the house, being the mom she could have always been, but was afraid to try. Afraid to risk and lose. Kitty had a boyfriend who really seemed to care about her. Jack and Liz were excelling in everything they touched. Amy was just a happy baby girl, running everywhere and repeating every word she heard. Even the words no one wanted her to repeat.

It was too much. Too amazing.

And then there was Nick. The partying had all but stopped. The womanizing…he couldn’t remember the last time he’d played that game. And the fear…it was gone. His future was probably more uncertain now than it had been when this escapade began, but yet, he was calm. It’d be okay. He could do whatever he wanted to do…he had it in him to succeed.

And succeed he would.

But, now, it was still time to help the Casey’s. The inspector had decided to let the roof go in hopes that a buyer would want a “fixer-upper”. It wasn’t dangerous, just ugly. But, the house needed a good coat of paint and everyone was going to chip in. Solana had offered up her brushes and pans and Nick missed her. So, this was as good a time as any to make a surprise visit to his favorite social worker.

Stuffing the courthouse report into his basket, he grabbed his keys and took off. Loud music and windows down was definitely the recipe for this trip. He mindlessly drove the familiar route and turned on Solana’s street.

And almost wrecked the truck.

Police cars.

Two of them. One in her driveway, one parked in front, both had their lights on. To say he panicked was an understatement. He had to tell himself to breath. To stop the car. To take the key out of the ignition. To get up out of the car and will his legs to function and get him up to her porch.

The door was open and an officer was standing in the doorway. Nick cleared his throat and was instantly face to face with a cop who couldn’t be one day older than Nick. It was disconcerting.

“You need to go.”

“No, I need to see Lani, please.” Go ahead, tell me again and again. Count to three. Smack hand cuffs on. It suddenly didn’t matter that he just might see a repeat of his first arrest. There were more important matters at hand.

“Who are you?”

“Nick…tell her Nick’s here…please let me in.”

Solana heard Nick’s voice and turned from the officer inside, letting out the strangest combination of moan and squeak in total relief at seeing him there. “Let him in…please. Step aside.”

“Are you sure ma’am?”

“YES! Let him in!” Solana got up, almost tripping over the questioning officer and pushed the door guard away, throwing herself into Nick’s arms. “My God…I can’t believe you’re here.”

“What the hell is going on, Lani? What happened?”

She settled into his arms, grasping at the fabric of his shirt trying to pull herself closer, feel safer, forget the fear that had been wracking her body for the past half hour. But she couldn’t bring herself to talk. He was here. She was safe. That was all that mattered.

Nick held her close, kissing the top of her head, rubbing her back and finally looking up to the officer for answers.

“Break in, sir. Broad goddamned daylight, too.”

“Oh shit…how’d they get in?”

Solana finally pulled back, anger at the whole situation taking over for some of the fear. “My bedroom window, Nick…MY bedroom.”

“Where’s Rosalie?”

“She’s with Katy…I got her out of here fast.”

“Good…” He brought her in close again, caressing her head, running possibilities through his head. None of them were good. “Was your security on?”

“Yeah, I had just turned it on…that’s how the cops got here so fast. They ran though.”

“You thinkin’ Steve?”

“I doubt it, Nick…the one guy I saw was big…big teen or adult. Four running total, but no way was that Steve.”

“Maybe he’s made new friends.”

She nodded, nestling into his neck, never wanting to leave the warmth, the security, the comfort of this place.

“Is someone out looking? We’re just not gonna sit here and have tea are we?”

“No, Mr. Carter…” The officer pulled back when Nick glared at him. Yep. These cops knew him. It was not the kind of comforting feeling he was going for at the moment. “They found some kids running not too far from here. They’ve been taken in for questioning.”

“Good…good.” Nick kissed Solana’s head again, not knowing what to do. What to say. He just wanted this fixed and now.

“Now that you’re here, I think we’re gonna go. Are you going to stay with her, Mr. Carter?”

“Uh…yeah, I can. Do you just want to come to my house, Lani?”

“No…the window. I want to be near Rosalie. I need to stay here.”

“Then I’m staying with you.”

Pulling in closer, Solana actually chuckled. Funny she would actually be thinking of such things at a time like this. Neediness took funny form sometimes. “Could uh…you think you could go get Ben or something?”

Nick pulled back and looked down at the shaking woman in his arms. Fear was making her eyes as big as brown saucers but her natural beauty and the feelings between the two of them wouldn’t be stilled by the fear of the moment. “Yeah…yeah, I’ll go get Ben.” Looking back to the officers, he asked, “Can one of you stay while I go get someone else?”

“Yeah, sure…I’ll stay. She’ll be fine.”

“Thanks.” Pulling her back and looking in her eyes again, Nick leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I’ll be right back, I promise. Right back.”

“Be quick, huh?”

“Yep…” One more kiss and he was off, hoping the police were so busy with the break-in that they wouldn’t pay any attention to his speeding and wild driving. He had to get back there and fast. But first…a little extra, uh…protection.

Nick pulled up to the Casey’s and ran to the front door, frantically ringing the bell. Fortunately it was dinner time, and they were usually always home at this hour. He heard the familiar clump of footsteps and wondered if it normally took them this long to answer the door.

“Nick! Oh my god…I’m so glad you’re here.” Kitty opened the screen door and pulled Nick inside, making him trip over the door stop. Nice welcome wagon…what the hell?

“Yeah, uh…where’s Ben? I need him packed and ready for an over night in five minutes.”

“He’s not here, Nick. That’s what I mean.”

“What? Where is he?”

“They just took him and mom.”

“They? They who? Kitty…what’s going on?”

“The cops. They just took him to the police station…”