“Ben! Look what the cat dragged in!” Jack had not been the least bit interested in Nick’s intervention to the evening. He was embarrassed at his family and irritated that now Mr. Pop Star knew how bad things could be. He almost seemed more paternal to this family than Ben did…the kid was only eight. No one that young should be worried about such things.

Ben peeked around the hallway wall and groaned. “Oh great. How’d you get here?”

“I drove. Find some clean clothes for everyone. We’re goin’ out to dinner.”

“Nice. We haven’t had clean clothes in weeks. Why don’t you go play with your rich friends and get drunk or something?”

“Because I’m here and want to take you all out.” Looking down to Liz, who up to this point had been his only supporter, he asked, “So you have nothing clean at all?”

“Doubt it. Come on, let’s see.” She took Nick by the hand down the hall to the girl’s room. One room for all three girls. He tried to hide his reaction to the mess before him, but was probably failing miserably. Clothes were everywhere, both beds were unmade, beyond the standard state of unmade one is typically in. Looked like they didn’t have clean sheets either. Toys, magazine, baby items and cloth diapers were strewn everywhere. The crib was loaded down with stuffed animals and a comforter. A dirty comforter. Big surprise.

Liz opened a drawer and started digging through clothes, tossing them out as she sifted. “Too big, too ugly, too small, Amy’s…I don’t have anything, Nick.”

Running a hand through his hair, Nick looked around, trying to figure out what to do. He wasn’t going to do McDonald’s tonight and refused to take these kids out in such a mess. Deciding that his refusal to be seen with such slimy kids overrode his hatred for anything domestic, he set forth a plan. Hopefully, they at least had a functional washing machine. “Okay, find your favorite shirt and pants, get something for Amy and help me find some clothes for your brothers. We’re gonna do some laundry.”

“You can do laundry?”

A little disgusted with the attitude that he was an idiot, he sighed. “Yes, I can do laundry, Liz. Just a little load. It should be done drying in time for dinner.” He held his arms out as Liz immediately went to work on finding an outfit she kind of liked and some clothes for the baby. “Socks? Underwear?”

“Everything?”

“Might as well…come on…”

Liz finished up in her room and made her way to the dining room…or whatever it was, with Nick following behind.

“Okay, their stuff is everywhere…probably under the beds. And it stinks. I’m not doin’ this.”

Raising his eyebrows at her impudence, he had to smile. Typical little sister behavior; he was quite used to it. “Fair enough, go get Jack or Ben.”

Ben finally came trudging in carting a none too happy baby sister on his hip. “Why are you here?”

“Because your mother’s not.”

“You’re my mentor, not my babysitter.”

“Quit arguing with me and find something to wash. Now.”

“Oh God, I’ve seen it all now. Backdoor Boy does Ben’s Bloomers. The Enquirer will love it.”

“Just find a damned shirt for you and your brother.” Walking over to him, he stuck Amy and Liz’s clothes under one arm, offering his biggest smile to the sniffling baby. “Here, I’ll take Amy while you look.”

With one last attempt at an explanation, Ben practically yelled, “Why are you doing this!?”

“Because I want to, okay? But I am not taking you out looking like you haven’t bathed in weeks. It’s a free dinner, Ben. Take it.”

“Fine.” Ben shoved his sister into Nick’s free arm, angrily digging clothes out from under his bed, mumbling about interference in his life, obnoxious pop stars and drug addicted mothers. If it wasn’t so sad, it’d have almost been humorous.

Stuffing a shirt and pair of jeans into Nick’s arms, he continued on his journey to find clothes for his brother, still mumbling, still grumbling, still complaining. “Your brother’s a grouch, you know that?”

Amy looked up to the funny blonde man and smiled, laying her head on his chest.

Emerging from under the bed with a few articles of clothes, Ben was trying to maintain his tough guy image, but the truth was, Nick was breaking him down. “Okay, Nick. One, I’m not a grouch. I just don’t like you. Pure and simple. Two, don’t talk down to me or my family to another of us. We may be a mess, but we’re loyal. And three…” Ben sighed, seeing the contented look on his sister’s face as she snuggled into Nick’s chest.

“Three?”

“Three…come downstairs, dammit. I know the machine works. Mom’s just too lazy to bother.”

“Alright, Liz you’re first. Get in here!” Nick stood in their bathroom, wet, soapy washcloth draped over his hand waiting for his first victim.

“You gonna make me take off my shirt?”

“Nope…face, arms, hands…” he looked down at her bare legs peeking out of her shorts. “You wearin’ shorts or pants tonight?”

“Pants.”

“Okay, no legs. Sit on the toilet there…let’s wash up.” Nick had been everywhere in his life. Traveled all over the country and seen all kinds of things, experienced all kinds of things. But never, in his wildest imagination would he have planted himself in this situation. It was a battle just finding a washcloth in the disaster of a hallway closet. Once found, he pushed aside all feelings of the uncleanliness of the bathroom and just made due. It still confounded him how not having a lot of money validated not being generally clean. He was no neat-nick himself, but this was ridiculous.

“Mmm…that washcloth feels good.”

“It does, huh? Maybe you need to use one more often.” Nick ran the warm cloth over her face, amazed at how bright her eyes were in this dark, sad life.

“I don’t like to wash.”

“You like being dirty?”

“Well, no…”

“Then you have to wash. See…look. All done. Take a bath everyday and it’ll only take 10 minutes out of your play time.”

“Our tub’s a mess.” Liz looked down, now totally embarrassed at the truth in that. She couldn’t even take a bath because the tub was in worse shape than she was. She got teased at school all the time. Pig Pen and his sister…Liz and Jack.

Why was he not surprised? What had he gotten himself into? Worse yet, Jack and Ben were next. They’d fight him tooth and nail on this.

“I’m sorry, Liz…but tonight you’re going to be clean and pretty, okay?”

“Yep…maybe Ben can put my hair up.”

“Yeah…find what you want and he’ll do it…Jack! You’re next!”

Nick rinsed out the cloth in the sink trying to keep it from touching the sides which were covered in toothpaste, grime and god knows what else.

“You’re not gonna make me take a shower are you?”

Spinning around, Nick was shocked to see Jack standing there without an ounce of fight in him. Shirt off, pants hung low off his hips and a baseball cap covering his dirty brown hair. “Nope, not now anyway. You wanna do this yourself?”

Jack looked down and stuff his hands in his pockets. “When mom bothers, she still washes me.”

“That’s okay…sit down on the toilet. We’ll get you cleaned up here.” Now Nick felt nervous, only because Jack seemed to be. He squatted down and tried to make eye contact with the boy, wondering if whoever had messed with Ben got to Jack. If that was the case, he’d have to approach with caution. Peeking his gaze under Jack’s, he saw a tear run from one eye.

“Hey…I can leave so you can do this…it’s okay.”

“No, I don’t know…I miss most of it…just…just do it, okay?”

Nick started at Jack’s back, and worked down his arms. Jack never looked up. Nick couldn’t tell if he was just embarrassed or worried something would suddenly go funny. “You know, I used to bathe my brother all the time.”

That got him. “You did?”

“Yep…when he was younger, your age…yeah.”

“How old is he?”

“Well, now he’s 14, but when he was younger and I was home. Mom would get so mad at us cuz by the time I was done, water would be all over the bathroom. We’d get so into our water fights, sometimes we forgot to wash.”

“Who won?”

“Mom…we always had to clean up the bathroom then. But, we’d just go and do it again next time.”

“I don’t play with Ben that way very much.”

“I’m sorry. Do you guys play basketball sometimes?”

“Yeah, when he’s home or not babysitting Amy.”

“Close your eyes now…time for your face.” Nick didn’t say anything else as he finished up. What else was there to say? Somehow tonight, he was going to help these kids forget their regular life and just have fun. “Okay, all done here…tell Ben he’s next.”

“He won’t let you touch him.”

“Not plannin’ on it. I need to figure out what to do with Amy…I only helped Mom with the babies and that was a long time ago.”

“Now that I can help with. I’m good at that!”

“You’re not touching me with that washcloth.” Ben stood in the doorway with Amy on his hip and plenty of fight in him to make up for Jack’s lack of it.

“No kidding. Let me rinse it out here. But this time…” Nick looked up to Ben remembering the “wash up” he did at the McDonald’s their first time they met.

“What!?”

“Cleaning, no smoking. Got it?” He smacked the warm, sudsy washcloth in the boy’s hand and took the baby from his arms. “You have 5 minutes.”

Ben flipped Nick the bird as he closed the door behind him. “Bastard. Who does he think he is anyway?”