Roswell Fanatics

Cardinal: That'll be revealed in time.

The Evans family is well-to-do. We'll find out soon what their thoughts are where Liz is concerned.

begonia9508: Lol, oh, definitely not.

The guys are gonna have to deal with things eventually if they're gonna salvage their relationship.

That's definitely what they're all thinking.

keepsmiling7: Yeah, that has to be in the top five worst ways to wake up, lol.

Max's parents are good people but his relationship with them, especially his dad, is very strained.

We'll be catching up with Aaron and Michael soon.

The gang will get to the bottom of the frame up. None of them will believe that Max is guilty here.

CandyliciousLovah: Lol, does sound like luck was with you.

Earth2Mama: Oh, it's gonna take some time.

Lol, not the way anyone wants to first talk to their significant other's mother, but Liz managed it very well.

sarammlover: Lol, give him time. Kyle & Tess do need to have a serious sit down to clear the air between them and settle what's going on with them.

Max will have plenty of people in his corner.

Eva: That was a nice break from reality, wasn't it?

Yeah, Liz certainly never imagined that conversation.

We agree. That was definitely a big part of his character that was overlooked. He's there for the people he cares about and he'll fight for them with everything he has.

Alien_Friend: It would be nice, wouldn't it?

Max's parents have always been in his corner but past circumstances stand between them, especially him and his dad.

Michael does have his moments. That issue does have him thinking and reconsidering some of his past behavior and decisions. There's no way to really know if any of those girls were ever in his sisters position but maybe it'll have him thinking before acting in the future.

xilaj: Max definitely needs to know the people he cares about believe him. Michael just pitches in, he doesn't need a reason.

Max's parents are behind him one hundred percent. He has people who are willing to help if he'll just let them.

Yeah, that would be a terrible way to have your first conversation with your significant other's mom, lol. But Liz definitely made the best of a bad situation.

Well, it's gonna take some time and some serious work for the guys to get their relationship back on track.




Part 91

Boys Will Be Boys

Aaron was playing with his Cheerios and watching his sister run around getting ready when someone knocked on the door. His eyes followed her as she ran across the living room, his eyebrows lifting and his mouth forming a silent O when she stepped on one of his little toys and she cursed out loud. He started to giggle when she turned to look at him and shook her head.

“You did not just hear that and you will not repeat it, do you understand me?”

He nodded even as the funny new word was being filed away in his young mind and as soon as she turned to limp over to the front door he tried it out without making a sound. He smiled and waved when the door opened and he saw Michael come inside. “Hi, Mike!”

“How’s it goin’, buddy?” Michael asked as he gave Liz a quick hug. “I brought breakfast.”

Liz rolled her eyes as she closed the door behind him. “Just please tell me you didn’t bring a bunch of sugary donuts because if you did you’re gonna have your hands full.”

“Nope, no donuts. I brought kolaches.”

“What the heck is that?” she asked absently as she tried to remember what she had been looking for before he had knocked. She was normally better organized than this but the past few days she had gotten used to Max keeping Aaron occupied and getting him ready for the day while she took her shower and got herself ready.

“Kinda like pigs in a blanket but they’re for breakfast. Sausage or ham an’ cheese rolled up in a pastry. Very good and not packed with sugar for first thing in the mornin’.” He shifted the cup holder he was carrying with a child-size milk and two coffees to go tucked inside. “Coffee on the left and caramel macchiato on the right, take your pick.”

“Really? Michael, you’re the best,” she said and took the macchiato.

He crossed to the kitchen area and set the box on the counter, taking the coffee for himself. He opened the box up and Aaron leaned forward to look inside.

“Can I have one?”

“May I have one,” Liz corrected automatically.

“Can Lizzie have one too?” Aaron asked as he looked up at Michael. “I want the ham one ‘cause it’s got cheese too.”

Michael tapped the right side of the box. “Help yourself, ham’s on this side.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Liz, you want one too?”

“No, I had coffee. I’ll just grab something at work on my break.”

“Right, so we’ll take ‘em with us and you can eat on the way.”

“Go and get the stuff we packed,” Liz told the boy and set him down. “But wash your hands first,” she reminded him quickly.

"Aww, Lizzie, do I gotta?" he whined.

“This wasn’t a question, buddy, now go.”

He huffed and hurried to the bathroom to make a half-hearted attempt at washing his hands, drying them on his jeans, and then grabbing his backpack off of the bed. He made it to the door before he turned and ran back, grabbing Rabi and tucking him under his arm.

"I don't think you washed those hands, Mister," Liz said when he came back way too soon.

"Lizzie..."

"Go, now."

Michael chuckled when the little boy dropped the backpack on the floor and stomped back to the bathroom. "Little guys are somethin' else, aren't they?"

“Yeah, especially in the mornings when ya got your head full of other stuff,” she admitted with a little chuckle.

"So where's Evans? Little early to be on his way to the shop."

“He got arrested,” she told him. With Aaron being around they didn’t have any time to waste.

"For what?"

"Possession of drugs and driving under influence," she told him quietly and bit her lip. “Do you remember when he left the party?”

"Yeah, and there were no drugs at the party and he hadn't been drinking. He was completely sober when he left."

"What time was it?" She knew she shouldn’t have a reason to doubt, but she needed to know if he had tried to come home immediately after the party.

"One, maybe a little after."

It would fit to the time he had called, Liz thought and looked at him. “I don’t know what happened and I guess I'll have to deal with it later.”

"He's not into drugs, Liz. I don't know what's goin' on, but I do know that. You an' Aaron, you guys are the best thing to happen to him and I can't imagine him doin' anything to screw that up."

“Yeah… that’s what I’ve been telling myself this whole time as well. Why would he, ya know?”

"Yeah, doesn't make any sense. Does he need a lawyer? 'Cause I can make a call if he does."

She made a face. “I already called his parents so I guess they're handling things.”

He grimaced. "First time you've talked to them?"

“Yeah, great first impression, huh?” She gave him both thumbs up with a faked grin before she turned serious again. “I really don’t know what to think here, Michael.” Her gaze wandered to the door to make sure her brother was still busy before she dared to speak what was also on her mind. “What if Trent's involved…”

"Now that would make sense," he mused as he sat on a barstool. "Of course, he wasn't at the party and I know everyone who was there. Maybe not that well, but I can't recall any of them hangin' with him." He nodded at Aaron when the little boy came back into the room. "I'll see what I can find out."

Liz just nodded and put on a smile for her brother again. “So since Max’s been busy with work this morning,” she glanced at Michael meaningfully to let him know there was no need to tell Aaron the truth, “what're your plans, boys?”

"I thought maybe we'd go by the station and then I've gotta couple errands to run. Lunch with my dad and then we'll take Courtney to see the Empire State Building. How's that sound?"

“No way,” Liz said with wide eyes, “you get to see the Empire State building, Aaron.”

The little boy wrinkled his nose. "Wha's that?"

"A huge building, you'll like it," Liz winked at him, wondering if she should tell Michael that her brother would be a pain if there was a long wait.

"Tell ya what, we'll see if Cody feels up to goin' too. How's that sound?"

“Cool,” Aaron shouted excitedly.

"See, we're gonna have a blast." He grinned at Liz. "Don't worry, we've got the day covered. We might even bring you a souvenir."

She breathed a relieved sigh and gave Michael a hug from behind. “Thanks, I know I owe you,” she whispered into his ear so her brother wouldn’t hear.

He patted her hand and shook his head, silently telling her that he didn't mind and she didn't owe him. "Whatcha say, Aaron, you ready to get this day started?"

Liz smiled when her brother seemed to be excited. Next week he would start his days at the day care, maybe things would get easier to handle then.

"Well, let's get movin'. We've gotta get Liz to work and then we're gonna go check out the fire engines."

*****

Tess wiggled her nose when the sun rose hi enough to peek out from behind a taller building at the other end of the street – shining directly in her face and blinding her now. She groaned slightly and turned over when the bright light hurt her eyes, moving to the very end of the deck chair, which was still shadowed.

Slowly the memories of the night before came back, making it all too clear that sadly none of it had been a dream. Her tired fuzzy gaze landed on Maria, who was still sleeping next to her. Well, maybe not everything had been bad, she thought when memories of their reunion came back as well. She could only hope that it hadn't just been the tequila speaking for her friend because going from bad to better and back to bad was worse than just staying with bad in the beginning. She frowned at her twisted thoughts and stretched slightly to ease the pain of her stiff muscles – the deck chairs had looked a lot more comfortable than they were for an entire night.

“Ya know what the bad thing about tequila is?”

Maria’s voice startled her. She hadn’t realized the other girl was awake. After a moment she chuckled though.

“The fucking cardboard taste you get in your mouth the next morning,” both girls said at the same time, both having used the speech countless times before after wild party nights.

Maria smiled and opened her eyes slowly. “Yeah.”

"You have to work today?" she asked as she ran her tongue over her teeth. They felt like they were covered in fur. Gross!

“No, haven't had a fuckin’ job since Shitney stole that cover job from me.”

"Love the new name," she laughed and then groaned as she rubbed her forehead. "I wish I didn't have to work today."

“At least it’s some distraction,” Maria shrugged. “Lazing around really doesn't do any good when you don’t want your mind to wander into certain territory.”

"You could come to work with me an' hang out while I convince guys to buy crap they don't even want."

“Well, what an offer,” the other girl snorted. “I think I’d rather try to find a new apartment.” She sat up and groaned. “Ungh, I need coffee.”

"Your wish is my command," Tony said as he stepped out on the terrace with two mugs of steaming hot coffee.

“And again Carter saves the day,” she grinned and took one of the mugs from him, making a little space so he could sit down on her chair.

"Think that's impressive? Check this out." He turned and whistled and a few moments later Joker ran through the door, the thin metal handle of the boxes the nearby bakery used clamped between his teeth. "Huh? Breakfast is served, ladies."

“Now I understand why Maria stays with you,” Tess joked. “Wanna adopt me as well?”

"Two beautiful women under my roof? How's a guy say no to that?" He chuckled and took the little box from Joker, patting his side. "Thanks, buddy."

“Better watch it Carter, we might jump in the shower with you when ya least expect it,” Maria teased and sipped her coffee.

"Now that's how you start the mornin' right!" he enthused even though he knew she was just teasing.

“I doubt my sister would appreciate that,” Tess snorted into her drink.

He smirked and shook his head. "No, I can't imagine she would."

“Yeah, an’ we don’t want you anyway. We want stupid brothers and garden gnomes,” Maria laughed when she remembered the earlier conservation.

He was just about to take a big bite of the glazed donut he had pulled out when her words registered. "Garden gnomes," he snorted. "I'm guessing that'd have to be Valenti."

“You think?” Tess asked bitterly.

"The guy's gonna wise up one of these days, Tess. Probably wouldn't hurt to give him a couple of good kicks to get him movin' though."

“I know what you're thinking,” Maria said when she looked at her friend. “Why can’t every guy be so wise and good looking like him, right?” She leaned her head against Tony’s shoulder with a grin.

"It's a burden," he sighed. He waited a moment for the girls to get done rolling their eyes and then bit into his donut.

Maria frowned when her cell made a few buzzing sounds, worrying her immediately since none of her friends would message her the morning after a party. It had to be her mother and that couldn’t be good news at all… She grabbed it and illuminated the display, feeling relief and also excitement when the text was from Michael. It took a moment before she registered that there was a pic attached to the message and after a few seconds it finally opened up, showing Cody and Aaron playing in what looked like her brother’s room. That’s my morning an’ how’s yours? written below it.

"What're you smiling about?" Tess asked.

She turned her cell around to show her the pic. “Obviously Michael's spending the morning with Cody and Aaron, however that have happened.”

"Aww, how cute are they?" She took another sip of her coffee. "He can be sweet when he wants to be."

“Yeah,” Maria looked at the pic again and smiled, her eyes shimmering with happy tears. She knew how much her brother looked up to Michael and a visit from him was the best thing happening in his little eyes. They look happy, good job! she wrote back to him.

"So what're you girls gonna do about these guys that have you all tied up in knots?" Tony asked as he tore a bite-sized piece off of a croissant and tossed it to Joker.

“Nothin’,” both answered at the same time.

His eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Nothin'? C'mon, you can't just do nothin' or they're never gonna come around."

“What should we do?” Tess asked. “Kyle knows how I feel, so now it’s up to him what he does with that information.”

“Yeah, and Michael has a bit fat TAKEN mark,” Maria threw in, although she wasn't willing to just accept that.

"Uh-huh," he said slowly. "I think you two need to go to the gym with me tonight so I can teach you how to throw a good punch, maybe get a little kickboxing in, 'cause you're gonna be dealin' with some major frustration waitin' for Guerin and Valenti to get their heads on straight."

“I'm in,” Maria smirked. Although right now she didn’t think Michael deserved a punch; he'd been very attentive the last few hours.

"Sure, why not?" Tess shrugged.

Tony pulled another donut out. "Cool, how's six work for you?"

“I'll try to make it. Not sure how long I'll need to get here from work,” the curly blonde mumbled around a mouthful.

He shrugged. "We'll wait for you if ya wanna go. The gym's not goin' anywhere."

“Cool,” she nodded and watched her friend as she fumbled with her cell again.

Maria smiled at the display when Michael sent her another picture of himself and Cody. He was holding the cell high and away from him to take it. Your brother insisted I send one of me as well… not my best look this morning.

“My brother again?” Tess asked.

"He's lookin' a little ragged this mornin'," Tony commented when Maria turned the cell around so they could see the screen. "Must not have gotten much sleep last night."

“Yeah, probably not,” she agreed, remembering their back and forth texting last night. which meant he probably hadn't been with his girlfriend. How come you’re over there? If I knew you’d be there I would've come over as well.

Michael disentangled himself from a wrestling match with the boys when his phone buzzed again, signaling an incoming message. He opened it up and read it, glancing back at Aaron before thumbing a response. Something came up with Max and Liz needed a sitter.

She wondered what that was about, but decided to let him have the time with the boys for now and talk to him about it later. Looking forward to tomorrow night, she typed back. Kisses for my brother.

His response was immediate. What about my hug?

Come and get it, her stomach felt weird as they teased each other and she was sure Tess was seeing right through it.

"You shouldn't tease the animals," Tony said with a laugh.

“Don’t know what you're talking about.”

Michael smirked and was just about to reply when Cody and Aaron tackled him from behind. Cody grabbed the phone when it hit the floor and he scrambled over Michael to pick it up. He crawled over the man and sat in the middle of the floor, studying the phone for a moment before he found the button to take pictures. He took a picture of Michael and Aaron, not seeing that it wasn't lined up perfectly. He took the phone back to its owner sitting next to Michael and holding it up proudly. "Looky, Mike."

He took the cell from the boy and brought him closer to sit in his lap. “You got talent,” he said and pulled Aaron closer to give them and especially Cody a rest. He had talked to Amy earlier and asked if there was a chance of taking the other boy with them to the Empire State Building but the woman had said that Cody’s doctor had forbidden any excursions right now because of his weak state.

"Did you know they can take pictures under the water? An' sometimes dolphins wear these special cameras an' they help take better pictures where people can't go."

"Cool," Aaron whispered, amazed. "Did you see one?"

"We seened dolphins in the ocean an' one day I'm gonna get to pet one. Do you like dolphins?"

The other boy nodded. “They're cool.”

"Sharks are cool too but they're not nice. Maybe we can go to the 'quarium an' you can see them." He reached up to hook his little arm around Michael's neck. "Mike knows all 'bout ocean stuff."

Michael smirked. If he only knew how little he actually knew, but kids were easy to impress. “Sharks aren't nice when people bother them,” he agreed and wrapped his arm around the little boy to steady him when he leaned in.

"But they eat other animals an' sometimes they chase dolphins too. 'member when we watched Flipper? An' them dolphins all fought the shark?" His eyes widened and his hands moved around erratically as he demonstrated the attack to Aaron. "It was so cool 'cause they made him go away."

“Can we watch that too?” The other boy looked up at Michael.

Michael lifted an eyebrow. "You've never seen it?"

Aaron shook his head. “No.”

“Maybe we can lend him the DVD, what ya say Cody?” They all glanced up when they saw Amy in the doorway. She had been surprised to see Michael at the front door unannounced, but had agreed to let them in for a while until she had to get her son ready for a doctor’s visit.

Cody nodded. "Okay, but I gotta have it back 'cause it was a present from M'ria." He got to his feet and walked over to a shelf packed with books and videos, sorting through them before he found the one he was looking for. He carried it back over to them and held it out to Aaron.

“Thank you,” he said happily and turned the case over in his little hands several times.

“We need to get ready for the doctor now, Cody,” Amy walked further in, hating that she had to interrupt the little scene in front of her since she knew it would upset her son, but she knew that he had been happy for Michael’s visit.

He sighed and kicked a toy across the floor. "I don't wanna go."

“I know,” she crouched down in front of him. “But you know we have to.”

"But they're gonna do the tests." He rubbed his arm unconsciously when he thought about the doctors and nurses taking blood.

"Cody," Michael called him. "Hey, buddy, c'mere." He leaned forward to take the little hands in his and tug him closer. "Hey, I know all the tests suck but they've gotta do it so they can keep you as healthy as possible until you get that new heart." He swallowed hard because he knew the painful reality of the situation. "I know it's not easy to be brave when they're takin' blood an' hookin' you up to the monitors." He nudged the little boy's chin up. "Let's make a deal, huh?"

“What deal?” the boy mumbled quietly and without much enthusiasm.

"You go with your mom and do what the docs need you to do and Saturday afternoon we'll get together an' watch a couple of movies, huh? If you're feelin' up to it I'll even spring for pizza."

Cody looked at his Mom for agreement and then back at his friend. “Okay,” he said with a loud sigh.

"It's just a few hours of tests and then you'll be on your way home again." He knew it would feel like forever to the little boy though.

Amy could only hope it was true because the latest test hadn’t shown anything promising and the doctors kept telling her that if his oxygen levels dropped any lower they would have to admit him soon.

"Saturday afternoon it's me an' you, buddy."

Cody nodded and threw himself into his friend’s arms for a tight hug. “Can Maria come too?” he mumbled against his chest.

"If she's not workin' I'll bet she can. If she's busy on Saturday maybe we can get together tomorrow night."

The kid in his arms nodded, but didn’t let go of him.

Michael exchanged a look with Amy and could easily see the worry there. If there was only something he could do to help them, but he knew there was nothing beside stopping by and spending time with Cody now and then. It hurt to be so helpless and it was easy to imagine his best friend’s worries.

Amy hated to rush them but she didn't want to end up running behind schedule. "C'mon, Cody, we need to get ready."

Michael shook him gently. "Hey, if Isabel's on duty I'll bet she'll stop by and visit."

The boy nodded wordlessly before he waved goodbye to Aaron and made his way over to his mother, his posture slumped and sad.

Aaron crawled up to sit in Michael's lap as he watched his little friend walk out of the room with his mommy. "What happens if he don't get a new heart?"

“He will get one,” he answered after swallowing the lump in his throat. Quickly, he brought his emotions back under control before he looked at the boy.

He looked down at the movie he held in his hands. "Is that why Cody can't go places an' do stuff with us? 'Cause his heart's sick?"

“Um-hmm, that’s right. He’s not as strong as we are so he has to take it easy.”

"But he can sometimes go out an' spend the night? Maybe?"

"On good days, yes" Michael agreed.

"Oh." He looked around the room when he heard something beeping and his gaze finally locked on the watch on Michael's wrist. "Wha's that?"

"A reminder for lunch," he tickled the boy’s belly, thankful for the distraction. “Hungry, little man?”

He giggled and tried to squirm away. "We get to go see your daddy now?"

“Yep, and your buddy Chase will be there too.”

His eyes widened. "Cool! Can we go now?"

“Yeah, let me just check on Amy, okay? I'll be right back.”

"Okay." He looked around the room after Michael had gone and he wondered what the man's daddy was like.

Rodney: Kyle is definitely not the bad guy here but unfortunately he is bearing the majority of the blame.

Natalie36: Lol, we’re glad you like Joker. Nah, not selfish as all!

begonia9508: Michael is a big softie with the kids.

Aaron needs a strong male example in his life and he has a few of them now. Trent was a bad, bad example and unfortunately he doesn’t remember much about his daddy.

somewhere87: That’s the plan for now.

CandyliciousLovah: Michael dives right in when it comes to the little guys. He loves to spend time with them and when he gets the chance to get them together he’s gonna jump on it.

Earth2Mama: Lol, he really is.

It looks like the girls are well on their way to working past their issues with each other.

pandas2001: Lol, you know he’s just holding onto his new word for a special occasion.

They’ve been doing it so long they don’t see it... well, he doesn’t see it.

keepsmiling7: He’s great with the little guys. It probably helps that he’s just a larger version of them, lol.

Max has a good group of friends who will stand up for him.

Oh, no, Aaron doesn’t need to know, you’re right about that.

Cardinal: No, Tony won’t be too happy about that. The guys will be looking further into the situation.

That’s definitely one way for it to play out and Trent losing his job would be good for everyone concerned.

kismet: Liz has fit right in with this group and her influence on Max has been positive. Well, lol, now that they’ve moved past their earlier antagonizing phase. Something will be discovered at some point.

xilaj: Michael knows Max isn’t involved with drugs and he will always have a friends’ back.

The little guys are a lot of fun to write. You just never know what they’re gonna say or do next, lol. Cody’s health is worsening but he and his family have a great support system to help them through the situation. Oh, you know Aaron’s just gonna hold onto that word for a special occasion.

The girls are definitely heading in the right direction.

mary mary: All in good time.

Alien_Friend: Well... hopefully there’ll be more good times than bad to make ya smile! Michael is gonna be there and being new at the relationship game he’s got to find a way to balance things. He’s working on it though and doing his best to prioritize.

Little ones should never know that but at least these little guys have a great support system.

We’ll be seeing a lot more of that connection in coming parts.

Michael and the others will be doing a little snooping around on their own. And we’ll be catching up with Max today.

Thanks! We’re glad you’re enjoying TIC TAC so much!!!




Part 92

Uneasy Talks

Isabel crossed the street, expertly dodging the early afternoon traffic and paying no attention to the sounds of honking horns, whistling as people tried to flag cabs down, or the occasional shouts when drivers hung out the window to curse at other drivers. The noise went unheard as her thoughts remained focused on the pictures in her bag. She made her way to the deli where she had agreed to meet Alex and she smiled at an elderly gentleman who held the door open for her on his way out.

She glanced around for Alex and spotted him leaning against the wall, his posture relaxed as he flipped through the newspaper he held in his hands. His gaze occasionally flicked up to watch the people waiting in line to get to the counter, taking a step or two to keep up with it when they moved forward. She wasn’t expecting the odd sensation in her chest when he glanced up and smiled at her, nodding at the line to let her know to join him.

“Hey, I hope you weren’t waiting long,” she said, ignoring the annoyed look the person behind him shot at them when he realized Alex had been holding her place in line.

“Nah, just got here about ten minutes ago but as you can see this place is pretty packed so I knew I had plenty of time.” He watched her for a moment, sensing that something was bothering her. “Everything okay?”

“I’m good,” she said and forced a smile.

“Okay.” Somehow he had his doubts she was being honest with him. “You read the paper this mornin’?”

“Uh, no, I was running errands since my sister is incapable of helping around the house,” she rolled her eyes. “I was wondering if maybe it’s time to ask her if she’s planning to move out anytime soon. Anyway, why’d you ask? Something interesting going on?”

“You really don’t like living with other people, do you?” he chuckled. “There’s another article about the subway mugger. Cops say he’s becoming more dangerous and they still can’t identify him.”

“Well, I’m used to living alone and my sister’s a slob.” Isabel shrugged and glanced at the newspaper in his hand. “That guy creeps me out. I hope they figure out who he is soon. I used to take the subway all the time but with what I’ve been reading about the people he’s already mugged…. Better take a taxi for now.”

“Yeah, definitely the way to go. Paper says the guy’s sticking to mugging women so far. He’s put three in the hospital and they’re concerned that he’s escalating.” He folded the paper over and tucked it under his arm. “I hope the other girls are taking the same precaution. So, lighter topic,” he said when they moved again. “Ava get off okay this mornin’?”

“Yeah, she was up pretty early and Dad an’ Chase picked her up.”

“So is Tess lookin’ for her own place?” He had a feeling her younger sister wasn’t any happier about sharing a place with her.

“I don’t know. My little sister was never really the type who wanted to live alone. Maybe she’s holding back and hoping that things work out with Maria again, I don’t know.”

“The two of them lived together before, right? I’ll bet they’re somethin’ else together.”

“They have a lot in common, so they always worked well as roomies,” she agreed. “Guess having a guy in common wasn’t something they wanted.”

“That’s the kinda thing friends should never have in common, no matter if you’re a girl or a guy.”

They took a few steps forward when the line moved. “Yeah, although I’m pretty sure Maria wouldn’t have started anything with Kyle if she’d known in time about my sister’s feelings.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t strike me as the type to do somethin’ like that.” He glanced up at the menu. “What sounds good to you?”

“Hmm, I think I’ll take the grilled chicken wrap with honey mustard sauce.”

“Good choice. I’ll have the pastrami on rye.” They moved up to the counter and placed their order.

“That’s definitely a lot better than the food they serve at the hospital,” she agreed.

He snorted. “Just about anything’s better than hospital food.” He added a bag of chips and a brownie when they reached the register.

“It was better when José was running the kitchen, but one of his kids was mugged on their way to school and he decided to move outta the city. From that point on things went downhill in the kitchen.”

“Funny how that works.” He pulled his wallet out and handed a couple of bills over to the cashier. “I don’t know about before but now the food has that cafeteria taste.” He made a face and put the change in his pocket when the woman at the register handed it to him. He picked their tray up and motioned for her to pick a table out.

“Over there by the window,” she pointed to a couple leaving a table. “One thing about where we work that sucks. Hospitals are too dark, I miss daylight.”

“You’d think they’d want more natural light. I mean, it’s good for you.”

“Yeah, it’s no wonder hospitals are so depressing for most people, huh?” She took the seat on the left.

He nodded. “Whether you’re in for yourself or someone else, all you can see is sterile white walls, all you can hear is machines, the lighting is dim, and you’ve got doctors talkin’ in a language no normal everyday person can understand... yeah, depressing’s a good word for it.”

“You get used to it though.”

“I guess you have to. You probably have to find a way to get used to it considering how tough the job is on a good day.”

She smiled briefly. “Yeah, I can’t stand the sight of blood at all. That’s why I work with the kids and not in the emergency room or whatever. I really don’t know how my brother’s able to see all those awful things.”

“Yeah, working as a paramedic would put him on the front lines. First responders have to see the worst of it.”

“They have special training to deal with it, I think,” she frowned as she tried to remember what her brother had told her. “He’s taking summer classes right now, but there’re other classes that help them with the day-to-day mental and emotional stress.”

“Probably a good idea.” He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed slowly. “What about you? The pediatric wing must be difficult at times.”

“It is, yeah,” she sighed. “It’s awful to see those little ones already struggling with health issues. But they’re always so positive, ya know? They’re a lot stronger than adults sometimes.”

“Yeah, you’re right. They have such good attitudes and no matter how hard they get hit they just keep fighting.”

Isabel swallowed a bite and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “They really are, just like Cody.”

“That little fella’s a fighter. I think it really helps that all of you are so supportive of Maria and her family.”

“True,” she agreed. “The good thing is that he doesn’t really understand the seriousness of his condition. It helps him to keep going.”

“You’re right,” he nodded. “I guess when you don’t have that knowledge it’s easier to hold onto a positive attitude.”

“Yeah, we just have to put on a brave face for him. I know it must be hard for Maria some days. I mean, it’s difficult for me, but he’s her brother and she’s faced with losing him every day.”

He smiled and opened the small bag of chips, dumping them on a napkin and moving them to the center of the table before taking one. “You guys are lucky to have each other. Even with all the crazy bullshit going on, you’ve still got that.”

“Crazy bullshit, yeah,” she snorted sarcastically.

“You know it’s true,” he said and laughed.

“Yeah, I know,” she nodded and looked at him with a serious expression. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”

He chewed on a chip and nodded. “Hit me with it.”

“Okay,” Isabel breathed in deeply before she turned her upper body slightly to pull the pictures from her bag. “These were left at my apartment last night.”

He wiped his hands on a napkin and reached for the envelope she held out to him. He glanced at her as he unclasped it and shook the contents out into his waiting hand. His mouth moved slowly as he chewed and studied the photographs one by one. “Your ex,” he said finally.

“Pretty sure, yeah.”

He shook his head. “Isabel, this’s serious.”

“What do you think I should do about him?” she asked. Okay, maybe she had put Richard’s behavior off too easily the past few weeks, but would he really do something to harm Alex or her?

“I think we need to go to the cops.”

“The cops?” she asked with wide eyes. “They’ll just laugh about it. He hasn’t done anything but take a few pics from a distance.”

“I don’t care. They’ll still have to file a report and his actions will be on the record.”

“Richard’s family has influence, Alex.” Isabel shook her head. “You don’t wanna mess with them.”

“I don’t care if his father’s the President.”

“Maybe he’ll stop if we keep ignoring him. He wants to annoy us, that’s all.” She wasn’t a hundred percent convinced about that, but yet she didn’t want to consider that her ex was really capable of more than a little intimidation.

“Yeah, maybe he will, and maybe he won’t. The guy’s following both of us, Isabel.” He slapped the photographs on the table and tapped his finger against them. “This right here? This is not the kinda thing a stable person does.”

She looked down at the photos and started to collect them again to put them back in her bag. “Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to involve you in this, Alex,” she said and got her things together. “We shouldn’t hang out anymore. Richard has no reason to go after you then.”

He reached over to stop her. “Give me the pictures, Isabel.”

“No,” she shook her head. He would go to the police with them and she didn’t want that. Richard’s Dad was one of the most influential people in the city. If he learned about this he would really start to make her life hell.

“I’m gonna go to the cops with or without them. Obviously it’s gonna be easier to convince them that what I’m sayin’ has validity if I have the pictures, but even if I don’t it won’t stop me from reporting this.”

“You don’t know who you’re messing with, Alex,” she shook her head. “I’ve gotta go now.”

“You think if he doesn’t see us together he’s gonna stop this?” He got up and followed her, grabbing her arm when they got outside. “Isabel, listen to me! You can avoid me like the plague if you want to but it won’t stop him from comin’ after either of us. And those pictures? That right there says that he sees me as a viable threat and he’ll try to remove me so he can have you all to himself. It doesn’t matter that you’re not interested in him. In his head you’re just misguided and if he can say the right thing, get rid of anything that’s keeping you from seeing that truth, he’s gonna do it.”

“He’ll leave you alone if we don’t see each other anymore,” she said with conviction and freed herself from his grasp.

“No, he won’t. And he won’t leave you alone either. He’s advanced from pestering you and being a nuisance to stalking you. Do you have any idea how many women lose their lives to this kinda thing? You wanna stop seein’ me I can’t stop you, but don’t do it to protect me because you can’t protect me from him. Just like it’s in his head that you’re in love with him and you’re just misguided, he’s got it in his head that I’m a threat. We don’t have to see each other ever again but he’s still gonna view me as an obstacle.”

“You’re reading too much into this,” she insisted. It couldn’t be that bad, could it? “I need to go now, Alex.”

“Let me have the pictures, please,” he tried one more time.

“No, just forget about it, Alex. I’ll make sure he doesn’t bother you anymore.”

“Then I guess we’ve reached an impasse because I’m goin’ to the cops and I’m gonna ask about filing a restraining order. They may laugh me outta the precinct but they’ll still have to file the report.”

“Richard’s dad will just pay someone to make it disappear,” she shook her head. “But I guess I can’t hold you back.”

“No, you can’t.”

****

Kathleen Beckett smoothed a hand over her no-nonsense business suit and took a seat facing her client in the interview booth. The small rooms were connected to the holding cell outside of the courtroom where he was awaiting arraignment and he looked like a caged animal as his gaze bounced off of the cinderblock walls.

“How are you, Max? I’m Kathleen Beckett and I’m here to represent – “

“I told them I’ve got my own lawyer. I don’t want some public defender who isn’t gonna listen to my side of – “

“I’m your parents’ attorney.”

His eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “I’ve met their attorney and he didn’t look anything like you.”

She smiled, not put off by his irritated tone. “Peterson relocated a couple of years ago and I took over as your parents’ legal counsel.”

“Fine. It’s almost two o’clock,” he bit out. “What the fuck’s takin’ so long?”

“The wheels of justice move slowly.”

“Feels like they’ve come to a complete halt.”

She pulled a folder out of her briefcase before placing it on the floor next to her. “You’ve been charged with misdemeanor possession and driving under the influence.”

“I didn’t take any drugs and I didn’t have so much as a single alcoholic drink while I was at the party.”

“You tested positive for Ecstasy when they hauled you in, so I’ll be honest with you: it doesn’t look good.”

“I told that cop someone had to put somethin’ in my drink. I don’t do drugs. Ever,” he insisted adamantly.

“Is there anyone you suspect of tampering with your drink?”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t there so it had to be someone workin’ with him.”

“Um-hmm, and the same with the drugs they found in your car?” she asked as she made some notations on the papers in front of her.

“Look, if you don’t believe me just take yourself off the case right now because I’m not interested in havin’ someone who thinks I’m guilty puttin’ on a show of defending me.”

“Max, it’s not my job to believe you; it’s my job to prove that the DA doesn’t have a solid case.” She glanced up at him and smiled. “You don’t have a record of drug use and while you had some difficulties readjusting after being discharged from the military, you’ve shown marked improvement and stability over the past year.”

He shifted uncomfortably. “So what now?”

“Now we enter your plea before the judge and see if the District Attorney is going to ask for bail or if you’ll be released on your own recognizance. I’ll argue for an ROR and he’ll argue against it so we’ll likely settle for a lower bail. I’ve been instructed by your father to agree to bail regardless of the amount because he doesn’t want you incarcerated any longer than necessary.”

He didn’t want to think about his dad right then. “Okay, so once they agree to bail… what then?”

“The judge will give us a trial date and we’ll get your case put together to present to the court.” She tapped her pen against the folder. “It’ll look good if we can establish your ties to the community. Your parents will be in the courtroom but your relationship with your father is strained so that may not give us enough leverage. Do you have a friend I could call on to appear on your behalf?”

He shrugged. “I’ve got friends, yeah, but they’re all gonna be at work. Well,” he scratched his jaw, “there might be a couple of people who’d be available. Michael Guerin, Maria Deluca, or maybe Kyle Valenti.” Isabel and Tess were both working. Liz was working and she had enough problems without having to miss out on work to come down to the courthouse. He didn’t know Alex as well as the others but he had a feeling he’d stand up for him. Of course, he didn’t have a working phone so that could cost them time trying to track him down. “It’d have to be one of them.” He gave her their contact information and then sat back. “I know you don’t have to believe me, but I didn’t get myself in this situation.”

Kathleen studied his serious expression for several nerve-wracking minutes. “Who do you think drugged you and planted the drugs in your car?”

“My girlfriend’s ex,” he said without missing a beat. “The guy’s a cop and he’s abusive and possessive but there’s no record of that so I know it’s probably gonna be impossible to prove. She’s raising her little brother and her ex has already threatened us with CPS.” He shrugged. “And, okay, I’ve got a past that might make a judge think twice about my ability to raise a kid or just be a decent influence in the little guy’s life, but other than that he didn’t really have anything concrete on me. An arrest and conviction for drug possession and driving under the influence would really make me an unsuitable guardian or parent figure and it’d threaten her ability to retain custody of her brother.”

“Oh boy,” Kathleen sighed. “You’ve really stepped in it, haven’t you?” She held a hand up before he could respond. “We’ll tackle this one issue at a time. First thing we need to do is get you out of jail. And the second thing will be to start building a case because if what you’re saying is true this guy won’t wait very long to make a report, most likely anonymous, to CPS.”

“Okay,” he said slowly.

“I’ll try to contact your friends and see if any of them are available to come down to the courthouse this afternoon.” She replaced the folder in her briefcase and stood up. “I’ll have you out in just a few hours, Max. I know it’s hard but just try to be patient.”

“Hey, if you see my parents… would you just tell ‘em thanks for me?”

She smiled and nodded. “I’ll be happy to.”

He stood when an officer appeared beside him to escort him back to the holding cell. He couldn’t believe what was happening and it worried him because it gave Trent a position of leverage where Aaron was concerned.

*****

The meeting with Alex had confused and rattled Isabel. What if he really went to the police? Would it make a difference? No, she thought bitterly. People like Richard and his family were just too powerful to let things like that get in their way. They knew the right people who would twist things around and make others look like a fool. While it hadn’t been so bad while she and Richard had been a couple, it seemed to be a very dangerous thing now that she was trying to get rid of him.

Gosh, she really should’ve known better than to mess with Alex and drag him into this whole situation, but it wasn’t like she had really expected Richard to start stalking her every move. She would stay away from him now, avoid him as much as possible, and that’d be enough for her ex to focus on something else. It had to be enough!

Maybe she should talk to him again? Convince him that Alex wasn’t a threat but even without him in the equation she didn’t want to get back together with him. At some point he had to understand that fact and better now than later.

Her thoughts were interrupted when someone stepped out into the artificially illuminated hallways of the hospital and she almost ran into the person. “Oh, sorry, I was…” Isabel started, but then realized the other woman was Maria’s mother. “Oh, hey, Amy, how’re you doing?”

Amy tried to force a smile but it twisted into a grimace. “Isabel, how nice to see you. I’m... I’ll be fine.”

The blonde girl’s eyes moved over the older woman while she tried to balance the contrast between what she was hearing and seeing. “Is everything okay with Cody?”

“The doctors are having a difficult time keeping his oxygen levels at an acceptable level.” She reached up to brush a stray tear away. “It looks like they’re gonna admit him this time.”

Isabel swallowed hard. “God, I am so sorry, Amy.” She didn’t know what to say. They had all known that the time would come when this would happen, but none of them was really ready for it.

“He’s not taking the news well. He just wants to go home and play with his little friends like other kids.” She swallowed with difficulty. “And he’s struggling so hard to stay in good spirits but that’s getting harder to do.” The doctors had told her that as his condition worsened he would experience bouts of depression and anger.

“He’s a strong kid and we’ll find ways to distract him. Our schedules are all full, but we’re gonna work it out so at least one of us can be here with him during the days.”

A wave of fresh tears threatened at the kind offer. “You’re all so busy, Isabel. I know how difficult it is...” she trailed off and nodded at the younger woman’s stern look. “Thank you.”

“No problem, Amy,” Isabel hugged the older woman. “I know you need some time to take care of other things at home, so we’re gonna do what we can to give you a break.” She leaned back to look at her. “I know a bunch of people who’ll be willing to help out.”

“You’re all such good kids,” she murmured, grateful to have them in her life. It was so good for her own children and it also took a little of the weight from her own shoulders.

“Repeat that to Dad later, okay?” Isabel tried to make a little joke.

Amy snorted and shook her head. “Your dad already knows, honey. Trust me on that.”

“Anything I can do for you now?”

She shook her head. “If you have time you could stop in and visit with Cody for a few minutes.”

Isabel checked the clock on the wall behind them and nodded. “I’ve still got about half an hour before my shift starts. You need to call anyone? Maria maybe?”

“I do need to call Maria, yes. I was just trying to get myself together before making that call.”

“Yeah, she won’t take it so easy,” the younger woman sighed. “Go on and take your time making that call. I’ll look after the little man while you do that.”

Amy nodded gratefully. “Thank you, Isabel. I’ll be back before too long.”

Earth2Mama: They have been through a lot but they're gonna keep fighting.

Isabel can't admit just yet that she was involved with someone who could be capable of making these threats and carrying them out. Alex has no such reservations.

keepsmiling7: The little guys are so much fun to write.

Ah, give Kathleen a chance. You might just find you like her.

Max is getting closer to dealing with his past and that includes his parents.

Trent needs to go but it may take some time.

sarammlover: Isabel may not be listening but Alex is his own man and he knows this threat needs to be taken seriously.

Cody has a good support system. They'll help him deal with things.

CandyliciousLovah: Why? Well, lol, because we must. Hope is good.

lilah: Lol, it's a good theory but not quite on the money.

Alien_Friend: That's exactly what this group is. For better or worse, they're family.

Lol, Richard as the mugger, huh? Wouldn't that be something? Alex makes up his own mind and he won't be put off by Isabel's insistence that her ex isn't dangerous.

Things have definitely started to change between Alex and Isabel. We'll be seeing more of them.

Lol, Kathleen knows her stuff and she's gonna do everything she can to help Max. We'll be getting more of those scenes.

Thanks! Have a safe trip and we'll be here when you get back.

begonia9508: Isabel shouldn't make light of the situation. It's dangerous and should be given the proper caution.

Cody does have to face a harsh reality but he has a very strong support system.

xilaj: Isabel knows that her ex is a threat but she has to be able to admit it. These kinds of situations are very isolating for the victim because it does cause them to pull away from everyone they care about to protect them. Alex won't just let it go though.

Kathleen will do her best to get this situation under control. Trent will get what he deserves.

mary mary: Oh, you know it's coming, lol.

Eva: Isabel knows that it was only right to tell Alex that he was being threatened even if she can't quite accept that her ex is responsible. He has no right to treat anyone like that but he believes he's above the law.

Kathleen will do everything she can to help Max.




Part 93

Truth and Apparent Truth

Aaron reached across the table to pick up a fat shrimp off of the tray, turning it this way and that way as he studied it. He took another bite of his grilled cheese before taking an experimental sniff of the strange food. He made a face and threw it back on the tray, freezing when he heard Michael’s daddy laughing.

“Oops, sorry,” he mumbled.

Adam shook his head. “That’s fine, Aaron, don’t you worry about it. Shrimp isn’t for everyone.” He motioned to his son. “Michael doesn’t care for seafood either.”

“It’s yummy,” Chase said and got up on his knees to lean over the table and grab a hushpuppy. He sat back and broke it in half, popping a bite in his mouth and chewing on it with a big grin when Grandpa reached over to pat his back.

Michael shook his head. “It’s gross,” he said and high-fived Aaron when the little boy agreed with him.

“Can we go in the pool after we eat?” Chase looked at his mom and pointed at the little wading pool that was set up in the garden behind them.

Ava glanced at her brother and smiled. “Michael?”

“Well, technically I’ve got other plans,” he muttered and glanced at his watch. It was already around the time he’d promised to pick Courtney up, but things had turned out a lot different today and he felt like he’d been hit by a truck. The thought of hanging out lazily in the hammock here while the kids played together sounded good to him. “I’m gonna make a call, gimme a minute,” he said and stood, pulling his cell out of his pants pocket to dial Courtney’s number. He shoved his free hand into his pocket while he walked around the garden and waited for her to pick up.

Courtney was drying her hair when she heard the phone ring and she hurried over to pick it up, grinning when she saw Michael’s name on the screen. She held it to her chest for a moment to take a deep, calming breath before answering the call. “Hello?”

“Hey, girlfriend,” he greeted her, hoping that she wasn’t still mad at him because of what he had said last night.

“Hey, boyfriend,” she said and glanced at the clock. “You’re early.”

“Not really,” he made a face. “Sorry, but I think I’ve gotta cancel out little sightseeing trip today, Court.”

“Oh.” She couldn’t hide her disappointment. “What happened?”

“Liz called me at six this mornin’ and asked me if I could watch Aaron since her an’ Max had an emergency so I’m with the boy all day. We went to see Cody and then drove out to my dad’s place, which is where we are right now.” He glanced up to the others sitting around the table in the backyard, the kids happily laughing. “Chase an’ Aaron are having fun together as I’m sure you can hear and I probably won’t be able to separate them.” A yawn escaped his lips as he ended the sentence. “Sorry, to be honest I’m totally beat and wouldn’t be good company,” he added and rubbed his face.

“You must be so tired,” she murmured sympathetically. “We can tour the Empire State Building another day. It’s not going anywhere. If you feel up to it maybe you can come over and spend the night here after you drop Aaron off with Liz and Max?”

Spending the night with her instead of dealing with Kyle at home sounded good. “Sounds good,” he nodded. “I can’t give you an exact time though, gonna run and visit with Cody for a while afterwards.”

“Why? Didn't you just say you saw him earlier?”

“They had a doc’s appointment after we left and he’s just havin' a hard time with it. Thought I'd see if I could cheer him up a bit.”

“Oh.” She forced the jealousy down, knowing it would only cause problems if she asked if Maria was gonna be there. Their conversation from the night before was still fresh in her mind and she knew he wasn’t going to appreciate anything but acceptance. “I hope he’ll get better.”

“Yeah, me too,” he mumbled quietly, even though he knew he wasn’t gonna get any better unless the boy got a new heart. “I’m gonna check on him after dropping Aaron off and then I’ll come over.”

“Okay, well, you sound exhausted so be extra careful.”

“I’m gonna take a nap in the hammock now and leave the kids to my dad,” he told her with slight amusement in his voice.

“Sounds like a nice afternoon. We may have to try that sometime.”

“Maybe we can try it tonight,” he said softly. “Ya know I like to have my back rubbed as I fall asleep, so I’m willing to let you do that while we watch a movie.”

She laughed. “Yeah, we might be able to come to an agreement about that.”

“Looking forward to it,” he said tiredly.

“You’d better go before I end up listening to you snore over the phone,” she teased.

He chuckled deeply. “Okay, I'll see you tonight.”

"Uncle Mike, are you an' Aaron gonna stay so we can swim?" Chase asked, running up to him as he came back to join them. He latched onto his uncle's leg and stepped on his right foot, giggling when the man kept walking.

Michael shoved his cell back into his pocket and sighed when Aaron did the same and hugged his other leg. Man, he was glad he could walk at all, but the kids were taking the best of him now. “We're gonna stay for the afternoon,” he said and looked at his father.

Adam watched his son as he crossed the yard with the little boys glued to his legs. He could see the exhaustion in his features and he knew if he didn't get some rest soon he was gonna crash and be out until the next morning. "Why don't you two come with me and we'll go get you into some swimming trunks," he suggested.

“Yay, swimming!” Chase shouted and ran across the yard with Aaron close behind.

“Little energy-bundles,” Michael shook his head and dropped down into the beloved hammock. He chuckled when Ava complained about the fact that his father had easily put the boys into her care after calling them. “She shouldn’t complain, she had all of last night off,” he said and got comfortable.

Adam smirked when he heard his youngest daughter attempting to wrangle the boys through the house. "It's all about delegation of duties," he said as he stretched out in his deck chair. "Seems like she had a good time last night."

"Stop prying, Adam," Nicole chastised as she came back out on the deck with a fresh pitcher of lemonade.

Michael smirked and closed his eyes. “She did. My friend’s interested in her and it seems to be mutual.”

"Chase is quite taken with him too," she said as she sat down next to her husband.

“Yeah, Carter knows how to deal with kids.”

"That's good."

"I just hope she takes it slow," Adam said and reached for his glass.

Me too, Michael thought. One hurt little sister at a time was more than enough.

"How's Maria holding up?" Nicole asked.

“She’s trying to deal with things,” he said. “I tried to call her earlier, but she wasn't picking up so I guess she’s either working or already with her Mom and Cody. I'm gonna check on her this evening before I drive over to see Courtney.”

Adam glanced at his wife. "When will you be bringing this girl by for us to meet her?"

“Soon Dad, be patient.”

"It makes a statement for a man to bring a young woman home to meet his parents."

“A statement?” Michael asked, opening one eye again.

"Well, you've certainly never brought any other young woman home to meet us."

“Guess that’s true,” he rolled over on his side, enjoying the way the hammock swung him softly back and forth.

"She must be somethin' special," he mused and brushed his wife's hand off when she tried to stop him.

“Dad,” his son complained with a groan.

"Well, it's true. Somehow I've always thought you and Maria would end up together."

“Really?” Michael snorted ironically. “Surprise, surprise.”

"What your father means is we look forward to meeting your new girlfriend when you're ready," Nicole said as she gave Adam a look. She also believed that Michael and Maria were going to end up together but it was going to have to happen when they were ready for it.

“I just started dating her,” he muttered and with that the conversation was finished for him.

"Leave him alone, Adam."

He looked between his wife and son, who had decided to ignore them by closing his eyes. Just for now, he mouthed at her and leaned back in his chair, enjoying his shady spot in his peaceful yard.

“Mike, look!” Aaron shouted when Ava and the boys came out again. He pulled at the red trunks he was wearing that belonged to Chase. “I can play in the water now.”

He cracked one eye open to look at the boys as they ran across the yard. "That's very cool, bud."

“Adam,” Nana stepped outside with a cordless phone in her hand.

“Don’t tell me its work again. I told them to not call me on my day off.”

“No, no,” she assured him, “it's Isabel.”

He accepted the phone from her and held it up to his ear. "Isabel, how are you?"

“Hey, Dad,” she greeted. “I'm good. I don’t have much time to talk since I'm at work, but I was wondering if you still have that portable DVD player?”

"Yeah, I think it's in the office here at the house. You need it for something?"

“I was wondering if you could bring it into the city tomorrow. I just saw Amy a few hours ago,” she sighed heavily. “Cody’s in the hospital and it seems like it’s a permanent thing, so I was thinking about some things to keep the little guy busy in here.”

"I'm sorry to hear that. Of course I'll make sure it gets there." He glanced at his son. "Matter of fact Michael's here so depending on his plans this afternoon I may just send it out with him." Of course as soon as his son found out that Cody was in the hospital he was certain any other plans would be postponed in favor of visiting the little boy.

Michael groaned internally. Whatever it was, he would tell Dad that he had stuff to do after leaving the house. He had to check back on Liz and then all he wanted was a relaxing night with his girlfriend, which included nothing more than laying around lazily.

“Cool, that’s perfect timing. You know Cody will cheer up when he gets here.”

"He always does," Adam agreed.

“Alright, I need to go back to work, so say hi to everyone for me, okay?”

"Will do. Don't work too hard." He smiled, knowing the words were wasted. All of his kids worked hard.

"Take your own advice, Dad," she threw back at him before she ended the call.

“What’s the matter?” Nicole asked as soon as he put the phone away.

"It's Cody," he murmured as he stared at the phone in his hands. "He's been hospitalized, most likely until..." He swallowed hard, unable to complete the thought.

Michael’s head snapped to the side painfully when he heard his father’s words in his drowsy state. “What'd you say?”

"Your big sister just called about Cody," Nicole answered for her husband. "He's been admitted and it looks like it's not gonna be a short stay this time."

“Fuck,” he fell back on the hammock and stared up into the leafy trees above him. They had known the time would come when this would happen, but it had always seemed so far away and now it was happening. God, what would happen if they couldn’t find a heart in time? How would Maria and Amy take it?

"You can have all the money in the world and at a time like this it doesn't solve a damn thing," Adam bit out.

“There's still hope,” Nicole reminded them and squeezed her husband's shoulder. “We have to be positive as long as there's a chance.”

"I just wish there was something I could do." He hated to feel helpless, hated to know people he cared about were suffering and there was nothing he could do to help.

Michael shifted slightly to get his cell out of his pants pocket. He swiped his thumb over the display a few times until the picture of the boy and him that morning was opened up. Why were things happening so damn fast? he wondered. The kid was only four, it wasn’t fair that his life depended on the small chance of getting a new heart. With another few taps on the display he opened up a new message to send it to his best friend. Hang in there, RP, coming to the hospital early this evening.

"Do you think they'll ever see it?" he asked his wife as he watched his son.

“We can’t see inside them, honey,” she said quietly. “Maybe there really isn't anything more than friendship between them,” she held a hand over his mouth when he wanted to protest, “and maybe there is, but they can only figure it out on their own. No matter how often someone tries to tell them, if they don’t see it, then it’s not gonna happen.”

He sighed gruffly. "Yeah, I guess so." He didn't understand how they could be so oblivious to something that was so obvious to the rest of the world. "We have that client dinner tomorrow evening but maybe we could stop by and visit for a bit before heading over to the restaurant?"

“Yeah, sure,” she agreed.

“Hey, Dad,” Michael swung his feet to the ground. Now after the news he didn’t feel like sleeping anymore. “Did you find anything out about the rent Maria and Tess double paid?”

"No. Tess paid with a check so that was easy enough to track but unfortunately when she dropped the check off she must've been in a hurry because she didn't fill in who it was to. That little jerk cashed the check in his own name and filled in the memo for some work he did on the apartment that wasn't required maintenance. So we have no actual proof that it was for rent. In time we'll get it worked out but for now that's all we have."

"Fuckin’ great," he knew Dad hated when he cursed in his house, but he couldn’t help it.

"Michael, little ears," Adam reminded him. "I had an idea though."

“Feel free to share.”

"I'll have the paperwork drawn up and have a cashier's check drafted to cover the loss. As I said, in time we will recover the money and I'll see that excuse of a man prosecuted for theft, but for now we'll just make sure Maria gets her money back."

“Sounds good,” his son agreed, although it meant lying to Maria. “She'll never accept the check if things aren't resolved yet…” he looked up and smirked just a bit, “but she doesn’t need to know that. With the money she won’t have to worry too much about getting a new modeling job.”

"She has enough on her plate right now." And a few thousand dollars wasn't even a drop in the financial bucket for them. "Once the money's recovered we'll just have another cashier's check cut in her name and call it justice."

“Like the way you think, old man,” Michael teased and got up. “Guess I'll help Ava before the little devils knock her out.”

"That's big of you, son." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Old man," he muttered under his breath.

*****

Max stood and shook his attorney’s hand when the judge banged the gavel after agreeing to release him on bail. He was relieved that he wouldn’t be spending anymore time behind bars. His parents were seated a couple of rows back and Kyle had dropped down into one of the bench seats behind him. He turned to shake the firefighter’s hand.

“Hey, thanks for comin’ down, Valenti.”

“Anytime, Evans. What the hell’s goin’ on anyway?” He hadn’t really gotten the story, not needing it when the lawyer called and asked if he’d be a character witness for Max.

“My guess is that dick Trent set me up.” He shook his head. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“You’re probably gonna have your hands full for a while so I’ll get with…” He shook his head. Michael wasn’t gonna want anything to do with him no matter the reason. “I’ll see what I can find out about who was there last night that might have a connection to him.”

“I appreciate it.”

“How’s Liz handling things?”

“I don’t really know. Soon as I’m outta here I’ll go find her and make sure we’re okay.”

“Hey, man, it’ll work out. You’re not a stoner, she knows that.”

“Yeah, I hope so.” He glanced over Kyle’s shoulder when he saw movement and he nodded at his parents. “I hope they believe me too.”

“They're your parents, they'll believe you.”

"Yeah, well..." Mom would, he didn't doubt that, but Dad? They hadn't even really talked since he had learned he was being deployed.

“Need me to do anything else?” Kyle asked, glancing around the room.

"Just see what you can find out about last night. Someone had to put the Ecstasy in my drink. I have no idea when the drugs got put in the jeep."

“Probably while it was parked downstairs.” He looked up when a shadow fell over them and he saw Max’ father behind them. “Mr. Evans,” he greeted and got up.

Philip extended his hand. "We appreciate you standing up for our son the way you did."

“No need to thank me for telling the truth, Sir,” Kyle insisted.

He nodded. "Max, we'll be waiting for you outside."

“Okay,” he waited until they were far enough away before he looked back at his friend. “Can't wait for that talk.”

"Parents," Kyle said with a snort. "I don't think it matters how old you get, man, you're always their kid."

“Yeah…” Max looked at the door that led outside. “Better get this over with it so I can go see Liz.”

"There's a bit of paperwork to handle before your release, Max," Kathleen spoke up. "But it shouldn't take too long and then you'll be free to go."

“Yeah,” he sighed tiredly and nodded at Kyle before his friend left. “Let’s get it done then. I want outta here.”

Philip paced back and forth in front of the bench his wife was sitting on. He had gladly paid the bail to free his only son and they had been waiting for nearly an hour for the paperwork to be finished. He looked up when a door opened and Kathleen walked out next to Max. His gaze moved over the younger man, studying the tattoos visible on his bare lower arms, moving up to the goatee, and finally to his eyes. Their relationship had started to improve once Max had begun to settle into military life, but it had become strained once he had received his deployment orders. It was rare that they saw each other and what little they had to say to each other couldn't be considered actual conversation.

Diane had kept him informed about Max's life; his service overseas, what little she knew about the mission that he ended his service, his troubles readjusting to civilian life, the PTSD he suffered with, and any other little things she knew. But it wasn't the same as being able to just talk one-on-one with him.

He had tried to open the door but that was the one thing Max didn't want. He had refused every offering Philip had made, turned down every invitation to dinner if he knew his father would be there, and as much as he tried to explain it away, to blame it on the anger his son felt about being sent to war, it still hurt.

"Max, we're so happy you're out," Diane said as she stood and moved to hug him.

He returned the hug and glanced at his father. “Thanks for bailing me out.”

Philip nodded. "You told your friend you believe someone drugged you and planted drugs in your car?"

“Yeah, I've got my suspicions,” he mumbled, his tone distracted as he looked at his watch. It was already later in the afternoon and Liz’ shift would be ending soon. He wanted to get a hold of her before she left for her summer class at the college. “Hey, I know you want some answers, but I need to talk to Liz first.”

Diane glanced at her husband when she heard him sigh, knowing from that little sound that he felt like Max was just going to use the girl as an excuse to get away. "Of course, honey, we understand. She sounded quite concerned when I spoke with her this morning." She rubbed Philip's arm, urging him to remain silent. "Perhaps you could come by for dinner this evening? Bring her with you, we'd love to meet her."

Could this day get any worse, Max wondered, but couldn’t tell his mother no. They had gotten up in the middle of the night to take care of getting him out of jail as soon as possible, so no matter what differences he and Dad had, he knew he should at least show some gratitude. “Okay,” he agreed. “I'll stop by and if she's still talkin' to me I'll bring her too.” And Aaron, he thought, but left them in the dark for now.

"I'm sure she will," Diane assured him. "We look forward to meeting her. Dinner's normally at six but if you need me to I can have it ready a little later to give you some time?"

“We’ll be there as soon as possible, but she takes summer classes and I 'm not sure how long they’ll run.”

"That's fine. You just text me when you're on your way," she said and hugged him again. She leaned back and framed his face in her hands. "I'm so glad you're alright."

He covered her hands and slowly released them, feeling uncomfortable in public like this.

“You need a ride somewhere?” Philip asked.

“No,” he looked down the street and quickly located the entrance for a subway station. “It'll be much faster with the subway.”

He nodded. "Alright, we'll see you for dinner." There was a time he wouldn't have thought twice about hugging his own son, but now he hesitated. His movements felt stilted and awkward as he held his hand out. "Take care of yourself, Max."

The younger man glanced down at his father’s hand for a moment before he took it. “Thanks again. See you later, Mom. Dad.” With that he turned and headed in the other direction in a hurry.

CandyliciousLovah: You could be right about that. Cody is definitely going to push them together.

Earth2Mama: No, we’d never tell him you said that!

Oh, Isabel’s not ready to admit Richard is a real threat just yet.

Liz couldn’t miss work and Max understands that.

Natalie36: He hasn’t seen what’s right in front of him just yet.

sarammlover: Well, it will definitely push Max into confronting his past. Maybe not right away, but it’s going to happen. Michael and his sisters really lucked out in the parent department.

mary mary: Well, we can’t promise no more tears…

Philip and Max are both stubborn men but they have women in their lives who will help them to work through some of their differences.

keepsmiling7: Thanks! Kathleen is going to do her best.

The little guy’s not impressed with seafood, lol.

Unfortunately it’s a very real problem that continues to be swept under the rug.

Dinner with the Evans’ should be good.

begonia9508: Thanks!

Yeah, everyone sees it but Michael, lol.

Cody’s situation is a tough one and we’ll just have to hope that he gets that miracle.

Max and his dad are both stubborn men but they have women in their lives who will help them work through their differences.

killjoy: Hindsight’s 20/20.

The fault lies on both sides here but in time they’ll work through things.

Alien_Friend: Thanks!

Michael and the girls lucked out with their parents in this one! He and Adam have a good strong relationship and it’s fun to write them together.

The situation with Cody is going to be a rough one but our gang will pull together for him and his family.

We’ll find out today if Liz is going to agree to go to his parents’ for dinner.

Our characters look forward to cheering you up when you get back. If not a good trip, at least have a safe one!

xilaj: This group will always try to stick together. Kyle is a good guy and even though he’s in the doghouse that shines through. He and Tess have some work to do but they’re going to eventually get through this.

Lol, it makes for a cute picture, doesn’t it? These little guys will really wear a person out – especially when that person is already exhausted.

Thanks! It is a painful situation with Max and his parents, his dad specifically, but they have some work to do to get through that.

We’ll catch up with Max and Liz in this part.




Part 94

My Disguise

Sweat was running down Maria’s spine as she threw a few more clothes into the bag sitting on her bed. She had returned to her apartment that afternoon to see if the air conditioning was working yet – which it wasn’t. The room temperature had to be a hundred degrees or more and it still smelled like rotten food although she had already gotten rid of all of it.

The news of Cody’s hospital admission had hit her hard and it didn’t matter that she had known it was coming. How much time did they have? It was a question no one could answer, but they all knew it was getting less and less with every passing day.

Thankfully she had been alone when her mom had called. Tess had already left for work and Tony had been out running some errands, so she had felt free to shed some tears – something she was much more comfortable with when she was alone. She knew her friends were supportive and cared a lot, but crying in front of someone always showed weakness and she didn’t want to appear weak all the time.

The vibration of her cell brought her out of her musing and she went back into the living room with her freshly packed things to check it.

There in a minute, want me to come up? Tony had written.

No, I’m ready. Coming downstairs, meet me out front, she wrote back and glanced around the room to see if there was anything else she needed to do. The original plan had been to come back as soon as things were working again, but obviously the owners of the building had no interest in fixing the problem right now. Not that it really mattered now. She’d probably be spending most of her free time at the hospital anyway.

“Shithole,” she muttered into the room and grabbed her stuff before she walked back to the front door, her stride determined.

Tony’s car was already parked in front of the building when she stepped outside and it actually felt a little cooler than it had inside. He got out when he saw her and he came towards her wearing a pair of sunglasses and a tee shirt from the fire station.

She rolled her eyes when some other girls, leaving the building next door, stared after him and giggled. “I thought hanging out with Guerin was bad, but you’re a lady magnet just like him.”

“That’s why you love us,” he grinned and pulled her into a hug. “You okay? Why didn’t you wait until I got back home? We could’ve ridden over here together.”

Maria returned the hug but kept it simple. Her emotions were too close to the surface and for her brother she needed to at least appear strong. “Just needed some time alone.”

He just accepted her answer and took the bag from her. “No improvement up there?”

“No,” she made a face.

“Figures.” They walked back to the car and she climbed in while he stored her stuff in the back. “I’m gonna suggest somethin’ and I want you to think about it before you say no, okay?” Tony said as he slid in behind the steering wheel.

“Okay,” she said skeptically. “Hit me with it.”

“You and Liz are lookin’ for a place, right?” He held a hand up, letting her know he didn’t need an answer to the question. He pulled away from the curb and into traffic. “So I was thinkin’ maybe you could just ditch this dump for good and hang at my place until you guys find somethin’. I mean, what's the point wastin’ good money on this place when it’s not even fit to be lived in?”

Maria bit her lip before she replied too quickly because she had agreed to think about it before answering. “Well…” she started after a while, “thanks for the offer, but we don’t know how long it’s gonna be before we find something that’ll work for me an’ Liz, Tony. It could still be months. Where would I put all my furniture for that time? An’ things with you and Ava are just starting. I don’t wanna be in the way.”

“Ava and I are just starting and I’ve been upfront with her about the situation. She knows you’re stayin’ with me and it’s open-ended for now.” He shrugged one shoulder when they stopped for a red light. “As for your stuff, I have a storage area in the basement of my apartment building. They lease the space and I’m not usin’ much of mine, so we can always put your stuff there until we get a new apartment sorted out.”

She turned in her seat and laid her head against the backrest to look at him. “It’d mean moving my stuff twice.”

He grinned at her. “So? As many firefighters as you know it won’t take that long to move it.”

“I can’t live with you and not pay anything.”

“So we’ll split a couple of the bills or somethin’.” He eased off the brake when the light changed to green. “And you can cook a few days a week.”

“Yeah…” she said and turned to look out through the windshield again. “I’ll be at the hospital a lot, so I don’t know about that.”

“Well, I eat at the station a lot anyway.” He reached over to rub her shoulder. “You’ve got enough goin’ on, Maria. Let your friends take some of that weight off of you, huh?”

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment to shut everything out. “I might do that,” she agreed.

“That’d be great.” He glanced at her, seeing the weariness in her features. “You hungry?”

“Not really. I just wanna go see my brother.”

“Wanna grab anything for your mom?” Maybe she’d eat that way, he thought.

“Yeah, why not? She kinda likes the salads at McDonalds and that way we can get Cody some chicken nuggets – the only thing he really likes that doesn’t have a ton of fat.” He couldn’t have much fast food but he wouldn’t eat more than a couple anyway.

“Tell me it’s the crispy chicken.”

“No clue, I never eat the salad there. We’ll just pick one.”

“The bacon ranch with crispy chicken. You can’t go wrong with that one,” he said with a nod.

She snorted. “A Big Mac and fries, that’s all I want.”

****

Liz walked out through the swinging door that led back to the employee’s only area and she felt herself pause when she saw Max coming in through the front door. She hadn’t allowed herself to think about the situation once Michael had dropped her off at work, knowing that she had to keep her focus on her job. Her mind had started to wander on her break but Michael had kept her thoughts occupied by sending pictures of Aaron playing with Cody and then later, on her second break, he had sent pictures of Aaron swimming in a wading pool with Chase. She was so lucky to have people in her life now that would step up at a moment’s notice and help out with whatever she needed.

She saw the hesitation in Max’s features when her steps faltered and it took less than a heartbeat for the hurt look in his eyes to register. Would he look like that if he was guilty of the things he had been arrested for? Maybe there were things – a lot of things – that she didn’t know about his past, but that wasn’t reason enough to believe he would do what he had been accused of.

Max nodded when she held a hand up, letting him know to wait for her. He motioned to the door and stepped back outside to draw in a deep breath. He had seen the look on her face, that slight hesitation when she saw him standing there, and in that moment he knew she was still weighing what little she knew in her head. He had to remind himself to be patient. He hadn’t given her much information about his past and now that was coming back to bite him on the ass. He was asking her to blindly trust him and what had he given her in exchange?

“Max?”

He turned his head to look at Liz when she called his name and he straightened up, preparing himself for whatever was coming. “I’m sorry about all this, Liz. I promised you could count on me and then this happens.”

His words sounded sincere, she thought as she stopped a few feet from him, arms wrapped around herself. Michael had also been positive that he’d never been involved with drugs and she’d never had the impression that he had been under the influence or anything. There was really no reason to not believe him, but yet she wasn’t totally comfortable with the situation either.

“All I have is my word. I can’t prove I’m not guilty, not yet anyway, and I hope you believe me because I need you to believe me, Liz.” What would he do if she couldn’t? he wondered. How much would it hurt to lose her a second time? The fact that she wasn’t coming closer said more than words could and it was even worse than spending a whole night in a holding cell with a bunch of real junkies and drunks. “Liz…” he pleaded quietly, “what do you want me to – “

She pressed a finger against his lips when she closed the short distance between them and shook her head. “You don’t have to say anything. From what I know…. and the things I know about you, I trust you’re telling the truth, Max,” she tried to explain and tapped her head. “But you get burned once and you’re afraid of the fire.” Her hand moved to caress his cheek for a moment. He seemed tired and very lonely in that moment and it wasn’t a look that she wanted to see on his face. “My former life and especially the Trent chapter left me with doubts in other people, but that’s my problem, not yours.”

“No, it is,” he protested. “I don’t want you to look at me like I’m a monster.”

“You’re not, and I don’t think of you like that,” she denied. “We’re still learning to trust each other, Max. Give it some time.”

He nodded and was glad when she moved enough to show him it was okay to touch her. Without thinking twice he pulled her into his arms and buried his face against her neck, enjoying her presence as if they had been separated for weeks.

Liz savored the feeling of him in her arms, taking comfort from her touch and her presence even as she drew strength from his. “Are you okay?” she murmured after a few minutes.

“I’ve been better,” he admitted as they slowly pulled apart. “I’m out on bail but this could still end with me in jail.”

“Did you tell him about Trent?”

“He’s actually a she, and yeah, I told her. It makes sense if he’s behind this. I can’t think of anything or anyone else who would wanna do something like this.” He lifted his gaze to hers. “Liz, she said if I was right about him bein’ behind this it probably wouldn’t be long before we get a visit from CPS.”

“They could take Aaron over this, couldn't they?” she whispered.

He nodded. “I’m sorry. Kathleen’s gonna begin an investigation but it may not produce any results in time to prevent that from happening.” He sighed and took her hand. “C’mon, let’s get outta here.”

She swallowed hard and fell into step beside him. “Did everything go okay with your parents?”

“As okay as it could, I guess.” He stopped and looked at her. “I don’t have the best relationship with them, at least not with my Dad, and I’m sorry you had to call them. I know that’s not the way anyone wants to meet their partner’s parents.”

“Your mother seems nice,” she shrugged. At least he still had parents to meet. Gosh, what if they took Aaron from her? She didn’t dare think about that.

“She’s okay.”

“And your father isn’t?”

“He’s…” Max hesitated, “things between us are strained.”

“Because of what happened in the past?”

He nodded dumbly.

“Guess there’s still a lot I don’t know…”

“I know,” he interrupted her. “But you will.” And he was sure if she decided to come with him to visit his parents tonight, his mother would take care of that for him.

“Okay,” she agreed. “Where’re we going now?”

Max stopped and looked at her. “Good question. Do you have classes?”

“Technically yes, but I decided not to go because I totally forgot about the homework.”

A slight smirk crossed his lip when the admission made her blush slightly. “So, wanna go pick up Aaron?” He knew she’d probably had a stressful morning with taking care of everything alone.

“We don’t have to pick him up, he’s with Michael.”

“With Michael?” Max frowned.

“Yeah, I called him this morning because Mrs. McGinty had an appointment.”

“Right,” he winced.

She shook her head to let him know it was okay. “He offered to keep Aaron for the day and from the looks of things the two of them have had lots of fun.” She pulled up the pictures and handed the phone to him. “They’ve been to visit Cody and they were at Michael’s dad’s house when he sent the pics of Aaron and Chase in the pool.” She smiled. “He looks like he’s having fun.”

Max chuckled as he looked through the pictures. “Yeah, he does. Is Michael dropping him off?”

“He said he’d call and let me know when they’re back in the city and he’ll meet me. So when he calls I’ll just tell him to drop him off at your place.”

“Was he gonna drop him off before dinnertime?”

“Oh, yeah. Why? Did you wanna do something special?”

“What would you think about having dinner with my parents?”

“With your parents?” she asked stupidly. “Did you tell them about us? I mean, well, I guess your mother knows after I called her but – “

“They don’t know much,” he interrupted her. “Just that we’re seeing each other and since I wanted to get to you soon as possible I didn’t get much time to talk to them. They invited me over for dinner, said you were welcome too.”

“Did you tell them about Aaron?”

“Well, no, not yet,” he admitted. “But only because I didn’t wanna tell them anything like that while standing on the sidewalk on a busy street. They’ll be cool with it.”

“You sure about that?” she asked skeptically.

“Totally,” he said, convinced. “They might be surprised and I do have my difficulties with them, but they were good parents to me, Liz.”

It wasn’t the way she had imagined meeting his parents for the first time, but after last night there probably wasn’t a better way to get it over with.

“If you’d rather not it’s okay. I can go alone,” he said when he saw her hesitation. He’d rather go with her, but he knew it might be too much to ask.

“No, no,” she said, “we’ll go with you. It’d be totally rude not to go and I don’t want your parents to think I don’t want to meet them or anything.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think they’d think that,” he denied. “Mom would be disappointed but she’d survive.”

“I think under the circumstances it’d be best if we all just go and have dinner with your parents.” She was quiet for a few minutes. “How’re we gonna get there? Wasn’t your jeep impounded when you were arrested?”

“Yeah, and I’ll never get it out in time for dinner.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sure you’d rather not drag Aaron around on the subway at night so I’ll make sure we’ve got a ride.”

“We'll, he’s gonna have a memorable day,” she said with a quiet chuckle. “I just hope he gets a nap in there somewhere because if he doesn’t when he starts to wind down tonight he’s gonna get very cranky very fast.”

“We’ll be doing good if I don’t fall asleep at some point.”

Liz looked at him, taking in the dark circles under his eyes and the exhaustion in his features. “It’d probably do you good to take a hot shower and try to get a little sleep before we’re due at your parents’ for dinner.”

“I might do that,” he agreed even though he knew there wasn’t much time for that. “Think we have a little more time before Michael brings Aaron back?”

Liz looked at her watch. “Yeah, I think so. He said they’d be at his dad’s for the afternoon and the boys are getting along pretty good.”

“That’s cool,” Max mused and pulled her towards the subway station. “Do you mind if we make a quick stop by the tat shop? I haven’t had a chance to check in with Amber although I’m pretty sure my parents let her know what was going on.”

“I don’t mind,” Liz assured him. “I find your shop pretty interesting.”

“You do?” One eyebrow quirked up in question.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, I do, Max. Maybe I’m not the tattoo type, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about them. Actually I’d love to watch you work sometime.”

“I think we can arrange that,” he smirked and kissed her cheek. God, this was all so cliché. The drugs combined with his past AND the fact that he owned a tattoo studio… Who the hell would believe his story?

****

Maria stared at the digital numbers to the right of the elevator, watching them slip by one after the other. That feeling of dread had settled over her the closer they got to the hospital and as they neared the pediatric floor it worsened. She startled when a hand settled on her shoulder and she tossed a sheepish grin at her companion.

“Sorry, forgot you were there.”

Tony shot a mock frown at her. “Forgotten that easily, huh?” He shook his head. “I think I may be mortally wounded.”

She laughed half-heartedly and wished the elevator would hurry up even as she dreaded what was waiting for her. Hospitals were exhausting, the waiting was stressful, and knowing what they knew of Cody’s condition it was impossible to rest.

“Did you get hold of Tess?” he asked.

“Yeah. She was just getting ready to get off from work.”

“She comin’ by?”

“I don’t know, told her she doesn’t need to since she didn’t get much sleep last night and then had to work.”

Tony nodded, but he was sure the other girl wouldn’t miss the chance to support the family of her new and old best friend. “You didn’t get much either.”

“Guess not,” she shrugged. And part of it had been Michael’s fault.

They looked up when the elevator came to a stop and opened up. “Isabel,” Maria said in surprise when the other girl passed by just as they stepped out.

The other girl stopped in her tracks when someone called her and she turned enough to see her friends. “Oh, hey,” she gave them both a quick hug and looked at Maria sympathetically. “I’m sorry about Cody, girl.”

She just nodded. “Thanks.”

“I’m on my way to see some other patients right now, but I’ll check on you guys later, okay?”

Maria nodded and they walked the rest of the way to the room Cody had been given. Her heart started to pound when she stepped into the room and saw a couple of nurses gathered around her brother’s bed. Their presence wouldn’t have bothered her if it hadn’t been for Cody fighting and crying.

“What’re you doing?!” she demanded as she rushed to his bedside.

“Maria, stop,” Amy said as she reached for her daughter’s arm to prevent her from getting in the way.

“What’s going on, Mom?”

“They need to do another blood draw and he’s fighting them.”

“I know he’s been a little moodier than usual...” She trailed off, not wanting to think about what that meant. The doctors had told them in the past that Cody’s illness would affect his moods the more it progressed. She hugged her mom, wishing she could wipe the look of fear from her eyes.

“Ow!” One of the nurses took a step back from the bed, checking his arm where the little boy had just bitten him.

“Cody, this’ll just take a minute,” the other nurse said, her voice calm and soothing.

Cody shook his head and pulled his arms in against his body as tightly as possible. “No!” He tried to kick her but before his foot could make contact with her body someone grabbed it. He started to scream angrily but was shocked into silence when he was suddenly tugged down in the bed by firm but gentle hands.

Maria chuckled quietly as Cody and Tony stared at each other. Her brother’s expression was one of shock and she watched as the nurses stepped back for a moment, glancing at each other before giving the man at the foot of the bed their full attention. Like Michael, he had the kind of presence that commanded attention, but he didn’t look away from Cody until the boy finally gave in with the barest hint of a smile.

“You know they’re not gonna go away no matter how hard you scream, don’t you?” Tony started to talk to the boy calmly without releasing him.

Cody dropped his gaze to stare at the railing at the end of the bed instead of looking at him while he nodded, his face still red from crying and screaming.

“Then don’t make their job even harder, short stuff,” he continued and sat down next to Cody. “You know, it hurts a lot more when you fight it.”

“I don’t want them to poke me no more,” he complained with watery eyes.

“It’s just a very tiny poke,” Tony promised and saw one of the nurses approach them again from the corner of his eye. She rubbed an alcohol pad on the boy’s little arm.

Cody made a face, his expression one of fear, but he didn’t dare throw another fit.

“You know what I always do when they need some blood from me?” the firefighter continued while the nurse did her job. He waited until Cody shook his head before he reached up to tug on the boy’s little earlobe several times. “This.”

He frowned. “Why?”

Tony pointed at the little tube full of blood as the nurse removed the needle. “Because you don’t feel the poking needle then.”

The boy stared at the nurse, amazed. “Wow,” he said, his voice hushed.

Amy watched Tony as he talked Cody, touched by the way he handled the situation and by his patience with her little boy. The doctors had explained that as his health deteriorated his moods would be back and forth and even though she knew he was getting worse she wanted to believe his difficult behavior was related to being told he was going to have to stay in the hospital rather than his condition worsening.

“We’ll get these down to the lab and let Cody get some rest,” the female nurse said as she approached Amy.

“Thank you, Sara.” She glanced over at the other nurse. “Charlie, how’s your arm?”

He smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not the first time I’ve been bitten and it isn’t likely to be the last.” He reached over to pat Cody’s leg. “I’ll see you a little later, Cody.”

Cody glared at him until his sister came around the bed to look at him. He knew what she wanted and he just wanted all the doctor people to go away.

“Isn’t there something you wanna say to Charlie?” Maria asked.

“No,” the boy said stubbornly and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Cody,” his mother warned him.

“Sorry,” he muttered half-heartedly.

Charlie smirked before he left the room. “’s alright,” he told them.

Maria sighed when they were finally alone and she placed her bag in one of the chairs before she went to kiss her brother’s head. “You know, Tony and I thought you guys might be hungry, but I guess only good boys deserve some chicken nuggets, what do you think, hmm?”

Cody’s eyes wandered to the little box in his sister’s hand. “I’m good,” he promised.

“Uh-huh,” she handed the box over to Tony and went to get the salad for her mother. “Here, Tony insisted you’d like this one, Mom.”

“Thanks,” Amy hugged her daughter and sat down at the little table in the corner. “I need to get back home to get some of his things,” she told her quietly and looked at her son, glad when he seemed to be in a better mood now that they were here and the man sitting on the bed was feeding him one of his favorite things.

“Okay,” Maria agreed. “I’m planning to stay the night, so maybe Tony could drive you. That way you don’t have to carry it all yourself.”

“Oh, I don’t want him to – ”

“It’s okay, Mom, he won’t mind. I’m sure.” Maria rolled her eyes with a little smile. “He’s one of those good Samaritans just like Michael.”

Amy nodded. “I see.” The thought of collecting her son’s things at home to bring them back here scared her like nothing before, but she needed to be strong.

“And Michael said he’d stop by later as well, so I’m sure Cody will have lots of company while you’re gone.”

“That’s good.” She stared down at her salad, not feeling the slightest bit hungry, but she made herself take the first bite anyway.

Natalie36: We’ll be getting to dinner soon. Maria and Cody are in a tough spot but they’ve got a great support system. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with CPS.

CandyliciousLovah: Lol, he’s hard to resist! Ava says you can look but don’t touch… looks like he’s spoken for.

keepsmiling7: Max is lucky – he’s got a lot of people on his side. They’re still finding their way but this was an important hurdle for them.

Dinner isn’t far away.

kismet: Little ones should be free of such pain and worries. But he does have a strong support system and they’ll all be there to help in any way they can.

We’ll be getting to that dinner soon and Liz and Aaron could very well be what they need to bridge that gap.

Cardinal: You’re right about that – Tony is not gonna be happy once he finds out his party was used to set one of his friends up. The guys will be looking into things though.

We’ll be getting to the dinner soon and we’ll see how things go from both sides.

Earth2Mama: We should see plenty revealed during that dinner.

begonia9508: Yep, they keep you busy with all that poking, don’t they? Fingertip pokes suck! No matter where they poke you with the needles leaves you sore and cranky. Cody was just tired of being poked and prodded.

Lol, no one could ask for more with these kinda guys!

We’ll be getting to the dinner soon and we’ll find out what Philip and Diane think about Liz.

sarammlover: Ya gotta love Tony! Ava says she saw him first, lol. We’re not sure that’s true, but she’s adamant that he’s hers. We’ll get to dinner with the Evans’ parents soon. Lol, glad you’re liking Sara without the h.

xilaj: Tony is pretty amazing. Maria would do well to take his advice.

Liz and Aaron are also benefiting from these new friendships. Trusting Max is a real leap of faith but it was something they both really needed in that moment and it was also an important and defining moment in their relationship. We’ll hope that if CPS does come to call that they’ll see things for what they are. Dinner with the parents is coming soon. Lol, there’s no telling what Diane might offer up. We’ll get more of Max’s history before too long.




Part 95

Our Little Rascals

Tess stepped off of the elevator and walked down the hall, her gaze scanning over the room numbers as she passed them. She glanced down at her left hand to check the number she had scrawled there because she hadn’t had a piece of paper handy when she had talked to Maria earlier. She frowned at the fuzzy lines that had run together when some teenager had spilled his Slurpee on her hand and she’d wiped it off before remembering what was written there.

Maria’s mom stepped out into the corridor with Tony right behind her and she could see the worry in the older woman’s features. “Hi, Ms. Deluca,” she greeted hesitantly. She and Maria were on their way to repairing their friendship but she didn’t know what the woman thought about her or the situation.

“Tess, it’s so nice to see you,” Amy said with a smile.

She relaxed at the easy greeting. “How’re you doing?”

“Doing the best I can.”

“How’s Cody?”

“A little better now that Maria’s here. You know he just worships the ground she walks on.”

“She bribed him with chicken nuggets didn’t she?” Tess asked and smiled, knowing it was true.

“You know it,” Amy smiled. “He loves them and thank God they’re not as unhealthy as some of the other stuff he likes.” She glanced at Tony briefly. “Excuse us; we were on our way to get some things from home.”

“Okay,” she stepped aside to let them pass. Tony was just as much of a hero in the dark night as her brother when it came to situations like this, so it didn’t surprise her that he was so willingly helping out.

“Ready for a comfortable ride?” he teased with a slow grin and led the way as Tess turned to enter the room. She poked her head in it first. “Hey there.”

“Hey,” Maria glanced up from the bed she and Cody were sitting on with a few books spread out around them. “Come in,” she told her newest and oldest best friend, glad she had decided to join them for a while.

Tess smiled and stepped further inside, noticing the little boy’s skeptical look.

“Don’t ya wanna say hi?” his sister asked and bumped his side.

“Hi,” he responded shortly.

Maria looked at her apologetically. Sometimes Cody needed time to warm up with people who hadn’t been around regularly.

Tess nodded briefly in understanding and sat her bag on the table. “Look, I brought you something,” she told him and pulled some DVDs out.

His fingers flexed as he stared at the colorful cases and after a moment he held his hands out expectantly. “I like dolphins,” he said as his fingers traced over the underwater scene.

Maria poked him. “Have your manners gone on vacation?”

He ducked his head and smiled as he squirmed away. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

“You’re welcome.” Tess shook her head to let Maria know it was okay. “I didn’t know if he had any of those but I figured dolphins were a safe bet.”

“He’s crazy about them,” Maria agreed. She watched him as he removed the packaging and popped the first case open. “Maybe we’ll watch one later, huh?”

Cody leaned against her side. “Is Mike gonna come see me?”

“Maybe he’ll stop by later,” she said and dropped a kiss on his head. Michael had told her he would, but she didn’t want to promise anything since he was with Aaron and sometimes little kids could change your plans really quickly.

“He’s not bringing that stupid girl, right?”

Tess snorted at Cody’s description of her brother’s girlfriend. Obviously he really wasn’t a big fan of hers.

“Cody,” Maria warned him. “She’s not stupid.” She looked at Tess over his head and mouthed SHE IS to her.

The boy kicked the blanket in front of him instead of saying anything, expressing his opinion perfectly well with the action.

“I think he’ll come alone,” Tess said, but didn’t tell him that she knew for sure. Michael had called her after work Michael to let her know to bring some DVDs so the boy would have something to watch once he arrived with the portable player.

“See,” Cody said, looking at Maria meaningfully.

“See?” Maria mocked gently and stuck her tongue out at him.

He looked back at the DVD cover and sighed. “When can we go an’ see the dolphins?”

“I don’t know about the dolphins but I’ll bet I can bring Chase to hang out for a while this weekend,” Tess said, hoping to distract him so his sister wouldn’t have to try to come up with an answer.

“Okay,” he agreed.

She looked at Maria. “Do you need anything?” She knew without asking that she would be staying at the hospital overnight.

“No, I’m good.” She got up and walked around the room to arrange the blinds on the window differently. Cody’s room was on a high level and the sinking sun was blinding her and warming up the room unnecessarily.

Cody reached for the TV remote and pressed the button to turn it on. He had been in and out of the hospital so many times that he didn’t need any help working the control. He flipped through the stations and found some cartoons to watch. “Can Chase come tomorrow?”

“We’ll see,” Maria said and went to straighten up his blanket and pillow.

He made a face. “That means no,” he muttered grumpily.

“It means we’ll have to talk to his mom first,” she corrected him.

He shrugged but remained silent. He was tired and he just wanted to go home.

Maria glanced at Tess with a small eye roll. Sometimes it was really hard to be patient with him, but she knew it was much harder for him than it was for her.

Tess dropped down in one of the chairs that were actually more comfortable than they looked. “Are you and your mom taking turns staying overnight?”

“Probably, yes,” she glanced at her brother and was glad he was distracted with the cartoon. Cody probably hadn’t realized that his hospital stay wasn’t a short one this time.

“What’s your work schedule look like the next few days?”

“Other than a few fitness classes now and then I’m free,” Maria shrugged and glanced at her bag, pulling out a magazine just enough for her friend to see who was on the cover. “Haven’t gotten a new booking for a shoot yet.”

“Ungh, they sure didn’t waste time getting that out, did they?”

“No,” she shoved it back into the bag, not really sure why she bought it at all. Maybe to torture yourself, she thought bitterly.

She glanced at the other girl when Maria sat down beside her. “Have you talked to Michael?”

“Not more than a text this afternoon.”

“So you haven’t heard about Max then.”

“What about him?” Maria frowned.

She checked on Cody, making sure he was occupied before she answered. “He got arrested after leaving the party last night.”

The other girl’s eyes grew wide. “Why?”

“Michael said DUI and possession. He thinks maybe Liz’s ex is behind it.”

“Well, Max definitely isn’t into that, that’s for sure.” She shook her head and looked at her friend. “That’s bad. He’s a good guy.”

“Yeah, he is. Michael said someone must’ve drugged his drink at the party but he doesn’t know who. He knows everyone who was there but it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Yeah…” Maria said absentmindedly and bit her lip. “Ya know, Rodney was positive he overheard some guy talking about Ecstasy, but I told him he must’ve been wrong.”

“You’ll have to tell Michael. Maybe Rodney will be able to tell him who it was.”

“Yeah…”

“I wonder what this’s gonna mean for him and Liz,” she mused.

“Is he out yet?”

“He’d have to be, right? I mean, if he got arrested on his way home and it’s already after 5pm he’d have been released on bail by now.”

“Let’s hope so. Now I know why Michael was watching Aaron.”

“Yeah. Sounded like they were having a blast though.”

“Ya know him.”

“Yeah, he’s just a big kid at heart.”

Maria kicked her shoes off and placed her feet on the bed. “Let’s not talk about him.”

“Okay,” Tess said agreeably. She could understand – she didn’t want to talk about Kyle either.

“Isn’t it weird how fast things can change?” she asked after a while.

“Yeah, in the blink of an eye sometimes.”

“It sucks.”

“So what’re we gonna do about it?”

“I’m sure Kyle’s gonna talk to you.”

“I can just imagine how fun that’ll be.”

Maria snorted. “Maybe he’ll surprise you.”

Tess rolled her eyes. “Sure, maybe when pigs fly.”

****

Michael glanced in the review mirror and smirked to himself when the boy in the backseat slept peacefully. The boys had played outside in his father’s backyard all afternoon, so it had only taken about two minutes in the car before Aaron had fallen asleep deeply. He took the last turn and they finally stopped in front of Max’s building. The late afternoon traffic in New York City was a nightmare so it had taken over an hour to get back.

“Alright, buddy,” he mumbled and climbed out to remove the boy from his seat. He was still so passed out that even that movement didn’t wake him up. With his free hand he grabbed the boy’s stuff and then kicked the door shut with his foot to make his way up the front steps.

The door opened just as he reached it and a woman, probably in her mid-twenties walked out, giving him the onceover and then smirking saucily.

Michael turned slightly to watch her swaying backside, snorting slightly at the way she had checked him out before he continued his way.

“Thought you were taken?”

“Evans,” he stopped, surprised.

“So... change your mind about this whole relationship thing?”

“So what? Now I’m not allowed to enjoy the view?” He handed him Aaron’s stuff.

He hooked the strap of the backpack over his arm and tucked Rabi under it. “Enjoy the view when the ball an’ chain’s around and let’s see what happens,” he snorted.

“Court’s not here and unless you’re plannin’ to tell her I think I’m good.”

Max smirked when Michael didn’t even comment on the ‘ball and chain’ remark. “No, I have no interest in getting that involved.”

“Yeah, I guess you’ve got other things to worry about,” he shot a serious look at the other man.

“Yeah, just my luck.” He took Aaron and turned to go inside, motioning for Michael to follow. “Someone put the drugs in the jeep and managed to drug my drink because I sure as hell didn’t do it.”

“If that isn’t some shit.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. And I know that asshat’s gonna use this against us to threaten Liz’s custody of Aaron.”

“You’re positive it couldn’t be anyone other than Kennedy?” Michael asked as they entered the apartment.

“There’s no one else I’ve pissed off recently. And that guy’s just lookin’ for a way to get back at both of us.”

“Motherfucker,” Michael muttered under his breath and then smirked when he saw Liz. “No worries, he’s totally passed out,” he nodded at Aaron.

“I hope so because he’s much too young to add that to his vocabulary,” she said with a shake of her head.

“They played hard so little guy’s been passed out for an hour now.”

“The nap will be good for him. That way he won’t be cranky at dinner. Thank you so much for taking him today, Michael.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that. I love kids and they love me,” he shrugged with a grin.

Max rolled his eyes as he put Aaron down on the bed and took his shoes off. “Obviously that’s because you’re the same age mentally.”

“You two stop,” Liz rolled her eyes as well.

Michael just grinned and shrugged. “Sorry, Mom.” He leaned against the counter and folded his arms over his chest. “I know you didn’t know a lot of the guys at the party last night so I’m gonna do some snooping around, see if I can find a connection between Kennedy and someone who was there.”

Max nodded. “Kyle offered the same. Thanks.”

Michael gritted his teeth. “We’ll figure out what happened. Any idea when the drugs could’ve been put in your ride?”

“It was parked near Carter’s place so there was more than enough time I guess.” Max rubbed his temple. “The jeep isn’t the hardest vehicle to break into, so anyone could’ve done it.”

“Where’d they find the drugs?”

“Up around the steering column.”

“It had to be Trent,” Liz said. “I’m sorry, Max. I knew he was pissed but I didn’t think he’d go this far.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Michael said and looked between both of them. “It might take a while, but that asshat’s gonna get what he deserves.”

“I knew he was gonna do somethin’ but I didn’t see this comin’. And this isn’t in any way your fault, darlin’,” he said as he crossed the room and pulled her into his arms.

And this’s where I leave, Michael thought and coughed slightly. “I’ll let myself out.”

Max nodded and shot a quick glance at the other man. “Thanks, Guerin. For everything.”

“Wish I could’ve been there for you this afternoon. Maria would wish the same if she knew what was goin’ on. When your lawyer called me I told her not to call Maria ‘cause Cody was admitted to the hospital earlier and she would’ve felt bad about not bein’ able to be there for you.”

“We’ll catch up with her soon as we can,” Max promised.

Michael nodded. “Catch you guys later.”

Liz looked at the door when it closed behind Michael and then glanced at Max. “Got a feeling this’s just the calm before the storm.”

He nodded. “Yeah, but we’re gonna get through it, Liz.”

Yeah, but with what kinda scars, she thought. “I think I’m gonna take a shower before we get ready for dinner at your parents’.”

“Okay. I’ll keep an eye on Aaron.”

“He’s totally passed out, Max. I doubt he’ll wake up on his own and it’ll be a pain to get him ready.”

He looked into her eyes as his mouth seemed to go dry. “That an invitation? Because it sure sounded like one.”

She grabbed the collar of his shirt and stood on her tiptoes. “It’s a fact and it’s up to you what to do with it.”

He didn’t need to put a lot of thought into it. He pulled her closer and took her mouth in a short, heated kiss.

Without thinking twice, Liz hopped up and wrapped her legs around his waist, while groaning into his mouth. She knew they had a lot to deal with and things could change dramatically in the future, so all they had were moments to share and to enjoy.

Max’s hands cupped her ass as he maneuvered through the apartment to get to the bathroom. He wondered what had made her change her mind about waiting but he couldn’t get the words out.

“Put me down,” she rasped against the skin of his neck when they reached the shower.

He obeyed and turned slightly for more room, wincing when his move caused her foot to knock against the removable shelves of a small cabinet. The items on its top crashed to the floor, making lots of noise when a glass bottle of aftershave hit the tile.

“Damn it,” Liz held her breath and listened for any sound from the bedroom.

Just when she was sure everything was okay, they heard Aaron’s hushed voice. “Liz?”

Max held his breath. “He’ll go back to sleep, right?” He had to, he thought. The kid was worn out. There was no way he could be ready to go again after just an hour of sleep.

“Lizzie?” Aaron called again and moved from the bed, his feet making a loud slapping sound when they hit the floor.

Liz sighed and dropped her forehead to rest on his shoulder for a moment. “Yeah... that means he’s not going back to sleep.”

He squeezed her hip slightly and looked at her, using his free hand to tug her hair behind her ear. “Shower. I’ll look after him.”

She smiled. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen but I’m glad we’re here.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” he told her with a smirk and stole a kiss before he let go of her.

Aaron stood in the bathroom doorway and looked up at Max. “I gotta pee.”

Max chuckled at the sleepy, messy features of the little boy. “Alright, buddy, c’mon then.”

****

Cody was enduring another round of vital-taking by Charlie and he wasn’t bothering to hide his grumpy mood. It seemed like every time he started to relax and have fun one of them came in and made it stop. “It hurts,” he whined when the blood pressure cuff squeezed his arm tightly.

Charlie gently intercepted the little hand when the boy tried to pull the cuff off. “We’re almost done, partner.”

“No more, Charlie! Please.”

“Hey, I heard somebody raising the roof in here.”

Cody’s gaze shot to the door when he heard the man’s voice. “Mike, make him stop,” he begged miserably.

“Hey, Charlie,” Michael greeted the other man. “Think you could give us a couple minutes?”

“Sure, just call when he’s ready.” He removed the pressure cuff and set it aside before leaving the room.

“How’s it goin’, little man?”

“I wanna go home,” Cody cried and threw himself into his arms when he sat down on the bed.

“I know, Cody,” he mumbled against the little boy’s head.

“D-d-did y-y-y-you brought th-th-the DVD p-p-player?” The sobs shook his body and made it hard to talk clearly.

“Yeah, I brought it with me. And I’ll just bet if we let Charlie get your vitals outta the way we can kick back and enjoy a movie. Whatcha say?”

Cody leaned back and sniffed. “Can’t you do it, Mike?”

“Well, I could probably talk him into letting me do it, but ya know someone else has to do it when I’m not here.” He tipped Cody’s chin up. “And it's a lot easier for both of you if you cooperate with them, right?”

The boy nodded wordlessly and avoided eye contact.

“Hey, I’m serious, little man. I know this sucks but you can make it easier.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” He kissed the little boy’s head and stood up. “Lemme go get Charlie and see if he’s okay with me taking your BP, okay?”

He dropped his arms from around Michael’s neck and moved enough on the bed to let him get up, lying down on his bed with his arm already stretched out for the procedure.

Michael went to get the nurse and came back with him a few moments later. He grabbed the bag he had dropped in one of the chairs when he came in and carried it over to the bed. Charlie would oversee things and take down the information, giving him and Cody a little break. He pulled his personal medical equipment out and let the little boy play with the stethoscope while he fitted the child-size cuff on his arm.

Cody stayed calm with his best friend doing the job and he waited patiently until the procedure was finished before he sat up again. “Can we watch Flipper now?” he asked and ran his hand over his hurting upper arm.

Charlie chuckled as he notated the results in Cody's chart. “Guerin, you should’ve gone into pediatrics like your sister. You’ve got the touch when it comes to kids.”

“Yeah, I’ve thought about it,” he admitted. The idea of becoming an EMT had stemmed from 9/11 and the fact that there hadn’t been enough people to help those injured in the attacks. It had revealed an underlying interest that went deeper though, so lately he had started to look for other ways to advance his training.

“You’d make a helluva pediatric doc.” He finished his documentation and signed off on it. “You guys call if you need anything.”

Would he really be? he wondered, glancing at Cody. Maybe. “Okay,” he agreed and waited until he was alone with the boy again before he pulled the portable DVD player out and set it on the adjustable table. “Where’s your sis, hmm?”

“She wanted some coffee but she’s gonna be back soon.” He watched Michael get the player set up. “You’re gonna stay, right?”

“For a while, yes,” he agreed.

“And then you gotta go to work?”

“No, then I’ve gonna get some sleep so I can go to work in the mornin’,” he told him, leaving the fact that he would be visiting his girlfriend out for now. He and Courtney hadn’t had the best start and there was no reason to upset him more right now.

“Oh.” He picked at the light blanket covering him. “Maria’s gonna sleep here tonight.”

“Yeah,” he had already expected that and if he had gotten any sleep the night before he would’ve considered it too, but in his state he needed a little more than an uncomfortable hospital chair or he wouldn’t survive the next day at work.

“Mike?” He waited until he had the man’s attention before he continued. “Am I gonna go home again?”

Michael’s heart sank at the boy’s question. He swallowed hard before he answered. “Sure, it’s just gonna take some time.”

“Do you think I gotta wait for my new heart first?” He played with the oxygen line and sighed. “’Cause I think they gotta be lookin’ a long ways away to find it or it wouldn’t take so long.”

“Some things take time.” He ruffled the boy’s hair. “We’ve just gotta be patient.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t know,” he said honestly.

“Oh.” It had to be long if Mike didn’t know, he thought and wiggled around to slide further under the covers. His eyes followed the cartoon characters on the television screen but he wasn’t interested in them any longer.

Natalie36: Keep hoping for the best with Cody!

CandyliciousLovah: Lol, well, that might be okay.

Eva: We’re going to find out very soon.

Earth2Mama: That’s very possible, lol.

Well, lol, they’ll certainly be more careful next time, won’t they?

sarammlover: The two of them are doing good together. Cody has a fight ahead of him but his support system will keep him strong as long as possible. Lol, well… we’re trying to nudge them along.

killjoy: Once we get them to clear the air we’ll see what happens.

keepsmiling7: Thanks, he’s a great little guy.

It is a scary thing and Trent’s in the perfect position to make that happen.

Lol, Max and Liz are thinking the same thing!

begonia9508: Thanks!

Cody is faced with a very real reality on a daily basis, and it’s a little more real than someone his age should be faced with.

Alien_Friend: We’re glad you had a safe trip and that you could slip into a happy place with TIC TAC.

Tony’s glad he got Maria to accept.

Max and Liz are in a good place as far as building their relationship. Sure, they’re just starting out but they both know what they want and Aaron is the most important thing to both of them.

We’re gonna see a lot of this group coming together to help Cody and his family.

Tess wants to mend her relationship with Maria more than anything. Well… almost more than anything.

This group will be working hard to figure out what’s going on with Max’s frame-up.

Lol, Max and Liz may just take that advice next time!

We’ll have many more of those moments – from both of your favorites – soon!

xilaj: The group maybe got some disagreements with each other at the time, but they still stick together in situations like Cody’s. The boy needs all the support he can get.

You don’t have to wonder about Alex, it will be explained today. The M&L dinner has to wait one more week, lol.




Part 96

Nobody Knows

The door opened as the girls walked back in carrying a few coffees as well as some sandwiches. Maria’s heart made a little jump when she saw Michael on the bed, but it quickly turned into worry when she recognized the sad expression on his face. “Hey, look who’s here.”

“Mike brought the DVD player so we can watch movies,” Cody said and smiled as he leaned into the man.

“He saved the day,” Tess cheered and smirked at her brother.

Maria set the food on the little table and then went to greet her best friend. “Hey CB, you look tired.” She hesitated for a moment but then she leaned in for a hug.

“Didn’t get much sleep and then had a pretty busy day,” he said as he returned the hug.

She didn’t want to let go of him so quickly but she did, walking back to her chair after kissing her brother. “Yeah, I can imagine.”

“Good day even if it did start earlier than planned.” He looked at his sister. “How’re you doin’?”

“Doin’ okay,” she replied shortly. As long as she was able to avoid thinking about Kyle it wasn’t that bad and the fact that something good had come out of last night helped too.

“You look like you survived a night with your friend Tequila.”

She made a face. “Thanks, you don’t look any better.”

He smirked. “Probably not. You hangin’ to watch Flipper?”

“Sure, I don’t have any other plans.” And hanging out alone at home would do no good, she thought.

He nodded. “You seen Isabel today? I haven’t had a chance to ask her how her date ended,” he said and laughed.

“She’s working, we just saw her in the hallway. She said she’d check on us soon and bring the evening meal for Cody.”

“Alright, they’ve got the best cherry jell-o,” he said and nudged Cody’s shoulder. “You gonna share?”

The boy grinned and shook his head. “Mine.”

They all looked up when the door opened and Amy and Tony walked inside, followed by Kyle. “Look who we picked up in the elevator.”

Maria could immediately feel Tess straightening up next to her and her gaze shot to Michael where he sat on the bed. Hopefully they didn’t allow a war to break out in front of Cody.

“Hey,” Kyle greeted no one in particular. He had debated back and forth about going to the hospital, but he knew he couldn’t punish Cody for what was going on.

“Hi, Kyle!” Cody greeted him with a wave. He was smiling happily as he looked around the room at everyone who had come to see him. “Are you gonna watch the movie too?”

“Sorry, buddy, but I’ve gotta be at work soon,” he said and hugged him briefly, avoiding looking at his roommate next to him. He had called the chief and asked if they could switch his shift for a while so he wouldn’t have to work with Michael as long as things weren’t settled between them.

Maria glanced between the guys, wondering at the shift change. It was rare that they worked different shifts, which meant he had probably requested it to avoid the situation with Michael. “We’ll catch Kyle for a movie another day, okay?”

From the strained mood in the room, Amy could tell that something was wrong between Kyle and Michael, but she left it alone for now and decided to ask Maria later when they were alone again. She was glad that all her friends had come here to distract Cody – no matter what was going on between them, in moments like this they were always able to stick together.

“Looks like we’re complete, huh?” Isabel grinned when she brought the food in and closed the door to stay for a few minutes. “Wow, I don’t think anyone else gets as many visitors as you, Cody.”

He smiled and nodded. “Mommy says it’s ‘cause you’re all special people an’ I know she’s right ‘cause nobody’s as cool as all of you.”

The room was filled with laughter and chuckles, although it was easy to tell it was superficial and didn’t express what they were really feeling in that moment.

“And you’re the coolest of all of us,” Michael told him and took the food from his sister to place it on the nightstand.

“Well, with all the excitement I think you need to eat, Mister,” his Mom told Cody and went to prepare everything.

“I’m gonna say goodbye again,” Kyle announced, feeling a little too trapped. He placed a few CD’s he had brought on the bed and ruffled the boy’s hair. “I’ll check on you tomorrow morning after my shift, okay?”

“Okay.” Cody looked up at him and nodded, lifting his arms for a hug. “I hope you don’t gotta go in no fires ‘cause Mike don’t work tonight an’ so he won’t be there to help you if you got hurt.”

Kyle forced a smile. “Yeah, I’ll watch myself.” He straightened up again and walked over to Maria, squeezing her shoulder slightly. “Take care.”

“You too,” she nodded. “Thanks for stopping by.”

He turned to leave the room, his gaze only briefly meeting Tess’, but it was long enough to detect the hurt and anger that were still there.

Tess crossed her arms over her chest, not caring that it was a defensive position. She watched Kyle, waiting and hoping he’d pull his head out of his ass long enough to try to talk to her.

“See you later, everyone,” he said finally and slipped through the door. This wasn’t the right time to talk to her about what had happened – not with everyone in the same room.

She rolled her eyes and wondered how desperate it would be if she went after him and demanded they talk.

Maria could see what was going on in Tess’ head and placed one hand on her arm, shaking her head. If she had learned anything from spending a lot of time with him the past year it was that he had to talk when he was ready.

She sighed and nodded. She didn’t really know the best way to approach him and unfortunately Maria would have a better idea. She shoved that thought away. Truthfully, that could work in her favor. She had believed Maria when she said there was nothing real between her and Kyle and she knew the other girl had her own guy issues at the moment and they had nothing to do with Kyle.

Michael had watched the scene in front of him, glad that at least the friendship between his little sister and Maria was healing. He moved from the bed to let Amy and Isabel handle dinner for Cody and stood next to his best friend’s chair. “Hey, think we can talk for a minute?” He nodded at the door.

“Yeah, sure.” She looked at Tess. “You’ll let me know if they need me?” she asked with a nod at her mom and brother.

“Okay.”

Maria stood and followed Michael outside, wondering what he wanted to talk about.

Michael led the way down the hall to one of the waiting rooms set up for families or visitors to get away for a few minutes. The room was painted in soothing tones, the furnishings and decorations chosen for comfort and tranquility. At the moment the room was vacant though so he took a seat on the couch facing the television on one of the walls and waited for Maria to join him.

“Is everything okay, Michael?” she asked cautiously as she sat down next to him.

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine.” He shrugged one shoulder and looked at her. “Dad’s been lookin’ into that issue with your old landlord. His lawyer was able to pull up old records and collect the money you gave him that Tess had already paid.” After hearing about Cody his dad had called his bank and had the check drawn up and then couriered over to the house.

“You’re kidding,” she said, her tone disbelieving.

“Not only am I not kidding,” he pulled the folded check from his shirt pocket and held it out to her, “Dad asked me to give it to you when I saw you.”

Maria took it from him and stared down at the amount of money written on it. “Wow… I – I don’t think I’ve ever had this much money before. Ya know, at one time, I mean.”

He smirked. “Seems like something good’s happening for once, huh?” He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and tugged her closer. “This way you don’t have to worry too much about your next job and you don’t have to stress out about that and being here all the time.”

“Yeah,” she agreed and glanced down the hallway to her brother’s room. “Gosh, it’s really happening, Michael.”

“Hey, nothing’s happening yet, RP,” he mumbled into her hair and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

Maria leaned into his touch and closed her eyes for a moment. “You’re a bad liar, Michael. I saw your face when we came in earlier.”

He smirked sadly at her intuitive observation. “We don’t give up.”

“No, we don’t,” she agreed and they both stayed in comfortable silence for a while before she straightened up again. As much as she enjoyed being close to him she knew it was wrong to take that much comfort from it because it was starting to be more for her than he would imagine. “How’re things with Courtney? You two good?” Ungh, yeah Deluca, why not stick a knife in your own heart?

“Guess we are, yeah.”

She frowned at his less than convincing tone and pushed the hope that rose in response far away. “Um-hmm, why does that not convince me?”

Michael looked at her and laughed at her lifted eyebrows. “Really, we are. Had some problems…” he paused, “mostly because of you, but I talked to her openly and I hope it’s not a matter anymore.”

I should feel bad about being the reason for his relationship problems, she thought, but couldn’t find a single bone in her that was. “Sorry, I don’t wanna be in the way – “

“You’re not,” he assured her before she could finish her sentence. “You’re important to me; she just has to accept that. I’m not staying away from you because she has trust issues with me.”

“Well, any girl who knows you even a tiny bit would have trust issues,” she teased, desperately wanting to get away from that subject again.

“But not you, right?” He looked at her seriously.

“What? No, of course not, Michael. Do you really have to ask?”

He shrugged and leaned back on the couch. “It’s probably different because we’re not involved in a relationship or anything sexual.”

Thanks for the reminder, she thought and glanced away from him.

Michael wiped his face with one hand tiredly. “Things with my sister and Kyle and other stuff… just makes me wonder what kinda person I’ve been in the past.” He turned his head and waited until she looked at him. “I never gave a shit about a second date or better said I never gave a shit about a real date at all.”

“Well, that’s true, but you didn’t promise anything either.” She didn’t know if she liked the direction this conservation was going.

“Sure, but I didn’t even give it a chance once.”

Maria really didn’t know what to say. The normal best friend advice would be to tell him that he was changing with dating Courtney, but she really couldn’t get that out.

“I really wanna make it work this time, RP,” he said with a serious look at her.

“Guess you mean Courtney?” God, she felt sick!

He nodded. “Yeah. I mean, everyone’s reactions just show me how superficial I’ve been in the past.”

“People’s reactions?” She lifted an eyebrow.

“No one believes I’m actually capable of having a relationship. They all look at me like they’re thinkin’: Oh give it another week and he’ll get bored with her. It won’t last.” He shook his head. “Of course it’s hard for her to trust me! Everyone keeps giving her the feelin’ that it’s just a matter of days or weeks.” He leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. “You should’ve seen Dad this afternoon. He doesn’t even believe I’m taking it serious.”

“Really?” She was surprised because Adam wasn’t normally like that.

Michael shrugged. “Guess he just doesn’t want to believe – like many others – that it’s not us who’re ending up together.”

She really wanted to run at that moment, but she knew she couldn’t because he would totally see why. There was no way she could let him know about her new feelings. It would create an even bigger mess. “You just started to see her,” she said and squeezed his arm, wondering if she could just put on a fake smile in front of him like she used to do it for her brother. “Don’t be impatient, and it’s really not that important what others think anyway. If you think she could be the one for you, well…” Maria swallowed at her own words, “that’s all that matters.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he said after a few minutes of contemplation. “They’re not the ones who’re in the relationship so if they can’t deal with it or accept it that’s their problem.” He gave her a friendly shove with his shoulder. “Thanks, I can always count on you to put things in perspective.”

She forced a smile and it felt like a grimace. “Hey, what’re friends for, right?”

Michael stared at her for a moment, wondering at her pained expression and then deciding that it was a result of her trying to smile in spite of everything weighing her down. “I’m here for you, Maria.” He hugged her against his side and dropped a kiss on her head. “Anything you need, you know that, right?”

She nodded. “Thanks.” There was just one thing that he couldn’t give her. Or would he maybe start to consider it if he knew, she wondered. With a loud mental thud she slammed the door on those thoughts for now. There were more important things to concentrate on right now and she really didn’t need guy drama in the mix with her worries about Cody. If she told Michael her insecurities about their relationship and he didn’t take it well she could lose her friend in the moment she needed him the most and there was no chance she’d risk that. Not now and maybe not ever! Who knew, these feelings for him could pass or it could just be a response to his sudden moral conduct.

“Wanna head back?” he asked and released her slowly, leaning forward to place his lower arms on his thighs while he looked at her. The thought of Cody being trapped in the hospital weighed heavily on him, so he could just imagine how she and Amy felt. None of them wanted to think about losing the little boy, but the fact that it could happen was in the back of their minds all the time.

“Yeah,” she nodded and looked at him, her eyes landing on his tattooed arm. “Oh, there was something I wanted to tell you, too.”

“What is it?”

“The thing about Max and the drugs… Tess told me,” she said when she saw his confused look. “Maybe you should talk to Rodney about it. I think he saw something at the party. I passed it off and told him he was wrong, but after what I heard about Max I’m not so sure anymore.”

“Good to know. I’ll talk to him, find out what he saw or heard. No way Evans is involved in anything like that.”

“I agree.” Max didn’t talk much about his past. Come to think about it, he NEVER talked about his past. But she still didn’t believe he would be involved in drugs for any reason. “You ever wonder why he’s so secretive about his life before we met him?”

He shrugged. “I used to, but not so much now. I figure he has his reasons and we’ve all got things in our past that we don’t wanna think about or talk about. He’s never let any of us in that far so he must have his reasons.”

“You think Liz knows?”

“If she doesn’t I have a feeling she will soon.” He chuckled as he thought about the first time he met Evans. “C’mon, let’s get back before Cody starts driving everyone up the wall wantin’ to know where we’re at and when we’re gonna watch that movie.”

“Yeah, and you know he will. He’s cranky about being trapped in here. It’s not gonna be easy.”

“We’ll make it as easy as possible for him,” Michael promised. “Gonna collect some of my handheld video games from home and bring them in tomorrow afternoon before I take you out to Sal’s.”

“I don’t know, Michael…” she hesitated about their earlier plans.

“No backtalk, Deluca. We’re gonna spend some time here with him and give your Mom a little time off and when she’s back we’re gonna head over for dinner as we planned.” He stopped to look at her. “I know you wanna be here with him, but putting your whole life on a hold isn’t gonna work, so let me distract you for a little while tomorrow night.”

“I’ll think about it.”

He rolled his eyes when she turned her back on him to walk towards her brother’s room. Maria was doing what she always did, that wasn’t anything new, but he wouldn’t accept a ‘no’ from her tomorrow.

****

“Can I help you, sir?”

Alex stared at the desk sergeant for a moment before taking a deep breath and stepping up to the counter. He had briefly considered dropping this because Isabel had refused to give him the pictures, essentially leaving him with nothing concrete but he wasn’t going to be intimidated by her cowardly ex.

“I need to file a report and get some information about getting a restraining order.”

The man’s gaze drifted over the duty roster in front of him. “Detective Cooper can take your complaint.”

He nodded and followed the sergeant’s directions to the detective’s desk. The cop was hunched over his keyboard, frowning at something on the computer screen. He looked up slowly when he realized someone was standing next to him.

“Help you with somethin’?”

“If you’re Detective Cooper you can.”

“Then you’re in luck.”

“The cop at the front desk said you could help me with filing a report and tell me what my options are where a restraining order’s concerned.”

He motioned to the chair next to his desk. “Have a seat and explain the situation and we’ll go from there.”

Alex nodded and took a deep breath before he sat down. Police officers always made him nervous and left him with an uneasy feeling, thanks to his sister and the time he’d spent dealing with cops and getting her out of jail.

“Well?” Cooper looked at him expectantly and waited for the man to speak.

“I think someone’s stalking me. Not me specifically, it’s more like this person’s stalking a woman and I’m involved with so he’s coming after me as well.”

The detective nodded while he scribbled down some notes on a notepad, without the slightest bit of shock in his features. “Do you have a name, Mr…?”

“Whitman, Alex Whitman. And yes, I have a name.”

Detective Cooper stared at him and made a rolling motion with his right hand. “You wanna share that information? Not much we can do if you don’t give me a name.”

“His name’s Richard Mathews,” he answered, waiting for the cop’s reaction. Isabel had said the man’s family was wealthy and well known, so maybe his name was familiar.

“Richard Mathews,” the detective mused, wondering if there was any chance the guy he was talking about was related to Christopher Mathews. He made a notation in the margin of his notepad and then wrote the name down with a question mark beside it. “You said this man’s been stalking your girlfriend and now he’s targeting you?”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Alex corrected him, “but yes.”

“You’re involved but she’s not your girlfriend. Okay. Has she indicated that she feels unsafe? Or that she intends to file a report?”

“No,” he sighed. “She still thinks he’ll stop on his own.”

“But he’s threatened you in some manner?”

“She received photos of us taken while we were hanging out on different occasions. My face was always x-ed out in them.”

“Did you bring the photos?”

Alex made a face. “No. My friend has them, but she’s not willing to file a report and she didn’t want to give me the photos because she didn’t want me to come here at all.”

“So she has photos that incriminate this man and indicate an obvious threat to you but she still doesn’t want to file a report?”

“That’s correct.”

“There’s not much we can do if you don’t have any proof that this man’s stalking you or that he intends to harm you in any way.”

“Damn it,” Alex muttered quietly, trying to come up with a way to convince Isabel to give him the photos or come here with him. He remembered something she had said earlier and wondered if he should bring it up. “Do you know Mr. Mathews?”

“Mathews is a pretty common name, Mr. Whitman.”

“I know, it’s just…” he glanced at the Detective. “She said something about his family being pretty well known around town.”

“Unless he’s related to real estate mogul Christopher Mathews,” the detective said with a shrug. “That’s probably the only Mathews that stands out.”

“I don’t know about that,” Alex shrugged, but knowing his luck, he probably was.

“His son’s engaged to one of Adam Guerin's girls.” It wasn’t protected information; that was public knowledge.

He winced. “WAS would be the word.” Was Isabel’s dad someone else you needed know in New York City? Obviously Cooper knew him for some reason.

The detective leaned back in his chair and it creaked ominously in protest. “Was, huh?” His gaze moved over the man sitting in the chair next to his desk. “Whose decision was that?”

“Hers.” Alex felt bad for talking about personal things that involved Isabel, but maybe it was important.

“So she ended the engagement and now you think Mathews is stalking the both of you. I can file this report but honestly, if you can’t provide proof in some form there’s little we can do for now.”

“I’ll try to convince her to give me the pictures.” He doubted he would be successful though. Isabel Guerin was one stubborn woman and if she had set her mind about something, she wasn’t going to back down easily because admitting she was wrong wasn’t one of her strong points at all.

“Unfortunately there’s little that can be done unless he physically assaults you. At this point all you have are a few photos that you can’t present as evidence and even with those you have no proof that he’s the one who took them.”

“I just wanted to file a report so at least there’s something on the record if the guy doesn’t back off,” Alex rubbed his face, knowing there wasn’t much more he could do.

The detective nodded and finished entering the information before printing the document. “Be right back.” He got up and walked over to the printer, pulling the forms off and carrying them back to his desk and sitting down. “If you could just look that over and then sign here at the bottom I’ll get that on file.”

“I think that works,” he agreed and signed the paper after a few minutes of reading. “Thank you, Detective Cooper.”

Cooper shook his head as he signed off in the appropriate places. “No problem, Mr. Whitman. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. Just keep in contact if he causes you anymore trouble.” He reached for one of his business cards and held it out to the man.

“I will. Have a good day.” Alex pocketed the card as he got out of his chair and he shook the other man’s hand before he left.

“What’s that all about?”

Cooper looked up when someone stopped beside him and spoke. “Hey, Kennedy, how’s it hangin’?”

Trent dropped down in the chair that had been recently vacated and shrugged one shoulder. “What’d that troublemaker want?”

“Troublemaker?” The detective lifted one eyebrow. Mr. Whitman hadn’t really struck him as a man from that category. “You know him?”

“You know Christopher Mathews, right? The king of real estate around here? Well, this Whitman guy’s got it bad for his son’s fiancé. Heard she broke up with him and now they’re tryin’ to cause Mathews’ son some trouble.”

“What kinda trouble?” He couldn’t really come up with anything the guy could do to really harm the Mathews family in any way.

“I guess it’s not enough that she trampled all over the guy’s stones, now they’re tryin’ to ruin his reputation too. Heard it’s gotten kinda ugly.”

“Seeing someone new isn’t a crime.” Copper shrugged, unconcerned although he knew that men – especially well-known men could make a big deal out of it.

“No, guess not, but sure seems wrong to just do their best to ruin the guy’s rep.” He shrugged and scanned over the report lying on the desk, memorizing the case file number that had automatically been assigned to it. He wasn’t getting anywhere with Cooper so he’d stop in and chat up the records clerk. Markinson owed him a favor; he’d make sure the case file got lost in the system.

“Well, for now we don’t know which side’s tryin’ anything here.” The detective got up and grabbed the paper and his hat.

“I suppose only time will tell.” He got up and shoved his hands in his pockets. He had done his homework after coming back from the beach house, looking into everyone Liz was now associating with.

“Yep,” Cooper put his hat on. “Guerin vs. Mathews? I really hope this doesn’t turn out as ugly as it could get.” He snorted and nodded before he left. Kennedy was a spitfire sometimes and he wondered how much he really knew and how much of it was just his own spin on the situation.

Trent snorted softly at the guy’s retreating back. “Yeah, we’re gonna see how ugly it gets,” he muttered to himself. He needed to think about paying a visit to Richard Mathews.

begonia9508: Cops like Trent do taint public opinion of cops in general and that’s an unfortunate reality. Hopefully we’ll see him stopped before long.

Michael and Maria losing their friendship would be a great loss and maybe that’s part of the reason why he can’t see what’s right in front of him.

Natalie36: Lol, no excuses necessary… we agree!

Earth2Mama: Lol, that has yet to be seen.

Something will eventually happen that will have our guys opening their eyes. Now what they do after that… well… we’ll have to wait and see.

keepsmiling7: Well, they’ll be working on making that happen.

Rodney: Trent’s doing his homework. Unfortunately he’s not stupid.

As for Kyle… well, not everyone blames him. It’s mainly Michael, lol, but that’s something he has to come to terms with.

CandyliciousLovah: Oh, they could end up doing just that. Um, well, we’re not exactly there yet.

Eva: No one saw that coming, lol. He even surprised us!

You’re so right – that’s exactly how people like that make their biggest mistake. Chances are good he/they are going to cause some trouble first.

sarammlover: And he’s going to do his best to cause more. Cody’s a little fighter and we’ll be seeing more of him before long. Oh, Tess and Kyle will eventually have that convo.

Alien_Friend: Thanks! Trent is definitely doing his best to make everyone miserable. We hope to keep the surprises coming.

Kyle really did a good thing when he went to see Cody even though he knew he was likely to run into Michael.

Yeah, Maria is not in an enviable position right now. Feel free to be annoyed with Michael, lol.

xilaj: The situation between Tess and Kyle really has him reevaluating his own past. Oh, that’s definitely a tough position to be in and it’s killing Maria to smile and be so supportive in this situation.

We will eventually see Tess and Kyle get to a point where they have that talk.

Lol, yeah, talk about your demented duo! Hopefully Detective Cooper will remember if that ever comes up.

One dinner with the parents coming right up!





Part 97

Underneath Your Skin

“You okay?” Max stood at the front door of his parents’ house that was situated a little outside of the city and turned to look at Liz. She had been quiet for most of the drive out here, which was a very good sign that she had been a lot on her mind.

“I’m fine,” she forced a smile. “Just a bit nervous.” It wasn’t that she feared meeting his parents, but the circumstances could’ve been better, and they didn’t know anything about Aaron yet. What would they think about their son dating someone with a little kid? And there also was the fact that she didn’t know a lot about his background and the relationship he had with his mom and dad.

“Can we go home?” Aaron whined, pulling on her hand and leaning back with all of his weight. Although he had slept for a while that afternoon he was still cranky, which was just perfect timing.

“No, I told you we’re having dinner with Max’ parents and you need to be a good boy, okay?”

He stuck his bottom lip out and pouted.

“We want them to like us, don’t we?”

Aaron thought about it for a moment then nodded slowly and leaned against her leg.

“Alright,” Max said and forced his own nerves to settle. He doubted Liz could be more nervous about this meeting than he was. Spending a whole night in the same room with his dad was something he hadn’t done in a very long time and he had no clue how the old man would react. He lifted his hand and knocked on the door, pretty sure Mom had already heard the car.

“What’re you fussing for, Diane?” Philip asked as he watched her running her hands over her clothes and hair. She had heard the car pull up in the driveway and she had told Mrs. Leonard she would get the door herself but now she was standing several feet away from it fussing with every detail of her appearance. “You look fine and it’s not like we’re getting a visit from royalty.”

She turned to shoot a look at him. “No, but he is our son and he’s brought his girlfriend to dinner; it’s a very important occasion.”

“Then let them in.”

She waved at him, motioning for him to be quiet. “He hasn’t knocked yet. I don’t want him to think we’re watching the driveway and just waiting to pounce the second he arrives.”

He rolled his eyes. “Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?”

“No, it’s not,” she defended herself. She was a little bit nervous about meeting her son’s girlfriend and to be honest a little bit worried about how the evening would go since it was the first time her husband and son had sat down to dinner together in a very long time. Her eyes widened when the knock she had been waiting for finally came. “There they are.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the door, releasing him as she unlocked it and pulled it open. “Max, you’re here...” her gaze immediately settled on the little boy when he sneezed. “Oh, my, who do we have here?”

It took a few seconds before he was able to speak and at first his voice sounded way too high. “Hey, Mom… Dad,” he coughed slightly. “This’s Aaron and you’ve already talked to Liz.”

Diane smiled and shook the young woman’s hand, hoping to put her at ease. “It’s so nice to meet you.” She winked. “And so nice to put a face to the voice.”

“Thanks,” Liz said and relaxed a tiny bit. “I’m happy to meet you too, Mrs. Evans.”

She crouched down to smile at the little boy. “Aaron, I’m so pleased you could come to dinner too.” Although if she had known they were expecting a little one at the table she would’ve made something a little more suitable for him, she thought as she went over what she had made. Well, Max loved her homemade baked macaroni and cheese dish and she had made that but the little boy would probably pick at everything else. “I hope you like mac and cheese.”

Aaron’s eyes grew wide as he nodded, his arm wrapped around Liz’ leg while the other one held Rabi tightly.

“He’ll love it,” Max assured her.

She stood and motioned behind her back for Philip to move forward. “Liz, this’s my husband, Philip,” she introduced him.

“Hello, Mr. Evans, it’s nice to meet you,” she held her hand out to him.

“Welcome to our home.” He smiled warmly and shook her hand. “Your boy looks a lot like you.”

“Must be because we have the same parents,” she smiled. “He’s my brother.” Everyone always assumed he was her son and considering the age difference it was really no wonder.

“I’m sorry, I just assumed...”

Diane took his arm and turned him back towards the living room. “Why don’t you and Max go and get everyone a drink? Mrs. Leonard will be setting dinner out shortly so we have a little time to sit and relax.”

Great, Max thought, she was doing it again. Whenever his mother had a chance she pushed his dad and him together in hope they would find a way past their strained relationship.

Aaron looked up at his sister and waited to see what she would do. He lifted his hands up to her when she finally paid him some attention.

“You’re suddenly getting shy, Mister?” she asked and crouched down to lift him up.

“Where’s Max goin’?” he whispered and buried his face against her shoulder.

“He’s getting us something to drink,” she told him and moved in when Diane made an inviting gesture with her hand. The house his parents lived had seemed big from the outside, but now that she was standing in the foyer she saw that it wasn’t big, it was HUGE.

“Sometimes I think we should move into something smaller but we’ve been here so long that it would just be strange to live somewhere else,” Diane said as they walked into the living room.

Aaron’s eyes widened when he saw the large cat lounging on the window seat. “Lizzie, look, they got a kitty cat.”

“Yeah…” she looked at Diane and let him down when the woman nodded.

“His name’s Garfield,” she chuckled. “Max named him.”

“Is he Max’s kitty?” he asked as he neared the animal. The cat rolled over lazily, lying on its back with its head hanging off of the cushion as it looked at the little boy.

“He belongs to the whole family,” Diane explained. “Go ahead and rub his belly, he just loves that.”

Aaron looked at Liz quickly to make sure she was okay with it before he reached out with his little hand to rub along the animal’s stomach, giggling when it purred loudly.

“Looks like those two will be friends in no time.” She smiled at the younger woman and gestured to the furniture. “How long have you and Max known each other?”

“Actually we’ve known for more than a year, but then didn’t see each other for a long time and just started again a few weeks ago.” Their story was anything but fancy, so she tried to describe it the nicest way possible when she sat down in an armchair next to Aaron to keep an eye on him.

“He seems a bit more settled than I’ve seen him in a while. Maybe that’ll help him and his father to find some common ground again.”

And straight to the point, Liz thought. “Yeah.”

“You know, Philip had no idea what was going to happen when he suggested the military as an option to help get Max out of that trouble he was in.”

“I believe – “ Liz started.

“Mom.” Max had overheard his mother’s last words and he glared at her. Did she really have to talk about THAT barely two minutes after their arrival?

“Your mother’s right,” Philip said quietly as he contemplated the amber liquid in the crystal decanter he held.

If he had been hungry a minute ago, he wasn’t anymore, Max thought and wanted to be anywhere other than in the middle of his parents’ living room right now.

“How old is he?” Aaron disturbed the silence in the room without realizing it.

“Almost seven years.” Max walked over and crouched down next to him, thankful for the interruption. He gently pinched the cat’s ears between two fingers and smirked when Garfield made a sound of complaint about it.

“Did you get him when you was little?”

“When I was a teenager.” He shifted slightly when Aaron sat down on his bent leg in front of the cat. “He’s a good cat.”

“I never had a kitty.” He rubbed the cat’s belly again, eliciting another rumbling purr from the contented feline. “Can we take him home wif us?”

“I think he has it a lot better here, buddy.”

“Oh.” He smiled when the cat caught his hand between both front paws and lifted its head to lick one of his fingers. “Can we get a kitty?”

“No, we can’t get a cat, Aaron,” Liz told him, knowing she had to be the one to tell him that. “It needs a lot of attention and a yard to play in.”

He bit his lip. “Doggie’s are nice too. Kyle’s dog was lots of fun when we was at the beach. Maybe we can get one,” he said hopefully.

“What I said goes for cats and dogs,” Liz looked at him with a small smirk.

He sighed and kicked the wall beneath the window seat.

“Hey.” Max reached out and stilled his movement. “We can always go to the zoo or come out here to see pets and animals, buddy, but your sister’s right. They need a yard to play in and with all the cars in the city it won’t be safe for them. They could get hurt and we don’t want them to get hurt, right?”

Aaron turned and threw his arms around Max, hugging him tightly and laying his head on his shoulder. “Maybe one day we can have a house that gots a garden so we can have a kitty or a doggie?”

He chuckled lightly and glanced at Liz for a moment. “Yeah, maybe later.”

Diane watched them, feeling her hopes for her son soar as he interacted with Liz and Aaron with such ease. He was involved in a relationship and he was looking down the road, seeing a future for the three of them. She glanced back at her husband when Mrs. Leonard stepped into the room to let him know dinner was ready to be served and she nodded when he looked at her.

“Well, it looks like dinner’s ready,” she said and stood.

“Let’s head over to the dining room then,” Philip nodded and got up as well.

“I’ll take him to wash his hands,” Max offered when he stood with Aaron in his arms. “Liz, you need to come with and oversee things?”

“Can’t hurt to know where the bathroom is,” she said and followed him.

****

Tess sighed and glanced at her brother when he slammed the door of his truck harder than he needed to. He had never been a man who carried his heart on his sleeve but it was obvious that he was upset after leaving the hospital. “You okay?”

Michael stared through the windshield while his mind went over the last minutes. Cody had been very upset about his announcement that it was time to leave, so he had been crying hard and neither he nor Maria or Amy had been able to really calm him down. He knew they couldn’t all stay with him day and night, but he still felt like an ass for leaving.

“We can’t just all put our lives on hold and stay at the hospital,” Tess talked to him calmly. “You’ve got a job and you need sleep. He’s just too young to understand that.”

“I know,” Michael blinked and looked at her briefly before he reached for the keys to start the engine. He maneuvered the vehicle through the parking lot of the hospital and waited until the signal turned green before they entered the street. “Just can’t believe we’ve reached this point.”

“It’s way too fast,” his sister agreed and leaned her head against the window on her side. Feeling so helpless about the situation was the worst and she knew that her brother hated those kinds of feelings the most.

They drove a few minutes in silence and she knew it was a sign that he didn’t want to talk about it, so she decided to switch to another topic, although it probably wasn’t any better. “Things between you and Kyle looked icy.”

He snorted in response. “More arctic, I’d say.”

“I can handle myself, Michael.”

“Never said any different.”

“What happened, it’s between me an’ Kyle.”

“The whole point is it shouldn’t have happened.” He gripped the steering wheel tighter as he changed lanes.

“I don’t tell you who you can and can’t sleep with.”

“I’m not tellin’ you anything like that,” he said with a shrug.

“Maybe you’re not tellin’ me that, but you’re sure as hell tellin’ Kyle that and to be perfectly honest, it’s none of your business, Michael. Just talk to him. There’s no reason for you to ruin a friendship over this.”

“When he grows a pair we’ll talk.”

She smirked. “Well, if you wanna get technical…”

“What the hell? NO,” he made a disgusted face. “Shut up, I really don’t need to know about that.”

Tess chuckled. “I guess it’s not a secret anyway, you guys do shower together at the station, don’t you?”

“That’s not the point,” he shuddered. “I’m showering, not looking at other guys’ dicks. Ungh.”

“You really don’t do the length comparing and stuff?” She gasped playfully.

“Fuck no!” Okay, they had done stuff like that, but no one – and especially not his little sister – needed to know that.

“Oh… okay” she shrugged. “Anyway, let me handle my life on my own. I appreciate that you care, Michael, but this’s nothing I want you in the middle of.”

“I’m not in the middle,” he said and pressed the horn when some stupid taxi driver sneaked into a tiny gap between him and the bus in front. “Stupid taxi drivers, think they can do anything,” he muttered under his breath. “I’m not in the middle. The thing is my best friend slept with my little sister and while I would’ve maybe been more okay with it if feelings had been involved on his side, I can’t tolerate that he did it just because he was horny.” Michael shook his head.

Just having the truth pointed out by her brother made her hurt all over again, but she pushed it aside. “You didn’t have a problem when he slept with Maria for the same reason.”

“That was different.”

“Why’s that so different?”

“Because it’s… you’re…” His left hand settled on the steering wheel so he could gesture at her with his right. “Y’know, you’re…” He growled under his breath. “It just is, Tess.”

“If that’s the best you’ve got then you’re gonna wanna work on your speech skills before you talk to Kyle.”

“No problem ‘cause I’m not gonna be talkin’ to him anytime soon.”

“You do know this’s just childish don’t you?”

“Just let me deal with this my own way.”

“Yeah, because you’re lettin’ me deal with Kyle my own way.”

“It’s not the same thing,” he insisted.

“Whatever.” She shook her head at him and slouched down in the seat, crossing her arms over her chest. “So can you honestly say it never once bothered you that Maria and Kyle were having sex?”

Michael stared out of the windshield while he considered what to say. His sister wasn’t a fool, she would see right through him if he lied. “It was weird first,” he shrugged one shoulder. “My two best friends having sex? It took some time to get used to it, but from the start they set their rules and it was never about anything else, so I really couldn’t say anything against it.”

“No, you’re right, but that wasn’t the question. I asked if it BOTHERED you, not if you had a right to say anything about it.”

“I wasn’t BOTHERED,” he denied, emphasizing the word as much as she had, “it just took some time to get used to it. Guess I was worried one of them would start to read more into it and it would end in a mess where my best friends couldn’t talk to each other anymore. Guess I can’t say I’m sad they finally ended it.”

“Do you know why?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled, assuming Tess knew as well. “Kyle thought he might get between Maria an’ me one day.”

“And you don’t believe he could be right?” How could he be so stupid and smart at the same time, she wondered.

“Let’s say I believe that he believes it could be a problem.”

She suppressed a snort. “Okay, so if Maria and Kyle had really developed feelings for each other, you would’ve been okay with it?” Honestly, she didn’t even want to think about that possibility and for her, yes, she was sure as hell glad they ended things without anyone having feelings.

“I don’t know why we’re even talkin’ about this,” he said as he swerved into the next lane. The sooner he could dump her off at Isabel’s building the sooner he could go to his girlfriend’s and get some sleep. “It’s not like it even matters because they’re not together anymore. Not that they were really together in the first place,” he reiterated.

Funny how he felt the need to keep going over that point, she thought and rolled her eyes. “I think you know I can hang onto a topic and talk it to death until I get a satisfactory answer.”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Somethin’ you an’ Isabel have in common. Why can’t the two of you be more like Ava? She minds her own business.”

“We look alike, Michael; we weren’t born with identical personalities.”

“Too bad.” He turned, taking a shortcut to bypass some of the traffic and grinning at her annoyed huff.

“Anyway, you an’ Maria seem to be getting along.”

“It looks like we’re getting back on track,” she agreed and turned to look out her window, uncomfortable when the conservation was turned around on her. “I hope it lasts.”

He frowned. “You have doubts? Maria wouldn’t pretend to forgive you if she hadn’t.”

“I know. We’re just starting and I’m not completely comfortable again.” Tess sighed and leaned her head against the window. “I lost her trust when I walked away and it’s not like it can just be pulled back up on command.”

“’suppose that’s true.”

“It was stupid – “

“It wasn’t the best thing to do,” he interrupted and glanced at her quickly, “but I understand why you had to leave and I think Maria knows that too.”

She nodded. “I shouldn’t have run away, but I couldn’t watch them together. Back then our group was working together so perfectly, ya know? After Matt’s death it was finally all getting back to normal, so how well would my feelings for Kyle have fit in there?”

Michael snorted. “Things like that never fit, sis, but you don’t have to run just because you think we can’t deal with it.”

“I’m here now,” Tess told him with a slight smirk, “and now you get to deal with the shit I’ve brought with me.”

“Lucky us,” he teased. “Seriously though, we’re glad you came back home.”

“You’re just glad Isabel has someone to stay with her to keep her occupied.”

He snorted and shifted, slouching down slightly. “Hell, I think she’s bein’ kept occupied by the nerd king.”

She slapped his arm with the back of her hand. “You don’t have to call him that, ya know? He’s not that bad and he seems to get along with Isabel.” It was her turn to snort. “That right there should give him some points.”

“Guess you’re right about that,” he agreed. “I’m still surprised she invited him out to the beach for the weekend.”

“Yeah.” No way was she gonna be the one to spill the beans about that one, she thought. She wouldn’t have brought him to the party the night before if it was just about pretending in front of Richard. Maybe Isabel liked the boy for real.

Michael stopped the car when they reached the building, where both of his sisters currently lived. “Guess she’s grown out of her usual asshole dating after ending things with Dick.”

“I sure hope so,” Tess rolled her eyes. “I always wondered why a woman with her looks even bothered to date people like him.” Isabel might seem to be superficial, cold and money-fixated from the outside, but she truly was nothing like that.

“They do say women like to fall for the assholes.” He looked at her meaningfully, referring to his roommate.

“That’s why Courtney’s dating you?” she asked with a smirk before they got into another round about Kyle.

Michael laughed. “Could be.”

Tess collected a few things on the seat that had fallen out of her bag during the ride before she opened the door and looked at him again. “Watch out, big brother, she might figure out you aren’t an asshole at all.” Sure as hell hope she never finds out though. “Thanks for the ride home.” She slipped out and shut the door, but the window was still open. “See you soon, Michael,” she called over her shoulder.

“Yeah,” he said and waited until she was in the building before he pulled out on the street again. There were only a few people who really knew him – Courtney definitely didn’t count among them yet. Would she one day? And how long would it take?

******

“Sorry, he had a really exhausting day and he tends to be like this when he’s tired. It has nothing to do with the food. It’s delicious,” Liz tried to excuse Aaron’s behavior during dinner. He had played with his meal more than eaten it.

Diane smiled. “It’s okay, Liz,” she assured her. “You really don’t have to explain anything. When Max was little we were never able to eat in a restaurant because he used to throw his food everywhere but in his mouth.”

“I’m sure that’s a complete exaggeration,” Max rolled his eyes. At least she had stopped talking about his relationship with his father, he thought.

“It’s not,” Philip added with a chuckle. “We started having every meal in the kitchen because the tiles there where much easier to clean than the wood floor here in the dining room, not to mention the mess he would’ve made of the wallpaper.”

“It was a nightmare and lasted for over a year,” his wife remembered with a chuckle.

“I guess I shouldn’t complain then,” Liz said, amused, and shifted the fork in her brother’s hand again. There was still a slightly stained mood in the room and she doubted it would go away – not until they were able to talk about a few things from the past and the present as well.

“How long have you and your brother been on your own, sweetie?” Diane lowered her voice so it wouldn’t carry to Aaron. She didn’t know much, but from what it looked like, it seemed that her brother wasn’t with her for just a visit.

“It’s been nearly two years since our parents...” She cleared her throat and nodded with a tight smile.

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Diane reached out to place her hand over Liz’ to squeeze it slightly.

“How old is he?” Philip asked.

“Four,” Max answered for her.

He glanced at his son. “Will he be enrolling in kindergarten this fall?”

“Not this year, no.”

Diane smiled. “Max started a year late because his birthday was just a few weeks after the start of the school year. Philip and I worked with him with his spelling, reading, and basic math. He was actually ahead of the other children when he was finally enrolled and he was able to skip a grade before long.”

Liz looked at her boyfriend with a smirk. “You didn’t tell me you’re so smart.”

He shrugged one shoulder with a half-smile. “Kinda thought it was obvious.”

“Can I go, play wif Garfield?” Aaron interrupted them.

Max checked with Liz before nodding. “Yeah, go ahead.”

“But wash your hands first,” she added.

“Don’t think Garfield would appreciate a little grease and crumbs in his fur?” he laughed.

Diane chuckled. “It’s been a while since we had a little guest in this house, hasn’t it, darling?”

Philip nodded. “They grow up fast.”

“Yes, they do,” she murmured, her gaze on their son.

Gosh, his parents could be really embarrassing, Max thought and wanted to hide somewhere. “Mom, you’re not pulling the family albums out now.”

She just chuckled. “In my experience girls just love to see their boyfriend’s old baby pictures. Old school pictures.” She winked and gave him a teasing smile. “Prom pictures.”

Philip cleared his throat slightly. “I think we have some more important things to get out of the way first.” He didn’t want to be the spoilsport here, but Max’ arrest was serious and it wasn’t over yet.

Max sighed. He’d rather deal with embarrassing stories and old pictures. “It’s really nothing we need to discuss, Dad. I mean, your lawyer’s handling things.”

“We want to hear the whole story, Max,” his mother interposed.

“I got arrested because someone drugged me and planted drugs in my jeep.”

His father stayed quiet for a moment. “Do you suspect who might’ve done that?”

“It’s alright, Max,” Liz said when she saw him hesitate. “They deserve to know the truth.”

begonia9508: Thanks!

Things are going to change, his relationship with Courtney and Maria’s new feelings for him are going to test the limits of friendship.

Philip and Diane have accepted them and we’ll see more of that today.

It might not have been easy but if they could just find some common ground they should be able to work things out.

Natalie36: That’s quite possible. We’ll see how that goes.

Earth2Mama: Oh, and we’re not finished yet. There’s more to come with the dinner.

CandyliciousLovah: These two play the role of brother and sister very well.

sarammlover: He may have overreacted but getting him to see or admit that, well, that might take some time. We’ll see a little more of dinner with the Evans’ today.

mary mary: Her presence is really helping keep things civil between the Evans’ men. They do deserve to know and we’ll be getting to that today.

keepsmiling7: We’ll see if things stay on that track today.

They do want to know everything and if they’re going to be able to help as much as possible they probably need to know.

Aaron really would like some sort of pet… and what little guy doesn’t?

xilaj: Things are rolling smooth so far. Philip and Diane deserve to know what’s going on and it can only help in the future. Aaron just loves Garfield and he sure would like to have a pet of his own. We will be seeing more of dinner in today’s update.

Alien-Friend: Oh, we hope so as well, lol.

Nah, we would never think you are biased.

Philip and Diane always wanted just the best… but ya know how things are with parents. What they think is the best for their child, doesn’t have to be the best at all, lol.





Part 98

Difficult Discussions

“Alright,” he sighed and glanced at his father nervously. “Liz has an ex. He didn’t take her getting custody of Aaron very well.” He looked up at his girlfriend and continued when she nodded. “For some reason he has a problem with her an’ me bein’ together even though they weren’t together anymore.”

“And you think that boy has something to do with this?” Diane asked, shocked.

“Trent’s behind it,” Liz told her, convinced. “He’s changed so much the last few years. I don’t know him anymore.”

“And he’s a cop,” Max added finally.

Philip leaned back and rested his hands on the arms of his chair. “If this man’s a cop and he’s behind this it won’t be easy to prove.”

“I’m sorry you have to deal with all of this just because of me,” Liz told her boyfriend honestly. The more time passed, the more certain she was that Trent was behind it.

Max shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.” He reached over to cover her hand and looked back at his parents. “The guy has a problem with both of us and he’ll take it out any way he can.”

Philip’s eyes wandered to the little boy playing in the next room as the meaning of his son’s words sank in.

“I can’t lose him,” Liz said and she sounded scared.

“Kathleen is a very good lawyer,” Diane assured her. “You told her about this?” she asked, looking at her son.

“Yeah, but she said chances are good CPS will be informed before she gets any results from her investigation.”

“And with this arrest a report to CPS could be damaging,” Philip mused.

“God, and we were just starting to get everything in order,” Liz whispered and hid her face in her hands.

Max got out of his chair to crouch next to her. “Liz, we’re gonna get through this.”

Diane and Philip glanced at each other as they watched their son. He had never cared for a girl as far as they knew, so it was surprising how much his life had moved on without their notice. “We’ll do everything we can to help out.”

“See? It’s gonna be okay, darlin’. And once we get Trent outta our lives we’ll never have to worry about him again.” Max shot a grateful look at his mom.

Liz nodded and tried to settle her nerves again. “Okay,” she exhaled loudly and forced a smile. “Thank you.”

Philip was taking everything in silently, observing the way his son interacted with the girl and her brother. “If that report is filed it’ll open an investigation into both of you.”

“We’ve got nothing to hide,” Max said.

“This cop, do you believe he was planning to contact CPS prior to your arrest?”

“Pretty sure, yeah.”

“So he must’ve felt he had grounds for CPS to be a viable threat.”

“He knows about my past, Dad. He used his power as a cop to pull my records,” Max said. “Liz has always struggled financially to keep them above water and she just recently moved in with me because he had kicked her out.” His gaze wandered over to the little boy. “Aaron’s epileptic, which made it next to impossible to find an affordable day care for him so he spent a lot of time with a babysitter in the neighborhood.”

“You’re sure that’s all? It seems to me that’s pretty slim.”

“That’s all,” he said, unwilling to humiliate Liz in front of his parents.

Philip nodded even though he had a feeling there was more to the story. “Well, as your mother said, Kathleen’s very good at her job. You’re in good hands.”

“There is something else,” Liz blurted out suddenly, looking at Max when he stared at her in shock. His parents had been great with them so far and they deserved the truth, she thought. Even though she was sure it would make her seem somehow less in their eyes.

“Liz, it’s alright,” Diane assured her. “You don’t have to explain anything.”

“If we want to help them, it’s better we know everything that could create a problem,” Philip reminded her.

“And maybe it’s not any of our business,” she said, sensing the girl’s discomfort.

“You don’t have to do this,” Max whispered.

“If it gets ugly it’ll come out anyway,” she told him back and looked at his parents, ashamed. “I have a job in a strip club.”

“Oh my,” Diane said as her eyes widened in shock. “You um... you’re a waitress there?”

Liz bit her lip while she shook her head slightly.

“Tend bar?” she asked slowly although she could tell that wasn’t it either.

Max sighed loudly as he got up to sit next to her again. “Mom!”

“I’m just clarifying,” she defended herself. “Well, I can’t imagine that CPS would take Aaron away for that reason. I suppose that job pays well?” She winced when Max glared at her. “I’m sorry! I don’t know anyone with that job,” she said, flustered.

“I guess now you do,” Liz said dryly.

“I’m sure you’re just doing what you needed to do to support Aaron. I can understand that.” She looked at her husband helplessly. All she could think was: our son’s dating a stripper.

“I can imagine what you’re thinking,” Liz said when she saw the look that passed between the older couple.

Philip cleared his throat and nodded when his wife gave him the ‘fix this’ look. “Please pardon our reaction,” he started, “but this is a bit of a shock.”

“Liz, you don’t have to explain anything,” Max insisted.

“No, you’re right, I don’t,” she said with a grateful smile. “But they’re your parents and I’d like to just get it out there and be done with it.” She checked on Aaron before looking at Max’ parents again. “Working at the club isn’t something I ever wanted to do and it’s not something I enjoy, but it’s kept us afloat financially and it’s allowed me to make sure Aaron could get the medical attention he’s needed. Before I started dancing I had my own... I guess you’d call them prejudices, about the kinda girls who worked in those clubs.” She shook her head. “There are some who do it because they enjoy it, but a lot of the girls do it out of necessity. It’s good money and I wasn’t in a position to be choosy. It’s nothing I wanna make a career of and I’ll get out of it as soon as I can, but I wasn’t gonna risk his health because I couldn’t take proper care of him.”

“The court could see it differently though,” Philip mused. “Yes, it is a job, but it could be presented in a negative light.”

“I’m sorry you’ve had to go through all of that, Liz,” Diane said with sympathy. “You’re way too young to be in a position like that and in New York City…” she shook her head, “…the city’s so expensive. It’s a wonder you’ve been able to take care of the both of you the way you did.”

“I don’t want my brother to be raised by strangers. I’m the only family he has other than our grandmother who’s too old to take him and some distant relatives.”

“That’s understandable.” The young woman was a lot more grownup at her age than others, Diane thought and got up to get more drinks.

Max glanced at his father, wondering what was going on behind the frown on his between his eyes. “Anyway, I wanted to thank you for bailing me out. I know I’ve been in trouble before and you never wanted to be called in the middle of the night ever again.”

“It’s not your fault, Max,” his mother reminded him. “Not this time.”

Philip rested his forearms on the table and he clasped his hands loosely as he looked at his son. “Why didn’t you go to the cops if you felt this man was a threat?”

“I didn’t expect him to go this far.”

“Common sense, Son.” He sighed. “You can’t just ignore a problem like this.”

“Doesn’t do a lot of good to go to the cops when he’s one of them. Everyone knows they protect their own.”

“And if you’d filed a report you’d at least have that to fall back on.”

“You’re right, Dad, just like you always are. Satisfied?”

“Max,” Liz placed a calming hand on his arm. “I don’t think he meant it like that.”

It was sure as hell meant that way, he thought, but bit back the comment before it could slip.

“It’s not something we can change now anyway,” Diane tried to appease both sides. “Maybe it won’t even come to the point where you have to deal with CPS.”

Both Max and Philip snorted at that and then glanced at each other in irritation. “I wish I knew what was going on in that little bastard’s head,” Max rubbed his face. “He didn’t want Liz or Aaron around and now that he’s a free man again he’s doing his best to turn their lives upside down for no reason.”

“From what it sounds like he takes a lot of pleasure in trying to ruin your life,” his dad pointed out. “Does he have a reason? Any fights in the past or anything?”

“If you mean did I start one, then no,” Max grated out.

“There was a fight,” Liz intervened before it could turn into a fight between the men. “When we were out at the beach for the weekend Trent showed up. He started something though, not Max.”

“How did he know you were there?” Philip asked with a frown.

“Bad luck,” she shook her head. “We hang out with Michael, Maria, and the others and – “ She hesitated when he obviously was totally clueless about who they were. “Close friends of ours, and two of them work at the fire station. They knew Trent through their job and kinda invited him without knowing who he was to me.”

“Think they’re the right friends for you if they hang out with someone of his character?” Could one of them have delivered information to that policeman, Philip wondered. “Were you hanging out with them when someone drugged you? One of them could’ve…”

“That’s enough, Dad,” Max exploded and stood up, the back of his chair hitting the wall behind him. “Neither of them would do anything like that.”

Philip stood and faced his son across the table. “I have every right to ask these questions, Max! I don’t know who your friends are; I don’t know anything about their character or what they’re involved in. If you recall you don’t have a very good track record when it comes to choosing your friends.”

Max nodded. “Great, we’ve made it to the part of the evening where you throw my mistakes in my face.” His hands curled around the high back of his chair and his teeth ground together as he tried to rein his temper in.

“You have to consider the possibility that someone at that party was involved.”

“You think I don’t know that, Dad? Just because...” He trailed off and looked down when Aaron pulled on his shirt. “What’s up, buddy?”

“Don’t yell, Max,” he said quietly, a nervous hitch in his voice.

He winced when he realized his tone had scared the little boy. “Sorry, buddy.”

“Hey, I saw you guys have a little pond outside. Why don’t we have a look at it, what ya think, Aaron?” Liz tried to distract her brother. She had a feeling the men just needed to get it out and the little one didn’t need to hear every word.

“Yes, let’s do that,” Diane agreed and shot a warning look at her husband.

Liz was relieved when Aaron agreed without hesitation and she squeezed her boyfriend’s shoulder slightly when she passed him.

Max glanced over his shoulder and waited until the women and Aaron had left the room before he turned to his father again. “I know it’s most likely someone drugged me at the party, but that doesn’t mean it was one of my friends. They know what I’ve started with Liz and they wouldn’t do anything like that. Hell, they don’t even take drugs, ever.”

“Some people do things you don’t expect. If they’re friends with that other man, then…”

“They’re not,” Max interrupted. “They might’ve hung out on occasion with him before they knew WHO he really is and I don’t think it was ever more than a random acquaintance because they work together once in a while. You saw Kyle! He wouldn’t have jumped to help earlier if he was involved in this.”

“It’d be a good way to throw suspicion off of him.”

“Yeah, it would be if he was involved with Kennedy, but he’s not.”

“You didn’t think Brian was the one who wanted to rob that convenience store a few years ago either.” He shook his head when Max started to object. “I’m not saying the people you’re friends with are involved in this situation; I’m just saying you have to consider it.”

He threw his hands up. “Believe whatever you want to, Dad. You’ve never trusted my judgment before, why start now?”

“Is that what you really think? Max, you fell in with a bad crowd when you were a teenager and that’s something that happens to a lot of us. I didn’t choose the military as an option to punish you. Do you understand that? I hate what happened to you and if there had been a
way to get you out of that mess without you going to prison or going to war I would’ve done it!”

“I’m not interested in talkin’ about that.” He turned to look away, unwilling to go into the past because it wouldn’t change anything.

Philip tried to control the urge to do something that would reveal his nerves. He was frustrated by his son’s behavior and his refusal to see that what he had decided in the past had only been for his own good and not to hurt him. “I hope you see it one day, Max,” he said calmly. “None of us ever tried to hurt you.”

His son just stared at the table between them without responding to his father’s last comment. Hopefully THEY would see one day that he wasn’t the same person he had been a few years ago.

Laughter could be heard from outside when Liz chased Aaron around the little pond and the boy laughed happily as he dodged her. “Look, Lizzie! There’s a fish,” the boy yelled suddenly, his tone awed.

“She seems to be a nice woman,” Philip started again after a while, hoping that this subject would make his son a little more open for conversation.

“She is,” Max said as he turned his head to follow his father’s thoughtful gaze. “She’s got a lot on her plate but she handles it.”

Philip cleared his throat. “It’s a shame she’s had to put food on the table in such a way.”

“You’ve been to strip clubs before, Dad. Bachelor’s parties, after work with the guys – “

“Not in years,” the older man interrupted as he glanced up to make sure his wife was well out of hearing range.

Max rolled his eyes. “Why is it okay for women to take their clothes off for money until it’s someone you know?”

“I’m not judging, Son.”

“But it’s okay for other women, that’s what you’re implying isn’t it?”

“Why does everything with you have to be a fight?” He ran a hand through his graying hair. “I can’t remember the last time we had a conversation that wasn’t confrontational.”

“Maybe that’s just what we are,” Max shrugged carelessly, but he didn’t believe it. His relationship with his father hadn’t always been like this, but the times when they had gotten along were a long time ago and some days it was hard to remember them. He lifted his arm to take a look at his watch. “It’s almost Aaron’s bedtime, so we should get going.”

Philip stared at him for a few moments in silence. He wished he knew what to say to make things better between them, but at least he had agreed to come to their home for dinner tonight – that was a start… maybe. “I’m sure your mom already has Mrs. Leonard packing the leftovers for you to take with you.”

“She always does,” his son agreed and got out of his chair. As thankful as he was for them bailing him out, right now he couldn’t wait to leave his parents’ house again.

*****

Michael dropped his head back to rest against the seat and reached up to rub his eyes. Even though he’d had a chance to doze a little at his parents’ home his eyes felt dry and gritty from the lack of substantial sleep. He felt like he’d been running nonstop for days and he was glad he wasn’t on shift tonight because he’d have to do the responsible thing and call in sick. He hated to call in but he wouldn’t put anyone at risk because he wasn’t running at a hundred percent. He yawned and at the same time his stomach rumbled, reminding him that it was time for dinner and he hadn’t eaten since lunch.

He jerked when a car alarm went off and realized he had started to doze. He shoved himself more upright and climbed out of the car, grabbing the overnight bag he kept packed and in the back for emergency situations. He closed the door and leaned against it, reaching up to run his hand over his face. If there was a cool breeze it would help wake him up, but the muggy air only made him more tired and worn down.

He probably should’ve just gone home, he thought even as he started to walk towards the building. He doubted he would be very good company. Or maybe that was okay. Hell, he didn’t really know the protocol for this relationship stuff. His dad had bad days but he always came home to Nicole. He walked into the building and started the climb up to her floor. Of course, they were married so he kinda had to if he didn’t wanna sleep on the couch, he mused with a smirk.

“What’re you smirking about?”

He looked up and saw Courtney standing at the top of the stairs. “Oh, nothin’,” he mumbled. She might not find that thought as amusing as he did.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you’ve had a long day, huh?” His tiredness was easy to see and it was doubtful he would stay up for long after dinner.

“Well, when you haven’t had much sleep little guys will wear you out,” he said with a small laugh.

“I’m gonna take good care of you,” she promised when he stopped one step lower than her to lean in for a short kiss.

“Yeah? Not gonna complain about that.”

“You hungry? I just ordered some Chinese takeout, hope you like that.”

“Yeah, that’s good. And doesn’t take long to make, that’s even better.”

Courtney closed the door behind him when they entered the apartment and she took his bag from him to throw it towards her bedroom door. “Why don’t we just stretch out on the couch until the food gets here an’ you tell me about your day?”

“Yeah.” He took her hand, tugging her down with him when he flopped back on the couch. “The little guys had a ball playin’ in the pool at my parents’ place.”

“Sounds like fun in temperatures like this,” she sighed. “When will it finally cool down? I love summer, but this’s a bit too much.”

“It has been hotter than normal.” He shrugged. “Nicole designed the backyard, where all the trees and everything went. And when they remodeled years ago she redesigned the deck too so there’s plenty of shade. And Ava got to watch the boys and make sure they didn’t overdo it in the heat.”

“Your parents’ place sounds very nice,” she admitted and slouched down next to him, remaining sitting so she would be ready to get the food when it arrived.

“It is. They’ve got a huge place. Plenty big enough for all of us when we were kids but now that we’re all out on our own it’s too big for just them.” He yawned and shrugged. “Can’t really imagine ‘em livin’ anywhere else though.”

Guess as long as they have the money to keep it there’s no reason to sell a house full of family history,” she shrugged and wished her parents had settled in one place for longer than a couple of years at a time.

“Yeah. It’s cool to be able to go back home whenever ya want. And at Christmas... look out! You wouldn’t believe the place at Christmastime.”

“A lot of decorations, huh?” she guessed. “That’s nice. I don’t like cheesy most of the year, but during Christmas it can’t be enough. I’m really looking forward to my first Christmas here. I wanna go ice skating in Central Park and I wanna see that huge Christmas tree they have here.”

“Oh, at Rockefeller Center? Yeah, that’s pretty impressive.” His parents had taken all of them out for the lighting ceremony every year for as long as he could remember. “Kind of a family tradition to go out an’ see the tree lit up for the first time every year.” A family tradition that had included Maria and her family since they had become a part of their lives; how would that work with Courtney in his life now?

Courtney looked at him and wondered if maybe he would include her in that tradition this year, but it was probably way too early to ask. “I like the fact that your family sticks together. They all seem to be pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I can’t imagine them any different. Sometimes they can be annoying but they mean well.” He snorted. “Three sisters and they like to stick their noses in my business like it’s their right.”

“Don’t you do the same thing?”

“What I do is look out for them. There’s a difference,” he insisted.

She snorted. “If you say so. I’m sure if you ask them they’d tell a different story.”

He opened one eye to look at her. “There’s a difference. I’m not meddling, just making sure they’re okay.”

“How’re things with Kyle?”

“Tense.”

Not very talkative when it came to that, she mused. “Did you talk to him about it?”

“Not much to talk about,” he muttered. “What he did was... Anyway, not much to talk about.”

“Alright.” She decided to let it go for today because he was tired and she didn’t want to turn it into a fight. “So you just dropped Aaron off?”

“Dropped him off couple hours ago I guess.” He smiled slightly. “Little guy was worn out. Slept all the way back into the city. Didn’t even wake up when I handed him over to Max.”

“Why’d you have to watch him anyway?”

“Max got into some trouble, got arrested last night and Liz just needed someone to keep an eye on Aaron.”

“Oh...” she said. “I hope it’s nothing too serious.”

“It could be. A lot probably depends on how good his lawyer is.”

And again no details. Didn’t he trust her? Well, maybe he needed more time for that. “I’ll cross my fingers,” was all she said.

He opened his eyes slowly. “You didn’t see anyone messin’ with his drink or anything last night, did you?”

“Huh? No, was he drugged?” Her voice showed her shock.

“Yeah, and it had to happen at the party.”

“That’s bad.”

He exhaled loudly. “I can’t figure out who it could’ve been. I’ve racked my brain tryin’ to come up with someone who would’ve done somethin’ like that.”

“There were a lot of people there, Michael.”

“Yeah, but we pretty much knew everyone.”

“You can’t know everyone who was there that well,” she denied.

“Must not because nobody we know would do anything like that.”

“Is that what’s bothering you so much?” Okay, maybe he was tired, but she had a feeling that his mood was down because of something other than Max and a lack of sleep.

“No, not really. We’ll figure out the thing with Evans.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I ran by the hospital before comin’ here. They’ve admitted Cody and it doesn’t look good.”

“Oh,” was all she said at first while her brain tried to work with the new information. “That’s tough. How’s Maria handling it?”

“She puts on a brave face but she’s fallin’ apart inside.”

“Guess that’s a normal reaction. She wants to be brave for him.” Hopefully he believed her sympathy for her family, she thought. He wouldn’t tolerate any jealousy in a situation like this and she was aware of the fact that she couldn’t ask him to stay away from his best friend when her brother was struggling. He had been a part of her family for a much longer time than they had known each other and it would be unfair to ask him for a compromise in this situation.

“Yeah, it just kills me to see them hurtin’ like this. Cody doesn’t understand how serious it is, thank God, but Maria an’ her mom have to shove all of their fear and their worries aside to stay positive for him. It’s an exhausting battle tryin’ to be brave and not show you’re afraid. You get so used to it it’s almost like you don’t know how to really deal with the rest of it when you’re alone.”

She had a feeling he was speaking of his own experience. “They have a lot of friends who have their backs though. That helps, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, I just wish it was enough.” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes again. “I know it’s important, but you just feel...” He waved his right hand as he cast about for the word and a moment later it dropped to his thigh and formed a tight fist. “Helpless.”

“Just don’t lose hope, Michael,” she placed her hand over his gently, not knowing what else to say.

“No, it’s just sometimes hard to stay positive when you know the reality of the situation.”

Part of her was thankful when the bell announced the arriving food. It was hard to find the right words for him because she wasn’t used to talking like this and after last night she didn’t want him to think she was trying to get between him and Maria. “I’ll just get that and be right back.”

He nodded. “You want me to get us somethin’ to drink?”

“No, just stay where you are, I’ve got it.”

He raised his hand and gave her a thumbs-up. He was glad she had said no because he didn’t feel like getting up for anything.

Natalie36: Well, lol, you may have to wait a while for that to happen.

keepsmiling7: Trent is going to make things difficult.

Dinner had its tough moments and admitting that to Max’s parents had to top the list of difficult moments.

They’re going to have their hurdles to cross, that’s for sure, but if they stick together and accept their friends’ help they’ll work their way through the difficult moments.

Earth2Mama: It’ll take them some time to begin bridging that gap and they’re gonna need a little help.

That would be embarrassing regardless of the reason. Sometimes you have to do something you wouldn’t normally do to make sure your kids are provided for.

Rodney: Lol, well, Michael definitely sees things his own way.

Sympathy isn’t required. Max made his mistakes and he has to find a way to live with them as well as with the consequences.

CandyliciousLovah: Well… perhaps they’ll rev things up soon, lol.

sarammlover: No, he doesn’t see it yet. Or maybe he’s just not ready to see it. Max and Philip have some patching to do and it’s gonna take some time.

Alien_Friend: Michael still isn’t to a place where he’s ready to be completely forthcoming about everything. Chances are good that if Courtney gets more information about what’s going on that she’ll be bothered that he didn’t tell her.

Lol, definitely potential explosion material.

There’s always the possibility that Michael will reach the point where he’s comfortable bringing her around his family.

Philip really wasn’t trying to start anything but he stuck his foot in it time after time. Max has basically shut himself off where his father is concerned and he has limited contact with his mother. He does want them to see him as an adult, a man who’s learned the lessons of his youth, but he has to learn to give a little where his parents are concerned.

Lol, that was a lot for Max’s parents to take in and their reactions are understandable. And Liz is right, sometimes you have to do something you might not normally do to makes ends meet.

begonia9508: It’s gonna take some time and effort on both of their parts for Max and Philip to reach an understanding.

They’ll all be working to expose Trent for what he really is.

besomeoneyoulove: Liz explained to Max’s parents about her job at the club after dinner.

xilaj: True, one dinner won’t repair their relationship but it was a step. There is a lot of distance between them but given time and effort they’ll begin to heal. Liz really put herself out there by admitting to his parents what her second job is. As difficult as parts of the dinner were it did help them to get things out.

Thank you very much for the compliment! Courtney isn’t a bad person, she’s just not the girl we’re all wanting Michael to be with, lol.



Part 99

Confessions

Amy glanced up when the door opened and her daughter stepped back inside holding her cell up. “Tony,” she whispered because she didn’t want to wake her sleeping brother. It had taken forever to settle him down and no one was looking forward to another session of complaining and screaming anytime soon.

“What’d he want?”

“Nothin’,” she shrugged and took a seat next to her mother. “Just asked how things are going an’ if I want him to bring me anything tomorrow morning.”

“He’s got a key to your apartment?” Amy asked, surprised.

“No,” Maria denied and realized that she hadn’t even told Mom about her current living situation. “I’ve been sleeping over at his place lately, probably gonna be moving in with him soon.”

“I didn’t realize you two were seeing each other.”

“It’s not like that. He just offered me a place to sleep when the air conditioning went out in my apartment again and he kinda convinced me to move in with him until I find something better.” She glanced at her mom. “I’m planning to move in with a friend. Liz.”

“Oh, she’s the girl with the little brother, right?”

“Yeah, and she’s looking for a new apartment as well.”

“That could work out well for you. She seemed to be having her own difficulties.”

“Yeah. I just hope once we’ve moved in she stays for a while because I have a feeling things between her and Max are very serious.”

Amy nodded in agreement. She didn’t want her daughter to get into another situation where she ended up being left with an apartment she couldn’t afford. “That’s pretty recent, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it might take them a while to get to the move-in-together stage then. She has her brother to consider and she didn’t strike me as the type to take that lightly.”

“Yeah, true.” Maria slouched down further in her seat to lean her head against the backrest. “I’d like to think that Tess and I could live together again, but I don’t know...”

“Have the two of you really talked?”

She had to snicker at that. “Most of it was drunken talk, but I think the important things were said.”

“That’s good, getting it out in the open. How are things with Michael?”

Maria sighed deeply without realizing it. “Okay, I guess.”

“Um-hmm, then why the long face?”

“It’s awkward to see him in a relationship,” she shrugged one shoulder. “It’s like now I have to watch what I do or say when she’s around.”

“Why? I mean, you are just friends, isn’t that what you keep telling me?”

Maria tried not to roll her eyes at the choice of words. “No matter if we’re friends or whatever, Mom. You don’t wanna see your boyfriend having too much fun with another girl.”

“How do you feel about him being in a relationship?”

“Weird.”

One-word answer, Amy thought. Code for ‘I don’t wanna talk about it.’ “Do you like the girl he’s with?”

“That’s the problem. Generally she’s okay and I did like her when we first met, but...” she stared at the floor in front of her, “I guess we’re similar in some ways...”

“But...” she said, encouraging her daughter to open up.

“It’s not easy to LIKE a person when she’s suddenly with your best friend, making demands on him to spend less time with me and stealing money from me.”

“Stealing money from you?”

“Well, not really, but she works for the same modeling agency and she got the cover for a magazine that was supposed to be mine. Well, it was almost mine anyway.”

“Ah, I see. So she’s competition.” In more ways than one, she thought but didn’t voice the words.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind so much if she was just a random girl, but the fact that she’s with Michael doesn’t make it easy.”

“So if she was one of his usual flings you wouldn’t care so much, but because she’s sticking around that bothers you.”

That was true as well, but that wasn’t what she had meant. “It’s more like, if she was one of the other girls at work it’d be okay, but she’s part of my friends group now and I have to deal with her every day, always remembering that she was better than me...” Maria sighed and looked at her mom. “It causes problems, Mom. You suddenly have friends who feel the need to choose sides, and you’ve gotta share your best friend with someone else who of course, gets jealous.”

“Are you so sure it’s not more than that?” Amy asked gently.

“Maybe,” she pulled her legs up in the chair and hugged them. “I don’t wanna think too much about it or I’ll go crazy.”

“So you’re gonna be staying with Tony for a while, huh?”

“Yeah. Just until I get a new apartment. He’s seeing Ava and I don’t wanna be in the way if it gets serious with them.”

“I’ll bet he gets along well with Chase.”

“Yeah, he’s just Mr. Perfect.”

Amy snorted softly. “That’s important to moms. It’s not the only important thing of course, but it’s at the top of the list.”

“He’s a good man. His ex is stupid for letting him go, but I guess that’s Ava’s good luck.”

“Yes, I could tell that from what little time I’ve spent with him.”

“Ya know why Tess left?” Maria asked after a few minutes of silence. “She has feelings for Kyle.”

“Does she really? Well, I suppose that could’ve been awkward.” Of course it still didn’t excuse her leaving the way she had.

“Yeah, I guess.... and she paid the rent. That stupid prick of a landlord just never told me and took the money twice.” She moved around a bit and pulled out the check Michael had given her earlier. “Adam looked into it and it seems like he got the ass to pay it back.”

She took the check and studied it for a moment through blurry vision. Adam had always been such a giving man, caring for her and her children like no one else ever had. “He can be very persuasive,” she said with a smile.

“Guess Michael got that from him,” Maria smiled sadly.

“Yeah, he did. I think all of his kids got that from him.”

“You should’ve tried harder with Adam when you dated him all those years ago,” Maria teased her mother.

Amy chuckled. “Oh, it wasn’t that we didn’t try. But no matter how much you enjoy each other’s company it won’t last if there’s no fire.”

“Well, I guess that’s okay. Otherwise Michael would be something like my brother,” she made a face.

“Um-hmm, and that wouldn’t work, would it?”

“No...” she admitted.

“Yeah, didn’t think so.”

Maria sighed. She knew she could trust her mother and it felt weird to hide things from her. “Do you think that sometimes weird feelings come up just because you can’t have someone?”

“Like maybe that awakens them?”

“Awakens or maybe just brings them up because people tend to want things the most that they can’t have. I don’t know.”

“I think that can happen, yes. I think sometimes it opens our eyes when something – or in this case, someone – we didn’t realize we wanted is suddenly no longer available.”

“You think the feeling could pass again with time?”

“I think that really depends on how strong and how true those feelings are.”

Maria rested her head against her knees. She didn’t want to have feelings for Michael, not now and not in the future, but there wasn’t a switch to just turn them off.

“What if she wasn’t in the picture?”

“I don’t know, Mom.”

“Have you thought about talking to him?”

“I can’t tell him,” she denied.

“Because he’s with someone or because you don’t know how he’d react?”

“Both.”

She nodded sympathetically. “That’s a tough place to be in.”

“Michael’s never missed a chance to tell everyone that we’re just friends. And today he told me about how he wants to make things work with Courtney.” She grimaced as she remembered it.

“As I recall you’ve never let the opportunity pass to tell people you’re just friends either.”

“Yeah...” Maria admitted.

“But at the time you believed it and right now so does he,” Amy finished for her.

“So? Do I need to get a boyfriend now to make him see it?” She snorted. “Maybe there really is nothing to realize for him.”

“No, that’s not what I’m suggesting. Maria, he may never see it. You might not have seen it if it hadn’t been for him suddenly being interested in a girl for more than a day or two.”

“Even more of a reason to not tell him.”

“Well, I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. It’s a risk, a big risk, and you have to be willing to live with whatever happens.”

“I’m not willing to lose him,” she whispered.

“No, I know you aren’t.” She rubbed Maria’s shoulder. “Just give it time.”

“Cody needs him to be there as well. I wouldn’t risk anything for his sake.”

“I know you wouldn’t, but sometimes you have to put yourself first. I know how hard that can be to think about, much less actually do, but you have to.”

“I don’t have to. Not in this case,” Maria said stubbornly.

“No,” Amy sighed, “you don’t. But at some point you have to.”

“Maybe this will pass,” she said hopefully. “Maybe there’s someone else out there somewhere who could be the one.”

“There could be, that’s true, and I hope one of these days you find him, whoever he is.”

Maria glanced at her sleeping brother’s little body in the bed before them and felt a wave of sadness wash over her. She didn’t want someone else at this moment. All the time her brother had been sick she had denied herself any relationship because she had been sure she couldn’t put the necessary effort into it. And why should she have been looking for a strong shoulder to cry on? She’d always had Michael for that. Things were suddenly different and she wondered if she had been looking at things from the wrong angle all that time because she really was longing for someone to hold her right now and there was no one who could give her the same feeling that Michael did.

*****

For the second time that day Max carried an exhausted Aaron up the stairs to his apartment. Liz unlocked the front door and reached around the frame to switch the light on before stepping aside to let him enter first. “I think he’s down for the count,” he said as he walked through to the bedroom.

Liz locked up and hurried to flip the covers back so he could lay her brother down. “Yeah, I can’t imagine much of anything waking him up now.”

Max glanced up at her as she untied Aaron’s shoes and pulled them off of his feet. “I’m sorry about getting into that yelling match with my dad in front of Aaron.”

She nodded and set the shoes aside before going to work on his clothes. “Would you grab his PJs?”

“Yeah.”

“Max, I know there’s so much we don’t know about each other and maybe tonight’s not the time to get into all that.” She shrugged and shifted Aaron around so she could pull his shirt off. “I know we both have to work tomorrow and – “

“No.” He stared down at the little clothes he held unconsciously clenched in his fists and he forced his hands to relax. He smoothed the wrinkles out of the shirt and held it up, looking at the cartoon characters on it. A lion, zebra, hippo, and giraffe were featured with some strange squirrel-looking thing wearing a weird hat. He shook his head and handed it to Liz when she held her hand out. “No, maybe we need to just get it out. I mean, if you feel up to this conversation tonight.”

To be honest, she was really tired at the moment and not in the mood for a conversation like this, but there was just no way around it and considering that things could still catch up with them she needed to know about his past – the sooner the better. “Maybe you can make us a coffee?”

He nodded. “We don’t have to do this tonight, Liz. You’re right, it’s late, we’ve both gotta work tomorrow, and we’re both tired.” It wasn’t a conversation he was looking forward to and as much as he knew they needed to have it he also knew it might not be the best time to share his past with her. Was there ever gonna be a good time? his conscience taunted him.

She glanced at her brother’s sleeping features. How much longer would Aaron be with them? “Let’s face it, Max. There won’t be a good time for a talk like this, so we should just get it over with already.”

“Alright, I’ll get the coffee started.” He turned to go to the kitchen, taking his time as he filled the water reservoir and measured out the coffee. Once it was ready he turned it on and pulled down a couple of mugs while listening to the constant drip-drip as the pot started to fill.

“He didn’t wake up while I dressed him for the night,” Liz said when she entered the kitchen a few minutes later.

“He’s had a busy day and his nap earlier probably wasn’t long enough.”

“Yeah, I wish I could have a few days off in a row,” she said in exhaustion and took a seat at the counter.

“Can you put in for a couple days?”

She snorted. “After taking a few days off for the beach? I doubt my boss will agree to anything longer than one day off a week.”

“Couldn’t hurt to ask.” He grabbed a box of donuts from the cupboard and opened it up. “Want one?”

“Why do men eat all time and still have such nice bodies?” She shook her head. “Nothing for me, thanks.”

He chuckled. “I don’t know about all guys but I work out a lot.”

“And I appreciate it.”

He pulled one of the sticky treats out and waved it under her nose. “Sure you don’t want one? I can help you work it off later.”

Liz laughed and pushed his arm away. “Max!”

“Okay, don’t say I never offered,” he said and took a bite.

She let him have a whole donut in silence before she reminded him about the reason they were still in the kitchen. “So, where to start?”

“Guess that’s my cue,” he said and filled the mugs with coffee. “We’ll start with me. I started hangin’ with a bunch of guys when I was in high school. Guys that were trouble but I couldn’t see it. I mean, I knew they were into stuff but no one told them what to do or when to be home and while my parents weren’t overbearing or anything I liked the idea of bein’ my own man.”

“Guess that’s a phase a lot of teenagers go through,” she shrugged.

“Yeah. My dad knew the first time he saw them that they were trouble but all I could see was him tryin’ to hold me back. He started tryin’ to get strict with me, tell me I couldn’t hang out with them, and I defied him every chance I got. It’s like it started to be a game, a competition, only it wasn’t any fun.”

“My guess is that at some point those boys really started to be a bad influence, huh?”

“Yeah, they were into things that I knew were wrong, things that even I questioned, but I couldn’t admit it. We were out one night and a couple of the guys committed a robbery. I didn’t know anything about it. I was busy tryin’ to find somethin’ decent to listen to on the radio when they jumped back in the car and yelled at me to drive. Didn’t even realize one of them had a gun until I hit the gas.”

“And you think that just happens in the movies, huh?” Liz leaned forward to take her coffee. “Guess real life can just be as hard.”

“Yeah. We got arrested of course, didn’t even make it very far before we got stopped. I was already scared shitless and the guys were screamin’ at me to keep going so I tried to evade the cops but we still got caught.” He sighed. “I was closer to one of the guys than I was the rest of them and I couldn’t believe he was the one who wanted to hit that store.” He shook his head. “They scared the hell outta the old couple who owned the place. Anyway, I kept thinkin’ I was in the clear, everything was gonna be fine ‘cause I wasn’t involved. But I didn’t know drivin’ the car even though I didn’t know what had happened made me just as guilty as my friends.”

“And then your father made some kinda deal that put you in the Army instead of jail,” she guessed, because it was the only logical thing after what she had heard.

“Yeah, he got together with his lawyer and came up with the idea of me enlisting in the Army. The idea being that I hadn’t been completely corrupted by my friends and given the opportunity I could turn my life around. The judge agreed with them, and me, I just didn’t wanna go to prison, so I took the deal and testified against the guys in exchange. I was 17 at the time. The Army did straighten my ass out and I started to kinda talk to my dad but then 9/11 happened. And at 18 I was on the ground in Iraq and I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

Liz exhaled loudly while she considered what to say to that. “That day changed all of our lives in some way. I’m sorry about what it did to you, Max,” she said honestly and reached over the counter to squeeze his hands. “So many people died or went missing, others were sent into a war... but how could your father know about that, Max? All he wanted was to save you from going to prison.”

“Rationally I know there’s no way he could’ve known about that.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I spent a year and a half over there and with every day that passed I just felt more disconnected from everything and everyone I knew. I should’ve been here in New York, drinking too much at college parties and cramming for exams, but I was stuck in the middle of a warzone. Dumping gallons of sand out of my clothes and boots every night, praying to God I’d live to see the next day, and watching guys die every day.” He looked down at his hands when they started to tremble at the memories and he clenched them into fists. “I killed people there and I still don’t know how to live with that. It doesn’t matter that I never saw most of their faces, never got close enough to see them die... it’s nothin’ like what you see in movies.” He swallowed hard. “The things bullets do to the human body, the pain and suffering, it’s inhuman. There was no sense of victory, no feeling of...” he shrugged. “I don’t know. After a while I was just... numb.”

He was struggling hard with the memories, the signs all too obvious in his body language, and when she couldn’t take it anymore she stood up and walked over to him to give him a hug from behind. It took a few minutes, but eventually she felt his nerves settle again. “It’s still not too late for the other things in your life, Max,” she whispered in his ear. “You know, going to college and drinking too much...”

“Yeah,” he said slowly and reached up to cover her hand where it rested on his chest, “but I can’t imagine bein’ confined in a college classroom for any length of time. And as for drinkin’ too much, I’ve gotten that outta my system. I had a rough time of it when I was sent home and I used alcohol to chase the memories away.” He rolled his right shoulder unconsciously. “I took a bullet and between that and the mental trauma I was no longer fit for duty so I received a medical discharge.”

“You might not believe this, Max, but I’m glad you just couldn’t mentally handle it anymore.” She nodded to herself when he snorted. “In your own eyes you might think different, you might think you weren’t man enough or whatever, but honestly I wouldn’t want a man who could see things like that without it leaving marks in the end.”

He smiled faintly. “It’s taken a long time for me to accept that I couldn’t go back and finish out my tour. Honestly, I didn’t want to but bein’ in a position where I wasn’t able to ate me up. I wanted to be normal and not carry the stigma of a medical discharge.”

“It’s not written on your forehead, Max,” she bumped him slightly until he turned in his seat enough to make room for her to stand between his legs. “So what about after that? How’d you meet the others?”

“I met Michael in the emergency room a couple years ago. I was at the hospital with a friend, the guy who owned the tat studio and saved my ass from dyin’ of alcohol poisoning. He’d had a massive heart attack and he was in surgery. I’d gone to get a drink and got lost, ended up in the emergency room. Michael had just brought someone in; guy was on some serious drugs too. Screaming and shouting, hallucinating, and somehow he gets his hands on the security guard’s gun and takes the guy hostage.” He smirked. “Michael’s standin’ there, just studying every move the guy makes, but he’s facing him so he can’t really get to him without the guy takin’ a shot at him. I’m on the guy’s blindside so I kinda wave to get Michael’s attention and he sees me, but without him ever acknowledging me he starts talkin’ to the guy, movin’ just enough to let me get the drop on him. I hit the guy as hard as I could and he released the guard. He hurried to get outta the way and the guy that was strung out on drugs just went crazy. It took both of us to hold him down and even then it was a fight. We’re lucky he was so unfocused he forgot to take the safety off because one of us would’ve gotten shot for sure.”

“Never take the easy way, hmm?” she mused quietly. “Gotta admit it’s just the way I’d imagine you two meeting.”

“Yeah. He invited me to one of their famous parties and I passed, told him thanks but no thanks.” He snorted. “Well, you know how he is with the word no.”

Liz laughed. “He tends to be very convincing.”

“He tends to not give up until he gets his way.”

“Yeah, and you can’t really be mad at him. He’s one of those guys who can talk people into doing anything, not sure how he does it though.”

“He’s got the gift.” He linked his hands at the small of her back and met her gaze head-on. “I don’t know how damaging my past could be if CPS comes after us, Liz. I mean, the trouble I got into as a teenager shouldn’t be an issue but the medical discharge could present a problem. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was a wreck after my discharge.”

“We’ll deal with it if and when it becomes necessary,” she told him. She knew things could really turn out horribly, but for now she wanted to believe that they wouldn’t have to go through losing Aaron and everything that came with it.

He nodded. “Okay, I think that’s the worst of my demons.”

“I’m glad you’re here with us again. I couldn’t sleep another minute after your call last night.”

“I just wanted to be here. Thinkin’ about you an’ Aaron was the only thing that kept me sane while they had me in that holdin’ cell.”

“Whoever did it will be punished sooner or later,” she said with determination and she could only hope it was true.

“Yeah, just gotta figure out who did it. I have no doubt Trent’s behind it but he had to have someone at the party drug my drink. I don’t know if he planted the drugs during the party or at some other time.”

“The others will help us find out.” She lifted his chin with one hand to make him to look at her again. “Me and your friends, we’re here for you, Max. Remember that.” Liz felt the need to tell him that because she was the one who had needed help and he was probably still thinking in those terms.

“I don’t wanna be the reason your custody of Aaron is ever threatened. I know how much he means to you and I’ll do anything I can to stop that from happening.”

She shook her head. “Max, look. If you weren’t with me... what else would I have? Trent would’ve kicked me out and then gone to CPS with or without you. He had made those threats before he even knew about you. How much of a chance would I have of keeping Aaron if I was alone, without a home that I could afford? As I see it, YOU are my only chance of keeping him in the end, even though circumstances aren’t ideal. But that’s true with most families.”

“Yeah, you’re right. And if worse comes to worse we’ll fight them with everything we have.”

For the first time that day she felt confidence wash over her at his words. “Right.”

He smiled at her response. “Got any skeletons in the closet you wanna share?”

“I’m afraid there’s not much you don’t already know, Max. I had some problems dealing with my parents’ deaths and that’s why I went to the grief counseling sessions. I’ve made some bad choices about men in the past, and I’m a stripper.”

“We’re gonna get you outta that job,” he said with certainty.

She smiled and nodded, knowing he meant every word and wanting so badly to believe him.

The right corner of his mouth lifted as his eyes darkened. “But I wouldn’t mind a private show. Maybe a lap dance,” he teased lightly since he wasn’t sure how uncomfortable that would make her.

“I don’t normally do lap dances,” she replied in the same teasing tone.

He laughed. “I don’t normally go to strip clubs and I’ve never actually had a lap dance.”

“Never?” she asked, smirking and turning around, shaking her hips slightly.

“Huh-uh, but I’m up for givin’ it a shot.”

Earth2Mama: Max and Liz draw strength from each other and they’re both open to seeing where their relationship takes them. They understand the importance of being open with each other and that will make a big difference for them.

Oh, that really isn’t a good place to be. That ‘what if’ could end up being her biggest regret.

Natalie36: Give them time and they’ll get it figured out.

CandyliciousLovah: Lol, well, Adam promised that he’d look into the situation and while he hasn’t completely resolved it, he knows he will, and there was no reason to make Maria wait any longer to get Maria’s money back to her.

sarammlover: We’re glad to see that even as a card-carrying member of the M&M club you’re enjoying the M&L storyline in TT.

keepsmiling7: It’s true, Philip had no idea what was going to happen. His only concern was saving his son from doing time in prison. He has his own pain to deal with over what happened, but given the chance, would he do it differently?

About that lap dance… wait, what’s that? That sounds like Aaron… Hmm…

xilaj: The relationship between Maria and Amy is strong and that’s a very good thing because Maria needs that to fall back on. She’s in a tough spot, scared to move forward because she doesn’t know what could happen and needing so badly to move forward because she does want to reach out for what she really needs and wants. What will it take for Michael to open his eyes? Only time will tell. Max still plans to move forward with the photo shoot.

Max and Liz have grown up a lot since the beginning of TT, and they’ll continue to grow. The relationship is good for them and Aaron too. Whether CPS gives them the consideration they should be given or not has yet to be seen.

Alien_Friend: Thanks for the compliment! We so enjoy writing and we have a lot of fun writing together.

Yes, being able to go to Mom when things are rough really helps and poor Maria really needed that comfort in that moment.

We have a feeling that smile of yours may get even wider today.

Max has been through hell but he’s survived it. He still has a lot of healing to do but opening up to Liz and sharing his pain have put him on the right road. Rationally he knows his dad isn’t to blame and when he reaches the point where he can sit down with his dad and really talk he’ll be able to move forward even more.

Could Max and Michael have met in some random, boring chance meeting? Nah, lol, not these two. It had to be something that stood out. Stepping in and helping out when the situation seems impossible is what these guys do. Lovin’ hero Max, huh? Who knows, maybe we’ll get a flashback scene and get a glimpse of him in action.

Max has a big heart and a lot of compassion and he hasn’t always allowed that to be seen. With Liz and Aaron in his life those things are showing through more noticeably.

Lol, we can’t help teasing…

We think you’re gonna love part 100! Thank you so much! We’ve had a lot of good times working on TT and who knows… it may just run for another 100 parts, lol.

begonia9508: Times are very hard for them right now.

It’s going to take some work but they have a lot of help trying to pin Trent down.

Eva: Lol, while it may seem odd, we agree with you one hundred percent! Having someone to share your problems with and being able to do that makes all the difference. No matter what gets thrown at them they have that support and that’s going to be very important to helping them get through the tough times.

Our friends may have many advantages, and quite a few of them are from wealthy families, but their lives are far from perfect, and the most important thing they have going for them is that they have each other.


Part 100

Holding On… Letting Go

Liz reached over the counter to grab his cell. She pressed the button to scroll down the menu while she looked for the music player. After another few moments she found a song she liked that fit the mood. She turned the volume down so Aaron wouldn’t wake up and she swayed her hips again before tossing her hair back to shoot a saucy look at him over her shoulder.

He watched her move, his heated gaze sliding over her as her body swayed with the music. He had watched her at the club but his focus had been more on making sure the animals around her stayed away from the stage and well away from her. This time she had all of his attention and he was able to enjoy it; there was more confidence in her movements and it just made her sexier in his eyes.

He was obviously excited, Liz thought and bit her lip when her lower back came into contact with him and she could feel the hard bulge in his jeans very clearly. Quickly pivoting she came face to face with him again and slipped up to sit in his lap – keeping her balance easily. The new position didn’t allow much movement, but she rolled her hips against him in the rhythm of the music and enjoyed the way his features shifted from excited, to aroused, to on fire in a heartbeat.

His hands settled on her hips, gripping them firmly and guiding her movements. His eyes dropped to her lips when her tongue slipped out to moisten them and he knew by the hint of a smile there that she was teasing him. Her hips gyrated against him with more pressure and he groaned as he took her mouth in a kiss that was hot and demanding.

It was hard to concentrate on the music when he kissed her and after a few more seconds she gave up and let her emotions build a rhythm for them. It had been so long since she had allowed a man to go all the way, but she didn’t have a doubt it would happen tonight. Just the thought made her as excited and nervous as a teenager.

Max felt her surrender and knew the time was finally right. It felt like it had been forever since they had been together. He tugged at her shirt, pulling it free from her waistband and sliding his hands over her skin. They had been interrupted more than once and he had no intention of missing their opportunity this time. He unsnapped her bra and shoved it out of his way so he could run his hands over her breasts.

“Counter,” she groaned against his lips, the word barely intelligible.

He reacted immediately at her demand though and stood up with a one arm tightly wrapped around her to sit her down on the counter top. It was his turn to groan when she pressed her lower body against him firmly.

Liz’ hands tried to move under the sleeves of his tee shirt several times, but she soon grew frustrated with it when the tight muscles in his upper arms left no space between skin and fabric. She changed directions and reached down to pull his tee shirt up from his waist and with a helpful move from him it was suddenly gone.

Max repeated the same move on her and they looked at each other, breathing heavily and bare from the waist up.

“I could look at you all day,” she told him huskily and reached out to run the fingertips of one hand along the tattoo that came down from his shoulder to his chest.

His muscles flexed in response to her touch and as much as he loved seeing the hungry look in her eyes he had some admiring of his own to do. His gaze moved over her naked upper body, unconsciously following the path of his hands as he was finally given the opportunity to look and touch after so long.

Liz couldn’t take her eyes off of him as she traced the outline of the tattoo. It was a professional job; an intricate and complex pattern that was so visually stunning that if he hadn’t told her he had been shot she would’ve overlooked the scar. She wondered absently if he had chosen the design for that reason or if there was some other story behind it. There would be time to delve deeper into that subject later, she thought.

She knew even though Aaron was worn out and it was unlikely he would wake up he had a habit of waking at the most inopportune moments. Even that wasn’t enough to cool the fire raging in her veins though and she leaned in to press a kiss to the old injury, letting her tongue tease the raised flesh.

His left hand moved up along her back and over her neck until it dug into the hair at the back of her head, grabbing it with a gentle but firm grip to guide her mouth back to his own. This would be over a lot faster than he would’ve imagined their first time together after so long, he realized, but it didn’t feel wrong. There was always time for slow and tender later that night or another. His free hand moved under her thigh to pull her forward to the edge of the counter then trailed further upwards under the fabric of her clothes. “I like skirts,” he teased lightly when her outfit choice made it easy for him to reach the part of her body that was demanding attention.

“They have their good points,” she admitted breathlessly and pushed against his knuckles when they brushed along her panties.

“Yeah…” He smirked when she groaned against his lips as soon as he backed away with his hand.

“Max,” her legs moved together, but the fact that he was still standing between them stopped her from closing them completely to trap his hand.

“Um-hmm,” he murmured as he quickly undid his belt and dealt with the snap and zipper on his jeans. He made a grab for his wallet when he remembered the condom and he fought with the loosened material of his jeans, trying to get his hand in the pocket as the fabric bunched up. He tossed the wallet aside as soon as he had the packet, clamping it between his teeth and giving himself a few quick, hard strokes. He hissed a sharp indrawn breath when her hand reached between them, brushing his aside to grip him fully.

“Hurry,” Liz whispered.

“Keep that up and it’s gonna be over even faster.”

She smiled triumphantly at the ragged note in his voice when he spoke and her eyes darkened as she watched him rip the small package open. She took the condom from him and started to roll it over his length just as he tugged her panties aside to touch her.

“Fuck,” her curse was breathless in response to his teasing and she set the condom straight again when it slipped in a moment of heat.

“Got a problem?” His voice was mocking. “I know he’s pretty impressive…”

“No problem,” she told him and squeezed him tightly with her hand when the protection was in place. “You?” Her eyes sparkled with amusement when he inhaled sharply.

“Fine,” he rasped out and brought both of his hands to the backs of her knees to pull her towards him as close as possible. His lips crashed onto hers and he pressed her upper body down on the counter when he moved his hips to the right angle to brush his erection against her a few times.

She turned her head to break the kiss and gasped for air, trying to find a way to steady herself better. One of her feet came into contact with the handle of the upper drawer built into the island and she was able to open it slightly to brace her foot on the edge of it just as he entered her.

“Fuck.” It was his turn to curse as he slid in to the hilt and stilled to give her time to adjust and him time to make sure he had himself under control. He knew they’d never last long and he was okay with that but he didn’t want to lose it before they really got started either. He lifted his head to meet her gaze and he rolled his hips experimentally.

Liz moaned and whispered his name urgently, letting him know she was ready. She felt like she had been ready forever. Her fingernails dug into his back when he withdrew and she threw her head back and bit her bottom lip hard as a reminder to be quiet when he slammed into her and she felt it all the way down to her toes.

The stinging sensation combined with her expression sent a rush of heat coursing through his veins and he increased his pace, pushing them both closer to the edge.

“Feels good,” she mumbled inarticulately and brought both hands up to clench over the edge of the counter next to her head to push against him in the same rhythm as he moved. It only took a few seconds before she felt her lower body tighten in anticipation and few blinks later the blood rushed through her veins loudly as she came.

It was so much better than doing this with your own hands, she thought in a moment of heat.

Her muscles trembling around him was the last little push he needed to send him over the edge. He had to let go of her for a moment to rest his palms flat on the countertop to balance himself otherwise he would’ve probably just slipped to the ground.

“Got a problem with your legs?” she teased with a cheeky smile and lifted her upper body up to rest on her lower arms.

“S’all good,” he snorted and leaned in for a short kiss. Her skin was flushed and sweaty – and it made her even more beautiful in his eyes. “Next time we reverse positions.”

“I don’t know.” She let one fingertip travel over his chest. “There’s definitely an advantage to this position.”

“Yeah,” he laughed quietly, “the guy has to do all the work.”

“Well, I was referring more to the view, but if it’s too much for you…”

“Don’t think that’s ever gonna be an issue.”

“I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself.”

He kissed her, stopping the teasing words and enjoying the freedom to touch and kiss her. “I didn’t think we were ever gonna get back here,” he said a few minutes later.

Liz ran her thumb over his bottom lip. “If it had just been me a couple years ago…”

“You don’t have to explain. I understand Aaron had to come first and we got our wires crossed and ended up thinking pretty badly of each other for a while.” He pulled her fully upright. “Why don’t we go stretch out on the couch and talk there,” he suggested.

She rolled her eyes. “You mean I can talk while you mumble for a few minutes before passing out?”

“Something like that,” he admitted with a half smile. “Didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Tell ya what,” Liz straightened and pushed him away gently so she could slip from the counter. “We’ll take a quick shower and lay down after that.”

“You got the late shift tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m gonna meet my lawyer in the morning, but we’ll have time for a relaxing breakfast with Aaron first. There’s a small diner about two blocks from here and they do a great affordable breakfast. Got special menu for kids too.”

“Uh-huh, and you know that how?” she teased.

“Michael’s taken his nephew and Cody there a few times when we hung out.”

“Sounds great,” she agreed. “We’ll do that. Maybe after that Aaron and I can go see Cody before I need to be at work.”

“Yeah,” he zipped his jeans before guiding her towards the bathroom. His body was exhausted and he was looking forward to lying down with her and hopefully snuggling up. Their future was still uncertain, but at least he had hope that things would work out somehow.

*****

Michael was sleeping so soundly he was barely aware of the noise his phone was making as it rang incessantly. After several long days and too little sleep he had crashed not long after getting into bed. Courtney fumbled around on the nightstand, grabbing it and blinking owlishly as she tried to focus on the illuminated display. It was almost four in the morning and for anyone to call that late it had to be an emergency. Her eyes widened when her vision finally cleared and the flashing 9-1-1 became apparent.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered. She rolled over and started shaking him, calling his name and ignoring his irritated mumbles urging her to leave him alone so he could sleep. “Michael, Michael, there’s an emergency!”

The words were muffled and accompanied by an aggravating buzzing sound but neither of them would stop. He was just about ready to think about going home to get some peace and quiet when his girlfriend’s words began to filter into his exhausted brain. He jerked upright, one hand rubbing his eyes and the other reaching for his phone. He hit the call button and lifted it to his ear, snapping off a quick ‘hello’ and listening to the orders coming over the line.

“Is it bad?” Courtney asked as she watched him. Still half-asleep, he was stumbling around the room, trying to find his clothes and pulling them on as he located them.

His hair stood up on end when he raked a hand through it and glanced at her. “Multiple-alarm fire,” he said shortly as he went back to searching for his shirt. “They’re callin’ in everyone they can reach.”

“You need more rest.” She got up and turned the light on, rethinking that one too late when she saw him squinting in response.

“No time for that now. Adrenaline will keep me up, trust me.” He might be pissed at Valenti, but he would never be a no-show when the other guy was putting his life in danger to save others. “Lotta people out there puttin’ their lives on the line and they need more backup onsite.” His partner was on her way in, Tony would be on his way if he wasn’t already there, and a so would a hundred other firefighters, police officers, and rescue workers that he knew and worked with on a daily basis. “You give this job everything you have or you might as well stay home and give it nothin’.” He snatched his tee shirt up off of a chair and yanked it on. “This’s who I am, Court.”

He almost looked adorable like this, she thought and smiled slightly at his messy hair and tired face. “I know. And that’s one more reason to like you.”

Michael hesitated when he pushed his cell and keys into his pants pockets and looked at her, his lips quirking into a half smile. “I gotta go. Sorry our time together was so short again.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She followed him through the apartment as he made his escape.

“I’ll call you later.” He pulled the front door open and stepped into his shoes.

“Be safe out there.”

“Will be,” he said, like he always did when people told him that and he stopped on his way out the door to turn to her for a short but proper kiss on the lips. “Later,” he mumbled and hurried down the stairs to his car. One good thing about her apartment was that it was close to the station, he thought when he got behind the steering wheel to start driving.

Thank God it was still too early for most of New York to be up, so the streets were empty enough to reach the station in less than ten minutes. By the time he pulled into the parking lot, many others arrived as well, their strides determined as they rushed to the building that housed the fire trucks and ambulances.

“Damn short night wasn’t it?”

Michael saw someone catching up with him from behind. “These things never have a sense of timing, Carter.”

Tony nodded and opened the door leading directly to the locker rooms. “Sarah said Valenti’s been down there for a few hours now, but the situation still isn’t under control.”

“Yeah,” he muttered as he pulled his locker open and started pulling his gear out.

“Hey, you got your head on straight?”

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Guerin.”

He looked up and his gaze collided with the photographs taped to the inside of his locker. He hadn’t put them up; Maria had sweet-talked her way inside one afternoon and plastered pictures of their group taken at various times over the past few years on the inside of the door of his and Kyle’s lockers. He paused for just a moment on a shot of him and Kyle. One of their dads had taken it after their graduation ceremony and even as goofy as they looked in the picture it was one of his favorites. His gaze shifted and landed on one of Tess and Maria posing in front of one of the fire trucks and he slammed the door shut.

“I’m ready, Carter. Let’s get a move on.” He didn’t want to talk about it. He was a trained professional and no matter what was going on in his personal life he wouldn’t let it interfere with his job. There was too much at risk.

*****

Isabel sighed and glanced at the clock on her nightstand. 4:50am, she thought in frustration and turned over to face the wall. Sleep had avoided her for most parts of the night while her mind had run like crazy over her talk with Alex the day before.

Could Richard really be a threat? He had always been a little prick looking back now, but he hadn’t come across crazy or violent. The photos were just away to intimidate her because his pride was hurt after she had broken up with him. Yeah, it had to be that! He was trying to show her that HE was the person who had the upper hand and not her. This didn’t have anything to do with stalking and he wasn’t planning to hurt the other man.

Just to be sure she would stay away from Alex though, that way it would be safer for both of them and really… where would lead it anyway? She rolled her eyes at the thought. Alex Whitman wasn’t the kind of man she would ever date for real.

With a loud sigh she rolled onto her back and grabbed her cell to flip through a few pictures she had taken during the beach weekend. She stopped when she reached one of Alex and Max sitting on the steps leading down on the beach, talking and laughing about something.

Would it really be that easy to stay away from him? Do you want that? her conscience taunted when she felt the slightest bit of a pull next to her heart while looking at the cell’s screen. First you practically forced him to become friends with your friends and now you expect him to just back off and be the nerd again. Classy, Isabel!

“Fuckin’ night,” she muttered in frustration and swung her legs out of bed to go and get something to drink.

The tiles on the floor in the hallway and kitchen felt nice and cool beneath her bare feet as she wandered through the apartment. It was still too freaking hot outside, the air conditioning had been running like crazy for weeks now and it would probably cost a fortune. She opened the refrigerator and pulled a small bottle of water out.

Opening it up and taking a few sips, she leaned back against the counter and stared into her apartment. This stupid Richard situation was getting nasty and now it was also stealing her sleep from her!

Her eyes focused on the little desk across the room and without even realizing it, she walked over and opened the small drawer, to pull the X-ed photos of Alex out to look at them. How had he been able to take those photos? He must’ve been close. Just the thought of it made her shiver and she put everything away quickly.

There was no way she would go back to sleep, she thought when she looked at the clock in the kitchen and then outside the window. The sun was coming up slowly, so maybe a run through the park would distract her mind for a while and offer some relaxing afterwards. She put the half empty bottle of water back in the refrigerator before going back to her room to change into some running clothes.

Tess waited until her sister had disappeared in her room before she walked out of hers. She had been surprised to see her sister up so early – obviously she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep.

There had been something on her big sister’s mind all night when she had gotten home from the hospital yesterday, but Isabel had told her everything was okay and she had just figured that maybe something at work had been bothering her.

Curious, she walked over to the desk on her tip toes to have a look at the inside the drawer that had held her sister’s attention a few minutes ago. She bit her lip when the thing opened with a squeaking sound, but it seemed like Isabel didn’t hear anything because her bedroom door remained closed.

“Fuck,” she hissed when she saw the contents. A small stack of photos and every one of them was either just the nerd king or Isabel together with the nerd king and his face was always X-ed. Her gaze shot to her sister’s room while she tried to make sense of the situation. Was this the reason for her sister’s sleepless night? And what did it mean? Who had taken the pictures?

Tess quickly closed the drawer again and walked into the kitchen, just before the other girl came out of her room.

“You’re up?” Isabel asked, surprised. “So early?”

She shrugged. “Obviously I’m not the only one.”

“I’m taking a run. At this time the park isn’t packed with people.”

“Uh-huh,” Tess said doubtfully, but knew that bringing up the photos at this point would only lead to defensive snapping and a fight with her sister. Isabel wouldn’t admit that she was bothered by them. “Have fun then.”

There was no way she would just ignore this though. Whoever had taken these photos – and she had a pretty good idea who – wasn’t going to leave her alone and knowing her big sister, the girl would put it off for too long.

*****

The scene was chaotic. The police had cordoned off a large area and from the looks of it they were still expanding it. Fire engines, ambulances, police units, and other emergency vehicles were all over the place and the officers who had arrived in them were running back and forth in an effort to contain the fire, help the injured, and contain the growing crowd. The noise was deafening as the ominous creaking of burning wood, glass shattering from the intense heat, people screaming, and sirens blared provided a terrifying soundtrack to the scene before them. The early morning sky that was just beginning to show streaks of light was lit up by the fire that was blazing in multiple buildings now.

Michael hurried to keep up with Dana as she dodged between officers and vehicles to get to the Fire Chief. The heat coming off of the burning buildings was intense even from their location in the ‘safety zone’ and he was already starting to sweat.

“Chief McCoy,” she yelled in an effort to be heard as they approached the man who was busy directing his officers.

“Sharpe, get ready for a long night.”

She just nodded with a grim smile, not bothering to mention they were moving into the morning. “Nights like these are always long, Chief.”

“They’re still pulling people out.” He pointed at a building to the right that was engulfed in flames. “We haven’t been able to contain it yet. About the time we start getting one under control another one goes up.”

“Arson?”

“Don’t know yet, could be.” He pointed upwards with his radio. “That one’s an abandoned building but the cops have been runnin’ the homeless outta there for months. We’ve already had multiple cases of smoke inhalation hauled outta there. They get inside these buildings and hide. We have no way of knowin’ if we’ve gotten everyone.” He pulled his radio to his ear when it started squawking and after a quick but short conversation he lowered it again. “Here they come with another wave. Good luck tonight.”

“Same to ya, Chief. Let’s get ready, Guerin.”

“I’m ready,” he told her.

They were hauling their gear out and getting set up when the heavy sound of firefighters’ boots approached them. Dana glanced up and nodded at the men. “You guys watch yourselves in there.”

Dan Gilyard smiled tiredly, his creased cheeks smudged with soot and streaked by sweat. “Thanks, Starke. Y’all do the same.”

Next to him Kyle shifted his harness in an attempt to settle his oxygen tank more comfortably. His face was nearly a mirror of Dan’s and he nodded at Dana as they passed.

Michael hefted a bag of supplies out of the back of the truck and he thought twice about it before he let the other man pass without speaking to him. “Yo, Valenti.”

He turned his head but kept walking. “Yeah?”

“Stay safe.”

“Yeah, man, you too,” he nodded and followed his partner. It would be ridiculous to think Michael had gotten over the fact he had slept with his sister; the guy just knew as well as he did that that it didn’t belong at work.

“We need a few more men down here,” the Chief called from his new position and waved them over, pointing at the wide gap in the middle of the street where an old subway tunnel had collapsed.

“Looks like we’re headin’ back in,” Dan said as he and Kyle turned to jog back towards the Chief. They settled their masks into place and descended the ladders that had been lowered into the depths of the old abandoned tunnel. They snapped the switch on the flashlights that were hooked to their jackets to illuminate the darkness.

“Tunnel was sealed a few years back,” another firefighter said when their boots settled on the ground. He pointed back to his right. “We’ve got about a quarter mile section our way and maybe a half mile section your way. There’re a few places where the homeless have found ways into these old tunnels so keep your eyes open.”

Dan nodded. “We’re on it.”

“I’d rather run up 30 floors with all this gear than creep through dark tunnels,” Kyle said when the light from his flashlight followed a few rats heading in the opposite direction.

The older firefighter just chuckled. “I know what you mean. My youngest kid keeps one of these damn things for a pet. White rat with red eyes. Thing looks like the devil himself.”

“And you allow that?” He snorted and shook his head.

“Ronnie’s one of those kids who’s really into the whole science thing. I don’t understand half of what he talks about but he’s smart. Not a lot of friends, but he loves that rat.” He shrugged. “Don’t ask, I don’t know. My older boy, sometimes I think he’s never gonna get his head into anything related to school. Comics, video games, and the girl at school he’s certain he’s in love with but won’t talk to. The wife says they’ll both grow outta these phases and she’s usually right.”

“I’ve never been into school,” Kyle said and held his arms out at his sides, “and look at me. Women love me. And I’m smart.”

“Women do love young bucks like you,” he agreed. “But as much of a kick as you get outta that there’s nothin’ like that one woman that changes your life. Trust me on this, Kyle. It’s not as foolish as it sounds. You know, when I met Eleanor I was a lot like you. Not nearly as many girls chasin’ after me but it was a different time. Back then we did most of the chasin’ and most of the girls liked it that way.” He paused and strained to hear. “You hear that?”

Kyle stopped and tried to hear what his partner had heard. “Are there any supply lines down here? Could be a broken water line?”

“Could be.” He frowned and pulled one of his gloves off to rest his hand against the wall. “I could’ve sworn I heard someone yelling though. I don’t know why they don’t fill these old tunnels.” He swept the beam of his flashlight against the ceiling and froze when it landed on what looked like a trapdoor with a rickety ladder attached to the wall leading up to it. “See?” He lowered the beam and stared at the crates stacked up against the far wall. “No tellin’ what someone’s gone and hid down here.” He led the way over to the ladder and pulled on it before placing his foot on the bottom rung and beginning to climb.

“Door’s warm but not hot.” He knocked on it and nodded when someone knocked back but the sound was weak. “I told you I heard somethin’!” With one hand he used his pry bar to open up the trapdoor and shoved it inward.

“What do you see?” Kyle yelled up after a moment. Dan was still on the ladder, the upper half of his body out of sight. He stood back and waited for his partner’s orders. He didn’t want to be in the way if Dan had to back off quickly.

“Got a kid here,” he hollered back as he looked at the filthy little girl huddled in a corner of the room. There were more of the crates around her and the fire that had warmed the walls could be seen creeping across the floor. “C’mere, sweetheart,” he called, doing his best to keep his voice calm. His gaze shot down to the detector clipped to his jacket when the alarm started to go off and the meter went crazy. “God Almighty,” he whispered. “Flammable toxins,” he yelled just as a crate across the room exploded. He hauled himself up through the hole in the floor and grabbed the girl, pinning her flailing limbs to her body as he carried her over and dropped down to lower her down to Kyle.

The younger man caught the girl and held her against him while he yelled the information into his radio to warn the other firefighters. “Get your ass down here, Gilyard!”

Dan scanned the room, pausing when he detected two bodies closer to a door across the way. Neither of them was moving but he had no way of knowing if they were dead or alive. The alarm on his jacket was screaming now and he knew going any further into the room would be suicide. With the level of toxins the alarm was indicating the people were most likely dead already. His gaze shot back to the fire and he knew their best bet was to get out and pass along the warning that there were explosive materials on site and the building they were housed in was going to go up at any moment. He dropped down through the trapdoor and as he landed next to Kyle he shoved the younger man. “Run!” he yelled as another explosion rocked the tunnel and debris began to fall all around them.

“Evacuate the tunnel!” Kyle yelled into the radio as they ran back the way they had come. After a long night onsite and with all the heavy gear as well as the kid added to his own weight, he could feel every muscle in his body protesting but he didn’t stop.

Another loud explosion rocked the ground and filled the air around them with heat and debris. Don’t look back, he thought and concentrated on running, but the concussion from the next blast knocked them off their feet violently. He lost his grip on the girl and everything happened so fast that he had no chance to react before everything around him went dark.