A/N: Well hey there! Long time no see! Lostladyknight and I have been working on this chappie for about a month, and it has become quite possibly our longest chapter ever! It just, uh….happened? So, we hope there's still lots of interest in this story though it's been a while since we updated. This begins the next "set" of chapters, about 6 years after where we left off in chapter five. We hope you enjoy and leave us a review. :D

Epically yours, Lostladyknight and bauerfreak

Sara thought having two boys out of the house would make her life a lot less stressful, but she'd turned out to be very wrong. As she pulled into the driveway with three kids in tow, she was about as stressed as she'd been with all six around. Sara had been late picking the kids up from school and had to leave almost immediately to take Colin to his speech therapy appointment. Luckily, she didn't have to do this every single day – just days when she had to take her youngest son to speech. But today was enough.

"Mom, can't I have my cell phone back now?" Marley pleaded as Sara cut the engine and unbuckled her seatbelt. In the seat next to her, Jordan rolled her eyes. Marley and Jordan both had cell phones, for emergency and call-home purposes only, but that plan wasn't working quite as well as they'd hoped. Jordan was very responsible, and preferred chatting online with her friends anyway, but Marley was a communication fiend. She went crazy if she couldn't talk to her friends, whether it be on instant messenger, on her cell phone, or in person. Today, she'd been caught for a second time texting in class.

"Absolutely not," Sara answered without missing a beat. Her Social Studies teacher had taken it second period and handed it over to Sara at the end of the day when she picked them up. "You're not going to be seeing this cell phone for a while, Marley."

Sara pushed the door open and grabbed her purse, which held the confiscated cell phone. Three other doors opened, and out came the youngest three of the Stokes children. The twins, both in sixth grade, and Colin, a third grader.

"But, Mom!" Marley protested, as her mother knew she would. "Miss Ballinger wasn't even teaching when I was texting. It was independent work time, so it didn't matter!" She followed her mother inside, right on her heels. Sara sighed as she set her purse on the kitchen counter. They didn't know it was possible, but Marley had gotten even more argumentative over the years, no matter how firm she and Nick were about the rules and not making excuses.

"I cannot believe you're even arguing with me about this Marley," Sara said, turning to her daughter. The other kids streamed into the kitchen to get a well-needed snack after a long day at school. "First of all, you're not supposed to be texting your friends at all. That cell phone is for calling your father or me, or your brothers and sister. And second – it's a school rule not to have cell phones out in class."

Marley crossed her arms over her chest, looking thoroughly wronged. Why should she expect her mother to understand how boring Social Studies was, or how important it was to warn her best friend Chelsea that her crush was flirting with Elizabeth Jacobs AGAIN.

"But how am I supposed to talk to my friends? Dad grounded me from the computer!" She continued to protest as Sara grabbed herself a granola bar to take with her in the car. Colin's speech appointment was in ten minutes, and they hadn't even left the house yet.

"Dad grounded you from everything," Jordan pointed out as she took a seat on the couch for a little break before starting homework. All these years later, Jordan was still very much the better-behaved of the twins, and managed to know about everything going on in the house. Marley gave her twin sister the evil eye, and knew she wouldn't be winning this battle.

"That's what being grounded means, Marley," Sara pointed out as she picked up her purse again and motioned for Colin to join her. "No friends. Alright, I'll be back in an hour. Behave yourselves, please."

Sara's cell phone rang as she led her youngest out the door. Looking down at her phone she noticed that it was her oldest son, the only child still living in the house that didn't belong to both her and Nick, Charlie. "Hey sweetheart," she greeted him trying not to sound stressed. "What's up?"

"I was just calling to let you know I got to work okay," Charlie told her. "I'm about to clock in though, so I can't talk long."

"Okay hon," Sara told him gesturing to to Colin to go get in the car, she still had to find his tape recorder and home therapy log. Colin had a stuttering problem. It wasn't always bad, at home when he was calm and comfortable it rarely made a difference. But when he was excited or nervous about something it was sometimes impossible for him to speak. Sara tried to multi-task as she located Colin's materials and turned her thoughts back to Charlie, "Is Noah's car running any better now?"

"Yeah, it sounds okay," Charlie told her but she knew he really wasn't the authority on cars. As long as it rolled he really couldn't tell the difference between them working or not. "I'll be home a little after nine, leave me some supper in the microwave?"

"Sure," she agreed. "Now you get to work and I've got to get your brother to his appointment."

"Thanks mom," he said pretty cheerfully. "Tell the brat I said hi."

Sara rolled her eyes at her son even though she knew he couldn't see. "Yeah, yeah, have a good evening. Love you."

"Bye mom," he said and hung up the phone. He still said he loved her all the time but he didn't really say it around his friends and especially not around his co-workers.

Finally Sara made her way outside and into the car, enjoying the quiet and being alone with Colin. Part of her secretly enjoyed "appointment days" because it gave her a chance to spend some down time with Colin, something she never felt she had enough of.

Being the youngest of six kids wasn't always easy, Sara knew. As a little guy, and the youngest boy in the family with three much older brothers, he felt left out at times. Sara admitted to babying him slightly. He was, after all, her youngest child, and the last kid they planned on having. Because of his speech impediment and subsequent teasing at school on occasion, Sara was even more protective of him. All the kids were most protective of little Colin. Having five older brothers and sisters to look out for him certainly was a perk.

"Mom," Colin started, his voice quite serious as they climbed back into the family van. "I almost punched someone today."

The confession certainly caught Sara off guard, her hand pausing halfway to the ignition in shock. "What, baby?"

"I almost p-punched someone," he repeated as he buckled his seatbelt. Sara did the same, much slower than usual, even though they were in a hurry.

Sara often wondered why his youngest son picked the oddest moments to make confessions about his life. Once, they were in line at an amusement park to get on a roller coaster, when he'd blurted that he hated taking piano lessons. Completely random, given the time, but Sara just figured he had to get things off his chest when he had a parent to himself.

She began to pull out of the driveway as she crinkled her eyebrows in confusion. Almost punching somebody? "What happened, Colin?"

"W-well," he began, totally calm and collected. "Andrew Buchman started making fun of me at lunch cause we had a substitute today and she didn't know about me and Ms. Marshall's secret s-signal about asking me a question, and she called on me, and I got all nervous. S-so at lunch, he started making fun of me and I really really really felt like punching him, but I didn't."

Because of Colin's speech problem, which often got worse if he was stressed or nervous, his third grade teacher had worked out a special plan. In order to help him feel prepared and not be so nervous about being called on out of the blue, Ms. Marshall would touch her right ear when the next question would be for Colin. It worked wonders for his nervousness. He didn't spend the whole day worrying if he would be called on at any time, and he had ample warning that the next question would be his. But with substitute teachers, it didn't always work so well.

"Well, I'm very proud that you didn't punch him," Sara started off as she began driving down their street. "You did the right thing. Did you tell him not to make fun of you?"

"Uh-huh," Colin said, looking out the window, then back at his mother. "He just laughed but then he left me alone."

"Well we've talked about hitting," Sara said gently, wondering what it was like for him in school all day with people who didn't understand the way his family did. "But you're a really grown up kid, you know that. You handled the situation really well."

"I know," he said, agreeing that hitting wasn't right. "I don't really like fighting that much. Unlike some people."

Colin knew his brothers and sisters better than just about anyone, his parents included, because he was one of them. He was the most unique of all the children, having grown up quite a bit smaller than the boys and not being a girl like the twins made him a bit more of a loaner than the older kids. His favorite pastimes were things like reading, watching TV, playing video games—stuff you did alone. But, he knew his siblings and surely at least two of them were fighting about something at that very moment...

"Daddy said you can't get on till Friday!" Jordan yelled at her twin sister who was trying to get her off the computer.

Marley had waited until the very instant she'd seen her mother's car pull out of the driveway and had gone running upstairs only to find the computer already occupied. "C'mon Jordan just let me have it for a half hour while Mom's at Colin's appointment with him."

"NO!" Jordan shouted, feeling frustrated that her sister was trying to get her to bend the rules for her yet again. "It's my turn, anyway."

"It is not!" Marley argued back, though she knew she wasn't supposed to be on at all. She was the type of child who could be a perfect angel in front of adults, but as soon as they turned their backs, she was doing something she wasn't supposed to. Nick and Sara knew this fact very well, and while they tried their best to keep an eye on her, it wasn't always possible because they both held full time jobs at CSI. However, since they had five other kids, someone usually ratted her out either accidentally or on purpose when she was up to something.

Marley put her hands up in front of her sister's eyes so she couldn't see the screen and was pushed away angrily. "Quit it NOW or I'm calling Dad!"

Marley mocked her words in a whiny tone but stopped tormenting Jordan. She was in enough trouble already and didn't need her father on her case yet again. Her mother was usually very busy when she got home, so she might be able to sneak on later anyway. Marley gave up for the time being and plopped herself down on her bed, which her mother insisted she made every morning.

It was getting harder and harder to share a room with her twin sister, now they were getting older. Jordan was still into lots of little girly things, like ballet, and the color pink (which was all over her side of the room), and all her dolls were still on display. Marley knew her side of the room was much cooler. Her Jonas Brothers poster hung above her Camp Rock bedspread, and a corkboard with pictures of her friends and her favorite movie stars hung above her slightly cluttered desk. They'd begged their parents to let them move into the basement once both Brandon and Noah moved out, but they said no. It didn't seem fair at all that Charlie got the entire basement bedroom to himself – just one person – when they were practically falling over each other, in each other's 'personal bubble' all the time.

Marley noticed her sister move the computer screen slightly so she couldn't get a good look at what she was doing. Not that she really cared what Jordan was up to, but the move made her very curious. "Hey, can I borrow your cell phone for just a minute?"

"No," Jordan answered, after hesitating a bit. "Cause you won't give it back until you get your phone back from Mom."

"But I haven't talked to Aaron all day because he wasn't in school and I miss him!" Marley said, playing the 'missing her boyfriend' card. "And I promise I won't keep it. Just let me use it while you're on the computer and I'll give it back when you get off. You don't need both at the same time."

"Fine," Jordan said, seeing an opportunity to get her sister out of her hair for a little while. "But only if you promise to go to Mom and Dad's room and leave me alone for a while."

"Why?" Marley asked her twin as Jordan produced the phone. Jordan wouldn't pass it to her though, and just gave her a scowl. "Fine, I'll go."

Marley rushed out of the room quickly as soon as Jordan had passed her the phone. Jordan rolled her eyes and leaned towards the door, "You're welcome!"

"What's she welcome for?" Jordan heard the sound of her favorite brother's voice, and couldn't decide if she was happy to see him or frustrated at not getting any privacy.

"She talked me out of my phone," Jordan admitted as she watched her older brother flop on her bed. "I thought you had a class right now?"

"Yeah but I didn't feel like going," Noah said. When Brandon turned eighteen Sara and Nick turned the upstairs of the garage into an apartment for him to live in but he'd since moved out, leaving the apartment to Noah. So, while he didn't live very far away Noah still had his own place with its own set of keys and Sara and Nick didn't just let themselves in whenever they wanted, but he came over to hang out with the family all the time. As they'd grown up Noah and Jordan had developed a bond that She didn't have with the other brothers, a sort of friendship.

"You should go to class," Jordan warned him. "If Mom and Dad find out you're skipping they won't pay your tuition."

"As long as I pass what does it matter?" Noah asked, defensively. "I figure I can miss so many days without it hurting my average."

"If you say so," Jordan commented, absently. She closed down the screen she was looking at on the computer and pulled another up instead. "But what if you miss something important?"

"Jordan," he said teasingly. "You know you can still bend the rules without failing right? I mean, you don't always have to do everything exactly by the book. Break a rule or two. Take a risk. It makes life a whole lot less stressful."

Noah constantly tried to get his little sister to loosen up a little bit. She was a great kid, but sometimes he worried she was overly concerned with rules. Jordan rarely got in trouble, and when she did, you'd think the world had ended. In first grade, she got in trouble one day for forgetting her homework and she'd bawled to her mother for over a half hour. Her interest in following the rules was a sharp contrast to her twin, who got in trouble like it was her job.

He sighed and leaned forward on his elbows, knowing Jordan didn't like to be reminded constantly of her goody goody nature. Noah wasn't sure anyone should be taking his advice about bending the rules anyway. One of the reasons he still lived at home as a freshman in college was because he'd been kicked out of the dorms for getting caught with pot. He'd made a mistake, and bent the rules a little too much, and this year he was paying for it. His parents had refused to pay to let him stay in a house with a few buddies right off the WLVU campus as punishment, so he had to make do with living at home a while longer. Not that it was horrible to spend more time around his family, but he was eighteen years old and anxious to be on his own.

Jordan kept her eyes focused on the screen, so Noah could tell she was up to something very important. What was so important to an eleven year old, he wasn't sure, but he was always one to respect his little sister's privacy. "Anyways," he decided to change the subject. "I'm gonna go downstairs and do my laundry."

As he stood up, Noah noticed her turn the monitor even further away from him, as if she didn't want him to see what she was doing. "What are you looking at?" He asked, but made no attempt to try to find out. Noah wouldn't do that to his sister.

"Something private," she answered evasively, avoiding his eyes. Noah studied her for a few moments, wondering what exactly she was up to. He wasn't sure why, but something about the way she was acting didn't sit right with him. If had been Marley being all evasive, he would have pried more, but he trusted Jordan implicitly. It was probably just silly middle school girl stuff anyway.

"Alright," he dismissed it. "I'll be around if you need me."

Noah wandered down the stairs, Jordan's business still on his mind. He admitted that he nosed into Marley's privacy sometimes but Jordan had a habit of telling him everything eventually, so he never felt the need to go through her things. But there was something really off about the way she was acting that made him concerned, though he decided just to be around for the rest of the day in case she needed him and to let her solve her own problem, or whatever it was, by herself.

He had just finished turning on the washing machine when he heard a voice calling into the house. It was his older brother, and the only one of the six kids that was older than him. "Hey Brandon, I'm in the laundry room," he called.

"What are you doing here?" Brandon asked, coming in as he looked around to see if anyone else was home. "And who all's here?"

"Just us and the girls I think," Noah answered. "I think Charlie's at work and so is Dad, still. And Sara had to take Colin for his appointment."

"Oh, cool," Brandon said, absently. "So what are you up to tonight?"

"I'm actually gonna hang out at home," Noah admitted. When Brandon gave him a disbelieving laugh he added, "The girls are up to something. I'm not sure if Marley's in on it or not, but something's up."

"You mean Jordan," Brandon corrected his younger brother, who was an inch taller than him.

"What?" Noah said, sounding a bit confused.

"You said you weren't sure if Marley was in on it," Brandon clarified. "You meant Jordan."

"No," Noah said, barely believing it himself. "I meant Marley. Anyway, I wanna be home in case she needs help or something."

"I'm gonna be here all night," Brandon offered, having always felt that his duties as oldest brother were the most important but while he had a good relationship with Marley and could butter Colin up to talk to him about things didn't mean he was as effective on Jordan. It was something Noah always wondered if Brandon resented. "I could do damage control on whatever it is for you."

"Nah," Noah responded gently—not wanting to tell his brother that he'd rather have a semi-responsible adult at home that she trusted best of all her siblings than one she barely knew anymore."I don't have anything better to do anyway."

"Alright man, whatever," Brandon responded as he headed into the kitchen to grab a snack. Despite the fact neither he nor Noah technically lived at home, Nick and Sara semi-regularly fed all six children. The oldest Stokes child was just about to graduate from college, and had kept Molly Brown as a serious girlfriend throughout the past six years. He knew both their families wouldn't want them to move past being just boyfriend and girlfriend in college, so there had been no talks of marriage just yet, but Brandon knew she was the one. "Where's Marley anyway?"

"She blew past me in the hallway upstairs with what looked like Jordan's cell phone," Noah plopped down on the couch and grabbed the remote. "Must be grounded from her own phone and trying to do her dirty business when the 'rents aren't home."

Brandon cleared his throat and walked to the bottom of the stairs. He sounded an awful lot like his father when he yelled if he got the Texan accent just right. He decided to give Marley a scare. "Marley Nicole Stokes! Get your butt down here!"

Brandon and Noah heard some scrambling upstairs, heard a door open and then shut again, and then Marley appeared at the top of the stairs, looking thoroughly concerned. When she saw her oldest brother her worried face turned into a huge smile. "Brandon!" She exclaimed and bolted down the stairs. Marley careened into him, and was enveloped in a warm brotherly hug.

"What's up, little woman?" He asked, hardly able to believe his baby sisters were now in middle school. It didn't seem possible that they weren't still in kindergarten or first grade. While he loved college, he definitely missed being able to watch his younger brothers and sisters grow up and getting to hang out with them.

"Not much," she replied, stepping back. "You scared the shit out of me!" Marley felt free to cuss with no parents around.

Brandon captured his sister around the neck with his arm and mussed up her hair as she squealed. "You're a little monster."

"If I'm a monster what does that make you? We have half the same genes," Marley pulled out of Brandon's grasp and gave Noah a hug too, even though she saw him almost every day, she felt a little bad making a big deal over Brandon without being happy to see Noah too. "So, what are you guys doing here?"

"I'm doing laundry," Noah announced, gesturing towards the laundry room where his wash was already running, "and I'm gonna hang out for dinner."

"Yeah and I'm here cause I felt like stopping by," Brandon answered, sitting down on the couch and lounging on it. "And I had kinda wanted to talk to dad about something."

"You didn't bring Molly with you?" Noah and Marley asked in unison, both noticing she wasn't there at the same time, and surprised.

"I don't always have her with me you know," Brandon defended himself, feeling a little embarrassed. He had to admit that he and Molly did spend a lot of time together even when they were just going home to see family. Brandon was as comfortable in her home as he was in his own, a perk that comes with dating someone you've known since the day they were born. "Actually I think she's at Chandler's and besides it was Molly that I had wanted to talk to dad about."

"Ooohhhhh," Marley and Noah said in unison again, then both looking at each other in surprise that they'd done it twice in the past two minutes.

"Trouble in paradise?" Noah asked, teasing his brother further.

"No," Brandon answered. "It's nothing like that, I just kinda wanted to ask dad about something. I'll tell you about it later."

"Sure whatever," Marley said, feeling bored with her brothers. "I'm gonna go back upstairs and talk to Aaron."

"You've sure been talking to Aaron a lot lately, haven't you?" Noah asked her, much more interested in getting in her business. Marley was much more likely to actually be hiding something, and he liked to watch out for her.

"So what?" Marley replied, heading towards the stairs. She loved her brothers, but she did not like them getting in her business, especially when it came to boys. They seemed to feel entitled to do so, and it really bugged her sometimes, especially when she had a secret. Nobody knew but her twin sister Jordan, but recently Aaron had become her boyfriend.

This was not something she wanted to share with anyone in her family, not only because her brothers would probably tease her relentlessly, but because it also wasn't technically allowed. Nick and Sara allowed the girls to hang out with boys if they were in groups, and with adult supervision, but never one on one. Because of this, she and Aaron had never been on a date per se, but at school they held hands in the hallway, and they had kissed a couple times when they got a private moment after school. A couple times Marley had gotten permission to go to a friend's house after school but instead had met up with Aaron at the park. She didn't worry so much about getting caught like Jordan worried about everything. If it happened, it happened. Marley had already decided she liked having fun, and didn't care about the consequences.

Marley disappeared up the stairs and headed into her own room this time to see if Jordan was finished yet. Luckily, she was, and was now sitting on her bed doing some homework. Her twin got lots more homework than she did. If Marley was in the "smart class" like her sister, she would probably go insane. Jordan had always been way too into school. In fourth grade when they had the opportunity to take a test to get in the accelerated class, Nick and Sara had both their girls take it. Both had qualified, but Marley had no interest in doing several hours of homework every night, or having to do any more work than necessary. She liked the pace of a regular classroom, and Jordan seemed to like having no life at all. School and ballet – that was all she did – and while Marley loved her sister, she also thought she was a little insane.

Marley started dialing Aaron's number on the cell phone, having memorized it by heart quite some time ago. Jordan sighed loudly and glared at her sister. "Can't you do that somewhere else?"

"It's my room too," Marley pointed out.

"Yeah and that's MY phone," Jordan reminded her sister a little loudly. "And, this is my room too as you so politely pointed out so... can I have my phone back?"

Marley made an indeterminable statement about something and flopped down on her own bed and typing a text message. "Can't I just hold on to it for a little longer?"

"You promised," Jordan told her. "Besides you can have the computer now, isn't that what you wanted anyway."

"Fine," Marley said, tossing the cell phone back to her sister and flopping down at the desk. It had taken her all of fourteen seconds to be logged into three different forms of messenger and chatting in four windows.

After a few minutes of mindless talk with one of her friends about the graduated cylinder they'd broken in science class that day an alert popped up indicating that Jordan had received an email. Marley, who wasn't nearly as reserved about nosing into her sister's business as Noah was, clicked on the little pop-up and opened Jordan's email account. She clicked on the most recent message, one from someone named: JustSK8Rin.

Hey

How wuz ur day? U been thinkin about me? I've been thinkin about u all day, I can't get u outta my head. It's like ur some sort of drug, I swear I've never felt this way b4. I can't wait to meet u. I've been counting the hrs but it seems like it's gonna be forever. I need u, now.

Luv u 4evr,

Justin.

Marley tried to hide the confusion from her face as she read through the email another time. It was dangerous business reading her twin's email with her sitting just seven feet away but she couldn't help it. The material was golden! How long had her sister had a secret boyfriend? And how should she handle the knowledge? There were a few choices. Confront her sister, forcing her to give up details. Print off and save any emails she could find from the guy, make copies, and blackmail blackmail blackmail! Or she could do nothing and respect her sister's right to a private life. She laughed out loud at the last thought, what a waste!

"Who the hell is this Justin guy?" She asked her sister straight up, wanting to know the details. Jordan knew about her secret boyfriend, so Marley thought it was only fair her sister should have to dish out the details.

Jordan's face showed how stunned and embarrassed she was at Marley's question. She immediately rose from her seat, going through a variety of emotions. Shock, for one, that Marley somehow knew about Justin. Anger because she seemed to think it was her business, and a variety of others flashed across her mind. "What are you doing?!"

She crossed the room in a second and saw that Marley had pulled up her email. "How did you get into my email?!"

Marley just laughed and scrolled through the message so Jordan could see. "It's not that hard to figure out. Iloveballet? C'mon, I've known your password for months."

Jordan looked like she could kill her sister at that moment. Her privacy had been invaded, and had been for quite a while without her knowledge. She'd been so careful about hiding all her email messages with Justin for this very reason. Marley was conniving and sneaky. All her emails from Justin she'd put in an email folder marked "homework", but all this effort apparently didn't matter. She really hated having to share a computer sometimes.

"How could you do that?" She demanded, giving her sister a shove. Jordan pushed her arm away from the mouse and took it, then closed the email. "It's not your business!"

"Take a chill pill!" Marley told her, standing up. "I just wanted some details. I'm not gonna tell Mom and Dad. Are you gonna meet him?"

"Not your business," Jordan reiterated as she sat down at the computer again. She went to her email settings and decided she needed to change her password. Marley realized her sister needed some space so she plopped back down on her bed, away from the computer.

"How old is he?"

"Not your business!!" Jordan snapped.

Her sister wasn't usually this evasive about anything, which was very odd. Marley made a dismissive sound, laid down and stared at the ceiling. She dished out all the details about Aaron, and she couldn't do the same?

"Jordan have you even met this guy yet?" Marley said, starting to worry that her sister was up to something a little more dangerous than she had initially thought. Hadn't her sister heard all the horror stories about stuff like this?

"Let me spell it out for you," Jordan said, rolling her eyes at her sister. "N-O-T Y-O-U-R--"

"I get it, I get it," Marley interrupted her. She minimized her aim windows and moved to sit on Jordan's bed with her. "But I'm serious, how much do you know about this guy? And are you gonna see him?"

Jordan flopped her books closed and looked up at her sister trying to figure out why she wouldn't just drop it. "How many times do I have to tell you? It's none of your business."

"I'm serious Jordan," Marley answered, ready to play the big cards. Though it had stopped being a game to her the moment she thought Jordan may not really know this guy. "If you don't give me some answers, and the truth, I'm gonna tell Mom and Dad."

"You wouldn't," Jordan dared her sister, settling herself on the bed and sitting up to look scarier.

"I would," Marley double dared.

"I'll tell them about Aaron," Jordan said, giving a smirk. Jordan was widely known as the most polite, well behaved, and even tempered of all of the kids in the family but she also had the capacity to be the most evil. "And we both know you're not willing to risk that."

Marley was quiet as she went through a wave of emotions. Fear was one of them. First the fear that her sister might actually honor her word and expose her secret relationship with Aaron. She wasn't ready for her parents to know yet. Also the fear that her sister really didn't know what she was getting herself into and that she could put herself in danger. Someone should at least know if that was going to happen, just in case. Another was anger because her sister was so willing to do something that would hurt her when she only meant well. But mostly she felt betrayed. Her twin sister had a secret and she wasn't allowed to know what it was.

After thinking about it for a few moments Marley decided that her sister meant more to her than her boyfriend, no matter how much she was going to regret making that choice later on. If Jordan was about to do what she thought she was it was a big deal. A grown up deal—and it scared her. Their parents should know. "Fine," she stated slowly. "If that's the way you're going to play it then fine tell Mom and Dad, see if I care. At least I'll still have a sister. I'm telling them when they get home."

"No you won't," Jordan said slowly, staring at her sister with a look of pure hate. She couldn't believe her twin sister, of all people, was the one who didn't understand her. For weeks now, she'd kept Marley's secret about Aaron under wraps, and this is what she got? Her own twin ready to rat on her?

"Watch me," Marley answered, equally as determined. She crossed her arms over her chest and held her sister's fiery gaze. Admittedly, Marley was sometimes a brat and liked to cause her sister problems just because she could, but this time was different. This was about Jordan's safety, and she didn't want her to be on the evening news as the latest kidnap victim.

"Who do you think you are, Marley? Really?" Jordan demanded, her eyes welling up with tears. All she wanted to do was meet the boy she'd been talking to online. It wasn't like she was being unsafe about it. She was planning on meeting him in a public place. He was only one year older than she was, and went to another middle school in town. He'd sent pictures, and she'd even talked to him on the phone a couple times. What could possibly happen if she were to meet him for ice cream in downtown Las Vegas in the light of day?

"I'm your twin sister, and I don't want you to get hurt," Marley replied. "You're being ridiculous."

"Marley, I'm gonna meet him at Baskin Robbins downtown in the daytime!" Jordan explained. "He's twelve years old and he's really trustworthy."

"How do you know he's twelve years old? What if he's some psycho fifty year old kidnapper?" Marley pointed out wisely. Though she hated to admit, Marley had indeed been listening to her parents all these years and their rants about their safety. It was like Jordan had forgotten everything their parents had warned them about. She seemed to be blind to the danger.

"I talked to him on the phone, Marley, and he sounded like a kid," Jordan quipped, storming back over to her computer. She quickly pulled up a picture of Justin and turned the screen so her sister could see it.

"How do you know it's really gonna be him? What if he has an accomplice and they have a big white van and they just snatch you up and take you away?"

"Don't you hear yourself? You're acting ridiculous!" Jordan accused her, getting very frustrated. Why couldn't Marley understand? Why couldn't she see everything was going to be okay?

"I don't care. I'm telling Mom and Dad."

Both girls heard the garage door opening and knew at least one of their parents was now home. They stared at each other for a few long moments, neither ready to back down. Jordan could tell her sister was serious about telling their mom and dad. Her threat about Aaron didn't seem to be working at all, so she knew she'd have to take a different route if she ever wanted to meet Justin.

"Fine. I won't meet him if you promise not to tell," Jordan offered. She would figure out a way to get to him tomorrow somehow, but if Marley blabbed about it now, her parents would put her on a total lockdown.

"You promise?" Marley asked, Jordan nodded. Marley's shoulders relaxed a bit and she sighed in relief. "I just want to know you're okay Jor, it's kinda part of the whole sharing a womb for nine months thing."

"Okay," Jordan answered, calming down herself. In all of their years of being sisters they hadn't ever broken a promise to each other. Especially not over something this big. "Look I'm sorry I didn't want to tell you but it's kinda a big deal to me. I've never had a boyfriend before."

"I've never had one before Aaron either," Marley answered. "And it's a big deal to me. Why do you think I want to talk to you about it all the time? You are my best friend after all."

"I know," Jordan admitted, relaxing a bit more with her sister. She always hated fighting with Marley. "But you have so many friends and so many boys that like you all the time. It's different."

"You have friends," Marley told her, pointing to a photograph of Jordan with two of her friends from that summer. "And that's not the way to meet a guy anyway. You can't honestly say you like a guy you've never seen before, can you?"

"He gets me," Jordan answered with a sigh. "He's sweet and funny and he and I can stay up talking for hours. He likes me. What more do I need?"

"I dunno," Marley said, making a funny face. "Someone who's not thirty?"

"He's not," Marley countered. "He's twelve. You don't think I'd actually seriously consider meeting someone who was thirty, do you? I'm not stupid."

"And exactly how old does he think you are?" Marley asked, trying to prove her point. "I bet you lied about that."

"I said I was in seventh grade like him," Jordan admitted. "But that's just a small lie. He's the one who said how old he was first. I'll tell him the truth if you want, he won't be mad."

"You're still gonna talk to him?" Marley asked, feeling very angry. Didn't her sister get it? This wasn't safe. "You promised."

"I promised not to go meet him," Jordan corrected her. "But what's the harm in talking to him some more? He makes me happy."

Jordan felt awful, because she knew that tomorrow, she would try to meet Justin. She wasn't quite sure how she would go about it just yet, but there was no way she was going to miss this chance. Justin really did care for her. Marley was just freaked out because of all the horror stories they'd caught wind of over the years from their parents. They never went into detail, but every time their mother or father came home and instantly had to give them all a hug, and stay close by, all the kids knew something had happened to a child. Because of this, Jordan understood she had to be careful, and she was.

Marley pulled her sister into a hug, something they didn't do quite as often any more. "Just promise me you're being careful."

Jordan hugged her sister back tightly. It was nice to feel so cared about, even though this whole conversation had been unnecessary. "I promise, Marley," she said simply, not elaborating. Jordan didn't like to lie.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Nick had arrived home from his shift to find his two oldest sons. It was a nice surprise to see both of them, as it always was. He knew his boys well, though, and knew getting dinner also had something to do with it. After doing a little catch-up in the living room, Nick stood up to start cooking the dinner.

"I assume you boys want in on the dinner plans?" He smirked at both of them.

"Of course," Brandon grinned, and stood up also. He really wanted to talk to his dad, and doing it over cooking would be the perfect time, while everyone was off doing their own thing. "Can I help?"

"I'd never turn down help. Sure," Nick agreed. "I'm gonna go check on the girls first to tell 'em I'm home. Could you get out the chicken from the fridge and start cutting it up?"

"Alright," he agreed as Nick began to climb the stairs to the girls' room. It was obvious from their door what stage of life they were in. Magazine cutouts of teenage boys plastered it, along with some pictures of their friends. The door was closed, so he knocked first.

Marley told him to come in a moment later, so he pushed it open. Both girls had a look of slight concern on their faces. "Just thought I'd let you two know I was home," he said, looking back and forth between them. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah, we were just talking," Marley said, and gave him a smile, hoping it would deter any more questions.

"What about?" He asked, not wanting to nose into his daughters' privacy but feeling curious. Judging by the looks on their faces and the fact that they were both seated on Jordan's bed, he could tell that they'd just gotten over a fight.

"School, friends, stuff," Marley commented with a shrug. Everyday things that they talked, and sometimes fought, about on a regular basis. Nick had a feeling it was something more specific than that but as long as they were getting along, it didn't matter.

"How were your days?" He asked, leaning his back against the door frame. "You guys learn or do anything out of the ordinary or anything?"

"Nothing exciting today Dad," Jordan told him and rolled her eyes. "There's not much out of the ordinary that ever does happen at our school. It's kind of a boring place."

"You think so?" Nick asked, remembering how much fun he'd had when in middle and high school. Of course it had been hard to get through middle, but nobody ever remembered those days fondly. He'd played sports and always had a few friends and in the end he'd realized it wasn't so bad. It was just a plus that he'd enjoyed learning. "I always kinda liked school, I thought it was sort of exciting."

"It is I guess," Jordan, the one who was more academically inclined, agreed with him. "But when you do the same thing every day it gets a little old too."

"Yeah you don't have that problem," Marley informed him. "Because with your job you're always working on a different case. You're always learning new things and going new places and meeting new people."

"I don't have a future CSI on my hands," Nick asked Marley playfully. "Do I?"

The thought had crossed his and Sara's minds more than once that their kids might go into law enforcement or something similar one day. They'd even had a bet going as to which child was most likely to go the route of CSI like both of their parents. For the time being the pool was mostly between Charlie and Chandler Brown though. He'd have to amend the placement of his money in that pool if Marley had an interest. If she was interested in it, she'd do it.

"I dunno," Marley admitted. "I mean it is really cool what you guys do. I know you won't talk about it too much with us but I watch Law & Order. I know people really die and stuff. I think it's cool that you and mom are the ones that get to tell their families how and why it happened."

"That's called closure," Jordan butted in. She'd been given a writing prompt that day in Honors Language Arts that had to do with closure. "When a person or group of people know the reason for something and can get over it."

"It's not just about closure though," Nick said, taking a seat on the bed across from his daughters. He'd had the experience with Brandon, Noah, and Charlie already and knew that the girls and Colin were going to have questions about his job eventually. Though, with the boys it had taken them all until they'd reached high school to start seriously asking. "It's about evidence, law, and justice. And, you don't always get closure or justice. Sometimes the bad guys get away and you have nothing to say to the family other than that you weren't good enough."

"But you and mom always solve your cases," Marley said, sounding a bit upset. "Right?"

"Not always," Nick admitted to his daughter regrettably. "Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we try really hard but the evidence just isn't there. What your mom and I do isn't exactly like what they do on TV it's a lot more involved than that. We look for clues that will help us figure out the whole story. We do a lot of paper work and a lot of research and a lot of testing and experimenting. Your mom and I are the ones that find the pieces and put the puzzle together but sometimes it's not as easy as starting with the corners and working your way to the middle. There are times when a piece of evidence isn't a piece of the puzzle at all—it's more like a clue as to where we can find the next clue to the next piece."

"And sometimes you can't follow the clues?" Marley asked. "I guess I never thought about it like a puzzle before. I always just thought you went out and caught bad guys... I never thought about how."

"Me either," Jordan admitted. "I think I get it though. You have to find the proof that the bad guys are the ones responsible for what happened to the good guys?"

"Victims," Marley corrected her sister. "Right dad? Because sometimes the people who died aren't good guys either?"

"I don't decide who's a good guy or a bad guy," Nick told his daughters. "I deal with suspects and, yes Marley, victims. The judge and jury in a court are the ones that decide who's bad and who's not."

"Do you ever get scared?" Jordan asked. She couldn't ever do her parent's job, she knew. Because she'd always be too afraid to be around someone who could kill another person. Or, as much as she hated to admit it, a dead person either. The idea freaked her out.

"All the time," Nick admitted, speaking to his eleven year old daughters like the adults they were being. "Your Mom does too, sometimes. It's a scary job with scary people and scary situations. Sometimes you can't help but be scared."

"Then why do you do it?" Marley asked, honestly She sat up and looked her father in the eye, not looking frightened at all, she was purely curious.

"Because we've got six kids at home who are proud of us for what we do," Nick told her, giving both of his daughters a comforting smile. "And because we want to make the world a safer place for them and our friends and their families."

"Oh, okay," Marley said, obviously still very much in thought.

"You guys have any other questions?" Nick asked, feeling as though it was about time to end the conversation at least until he talked to Sara about it. The girls were a lot younger than the boys had been when they'd started asking things and even they had never seemed as willing to listen as Marley and Jordan were being right now. There was a lot that even Brandon didn't know about what they did and Sara and Nick had intended to keep it that way... but maybe it was time to talk a little more openly with the kids about their work. They could be honest without giving the children more information than necessary.

"No," Jordan said. "Not right now anyway."

"Me either," Marley agreed, still taking in the information her father had given her. "But do you think I could ask you some more things later?"

"Absolutely," Nick agreed as he stood up and made his way over to the door. "You girls know you can ask me anything, right?"

"We know," they called back in unison as he descended down the hall and stairs.

Just as Nick reached the bottom of the stairs, the side door opened, and his wife and youngest son stepped inside. Sara looked exhausted, but she smiled at him nevertheless. "Hi, baby," she said, ushering Colin towards the living room.

"Hey," he winked at her as Colin approached him for a hug. By the time Brandon had hit nine years old, he was already getting weird about giving his father hugs, but not Colin. He was still very much the lovable, huggable Stokes son.

"Dad, look what my speech therapist gave me!" Colin said to his father, holding up a Tootsie Roll Pop for him to see. Nick smirked at him – he as so easy to please. "Cause I did so well today."

"Oh, yum," he commented and pretended like he was going to stick in his back pocket for himself. "Grape is my favorite."

"That's for after dinner," Sara reminded him as she let her purse plop down on the kitchen counter. It was then that she saw her oldest stepson, Brandon, busy cooking some chicken on the stove. "Brandon! I didn't know you were coming over!"

She quickly walked around the island and enveloped him in a hug. "Sorry, I wasn't really planning on it. I would've let you know," he said as he hugged Sara.

"Oh, I'm not complaining," Sara cleared up as she pulled back with her hands still on his strong shoulders. Brandon had matured immeasurably since he'd left for college. He held a steady girlfriend, did well academically, and continued to make Nick and Sara proud. "I feel like I haven't seen you in such a long time."

"It's been a week, Sara," he chuckled a little as Sara mussed up his hair slightly.

"When kids leave the nest it's hard, okay?" She smiled as she turned around to finally get to greet her husband properly. They made eye contact as she walked the few steps between them, their relationship still so full of passion and love, and then wrapped her arms around his neck. The couple, now married almost thirteen years, shared a short, but amorous kiss. Nick rested his hands on her hips as they broke the kiss. They grinned at each other as they let their foreheads touch for a few moments of peace. While they didn't have any toddlers running around the house to worry about, their lives still felt very hectic and filled. But they wouldn't have it any other way.

"How was your afternoon?" Nick asked her softly.

"Well," she smiled. "In the hour and fourteen minutes since I last saw you, it's been pretty swell."

"Smartass," he bantered.

"I thought you liked my ass?" Sara raised one eyebrow in question. Nick couldn't help but laugh at her comment and replied, "Touché."

After another quick kiss, they pulled away from each other so they could get on with their household responsibilities. "Dad, what are we making anyway?" Brandon asked as he continued to cook the chicken on the stovetop.

"Enchiladas," he said as Sara walked out the kitchen to talk with Noah, who was watching television.

"Cool," he nodded as Nick got a few more items out of the cabinets to make the dinner with. "Uh, Dad? Could I talk to you about something?"

"Oh right," Nick said, moving into the kitchen to help his son with supper. He started mixing up the Enchilada sauce as he glanced up at his oldest son. A grown man now. "What's up?"

"Well," Brandon started out. Not knowing exactly how to phrase what he had to say. "I guess I don't know how to start this conversation."

"Well Brand," Nick started gently, wondering what it was. He and Sara had been ready for the last couple of years for one of two big conversations with Brandon. One, he was either marrying Molly or intending to ask. The other—they were pregnant. Nick couldn't help but wonder if this conversation was going to be either of those. "Whatever it is, I'm listening."

"Okay," Brandon said, preparing himself. "Well, I've been thinking and I think I'd like to go into the Army."

"Wow," Nick said, feeling a little blown away. His first instinct was to tell Brandon that he wasn't allowed to join and end the conversation there. But, Brandon was an adult and had come to him for his input and advice, not permission necessarily. "Well, talk to me. Why?"

"Well," Brandon started slowly. "I've done a lot of thinking about it and I think it's a good idea. I mean, I know where you and Sara stand on the subject but there's still a lot to consider. Like paying for grad school--"

Nick cut him off, "Yeah but buddy you know that Sara and I'll help you with that."

"Yeah me and five other kids," Brandon reasoned. "And besides, I wasn't talking about for me per-se. Molly's going to be in Med school in a couple years and we don't want to rely on you and the Browns for the rest of our lives. It'd be a good, healthy, salary to supplement whatever I start out making when I graduate. It just makes sense."

"Well I'm really proud of you for thinking things through," Nick stated, honestly. He was proud to have raised the kind of son who wanted to do what he had to take care of his wife—or future wife. "But you and Molly aren't even engaged yet and we don't mind helping you out, both of you. You're both family."

"Yeah but we will be married at some point," Brandon pointed out. "I'm pretty sure we all know that's just a matter of time and, once I graduate there won't be much more to wait for. And, the Army's a good honest living. Jared's in the Army and you now Mom would support me in this. Plus I've got like four cousins who served. So...I mean you can't say it's not in my blood."

Nick had since completely stopped stirring the enchilada sauce and focused solely on his conversation with Brandon. To say this had come out of the blue would be an understatement, and he was somewhat of a loss as to what to say to him. He was pretty sure that Sara would be devastated to have Brandon put in possible danger, and he didn't know how they'd handle it as a family.

"But Brandon…" he didn't want to doubt his son or dismiss his wishes but he had to point out some things. "It's the Army. You could die. It's not just about getting money for Med school, man, it's your life."

"I realize that, Dad," Brandon said, having thought through his options and their implications for weeks. "But I could die tomorrow in a car crash, or get hit by a meteor. Just because I join the Army doesn't mean I'm gonna die."

Nick scratched the back of his head with his fingers. He again felt the instinct to put his hands on his son's shoulders, shake a little sense into him, and put his foot down. Nick respected that he wanted to serve his country and support his future family, but the father in him was scared. All he could do was picture Brandon as a little four year old kid, running around the backyard in his Superman cape and underwear. He didn't belong overseas getting shot at; he belonged at home.

"Brandon," Nick lowered his voice slightly. "I don't know if Sara could handle that." He told his son honestly.

Brandon sighed heavily and leaned back against the kitchen counter, crossing his arms over his chest. "I know you don't approve, and I know Sara won't either. But I feel like this is something I need to do."

What could Nick do? He couldn't order his son not to join – he was twenty two years old. He could drink, smoke, marry, and yes – die for his country. "How does Molly feel about this?"

Brandon scrubbed a hand over his face, remembering their numerous conversations about the subject. Of course she didn't want him to go, but she understood where he was coming from. They were about to start their lives together, and she got that he wanted to be a man and support the family. But that still didn't mean she liked the idea or didn't try to talk him out of it constantly. "She hates the idea."

"Well," Nick sighed as he turned around to tend to the sauce again. "I think you've still got a lot of thinking to do. You know I'll support you in whatever decision you make, but promise me you're gonna do a lot of thinking about this, okay?"

"I promise," Brandon told his father, and held out his arm for a hug. Now that he was past his teenage phase of life, Brandon was all about hugs again. He wasn't ashamed to show affection, and now that he was grown he appreciated his parents more. Not every guy had a father who would listen and be so level-headed about the prospect of his son joining the Army. "Thanks for listening."

"You're welcome," he told his son. "But don't go mentioning this to Sara unless you're absolutely certain, alright? I'm not sure how she'll react."

"React to what?" Sara's voice interrupted their private conversation. The two men turned to see Sara standing in the entryway of the kitchen, with several dirty dishes in hand.

"Sara," Nick said, startled and feeling guilty because he'd just suggested to Brandon that they keep something from her. As a rule Nick and Sara never kept secrets from one another. Generally unless it was a secret that one of the kids really needed them to keep, they both saw it as lying. "Uh, well Brandon and I were just discussing something."

"I get that," she told him playfully. "But what was it that you were discussing?"

"Sara," Brandon cut in. "I promise you I'll talk with you about it. But, it's something I'd rather talk to you about in private. And, I promise you it's not a bad thing or anything too life altering. Okay?"

"Okay kid," Sara said as she put an arm around him and pulled him into a hug. Of all of the kids Brandon was the one that had always been the most open to giving Sara affection, even while he was a teen and wasn't as snuggly with Nick. "I guess I'll have to settle for being curious for a while. You know how impatient I can be though..."

"We know," Nick and Brandon both agreed with her simultaneously. Brandon added, "I'm pretty sure that's where Marley gets it."

"Very funny," she said as she swatted him playfully. "I always thought Marley was a little more impatient than I am."

"Maybe just a little," Brandon joked back. Holding up two fingers closely together to show a tiny bit. "But you know she's only eleven and you're... well... a little older than eleven."

Sara just laughed. "Nice save."

Nick had spent the last couple of minutes focused on making the enchilada sauce and hadn't been paying attention to his oldest son and wife but he'd allowed his mind to wander and a thought had come to him. "Hey, what time is Noah's evening class?"

"Uh," Sara said for a moment, grabbing the copy of his schedule from the end of the cabinet where they kept all of the family's schedules and appointments. "Looks like he should just be getting out right now."

Nick furrowed his eyebrows, confused. "That's funny," he commented, though his tone didn't sound so amused. "He's been home for how long, Brandon?"

"Uhhhhh..." Brandon stalled, realizing his younger brother could very well be in big trouble with his parents. "For a little while, I don't know. Maybe his class was cancelled?"

Sara sighed and shook her head as she handed the schedule over to her husband. "It better have been cancelled," she told Nick. "If he's skipping, he has something coming to him."

Nick and Sara didn't like to assume guilt with their kids, but the circumstances were highly suspicious. If the class had been cancelled, Noah probably would have mentioned it to them right away in celebration. But he had said nothing. They paid good money for his tuition. Brandon wanted to join the Army to pay Molly's way through Med School, and Noah was skipping class?

"Noah!" Nick called his son, who was still lounging in the living room, watching television. "Come here a minute, please," he turned to Brandon and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Give us a minute, okay?"

Brandon nodded in understanding and climbed the stairs to go hang out with Colin for a few minutes, who had since gone upstairs also. Noah rolled himself off the couch and dropped the remote back on the chair as he wandered towards the kitchen. His dad's tone had been a bit unreadable, but after eighteen years of being his son, could tell he wasn't entirely happy. Noah walked into the kitchen to find both his parents looking suspicious.

"What?" He asked them.

Nick held up his schedule. "Is there somewhere you were supposed to be this afternoon?" He asked, trying his best to make his tone non-accusatory. Nick wanted to believe his son had an explanation and he wasn't skipping his college classes.

"Scuse me?"

"History 101?" Sara jumped in. "Why weren't you in class?"

Noah knew he could lie and try to get out of it by saying his class was cancelled, or they got out early, but he'd learned over the years that usually just made things worse. His parents had a way of finding out everything. He wasn't sure why his parents thought it was their business, though. He was eighteen years old - a legal adult - and in charge of his own education. Other kids skipped all the time, and he'd only skipped this class twice.

"I didn't feel like it today. It's not a big deal," Noah told his parents, a slight hint of irritation in his voice.

"Not a big deal?" Sara repeated his statement, which was never a good sign. "Noah, we're paying your tuition. It's not cheap, you know."

"I get it that you pay tuition," Noah answered. "And I'll pay you back for it when I can. But did you guys even ASK me if I wanted to go to college? Maybe that's not what I want to do with my life."

"Of course you want to go to college," Sara answered unable to understand the idea that he may not want to go to college. She'd graduated from Harvard and Stanford, in her mind College was an absolute.

"Maybe I don't," Noah spat back. "But I still go to class and make pretty good grades. Just to make you two happy. So, so what if I skip class once in a while. I get three absences in that one... I still have one left. Why have absences if I'm not going to use them?"

"They're in case you get sick," Nick warned him, trying not to lose his temper. "Or in case of an emergency. You're not supposed to miss a class your parents are paying for if you don't absolutely have to."

"Dad," Noah said, trying to calm his father down. "I just wanted to come home and hang out with the family. It's not like I'm skipping class to go off and do something stupid."

"I appreciate that you wanted to spend time with us," Nick said, trying not to be as angry with his son as he was. If he was going to give Brandon the benefit of the doubt about being a responsible adult Noah deserved that too. Bad choices in his past and all. "But you could have called us and asked us to hold Dinner, we were going to eat a little later anyway so it would still be warm when Charlie got home."

"Fine," Noah said. "Next time I'll call before I come over."

"It's not about coming over uninvited," Sara interjected, knowing that Noah was intentionally missing the point. "It's about you going to class and getting an education. It's the most important thing you can do for yourself right now."

"Sara," Noah turned to look at her. "Why don't you just stay the hell out of this conversation? We all know how you feel about school—about anything you want us kids to do. If you say it it's the best thing for us and we don't have any choice in the matter!"

Sara gaped at his comment. She wanted what was best for all six children, and it hurt when one of them reacted like Noah just had. It was rare that any of the kids had the guts to mouth off to either parent, but this was one of those instances. A college education opened so many doors, and she wished Noah would be more committed to his schoolwork.

"Noah!" Nick raised his voice at his son. Even if he was technically a grown man, Nick still wouldn't put up with such harsh language, especially when it was directed at Sara. "That is NOT how you talk to Sara."

"It's not her business!" He challenged Nick, standing up a little taller, not backing down at all. Noah was just slightly shorter than his father, and figured he was done growing, unfortunately.

"How is it not her business?" Nick asked. "She's helped raise you for how many years? And your college tuition is paid by both of us."

Noah shook his head and torqued his jaw in frustration before continuing. "Yeah, well Mom doesn't push me to do things I don't wanna do. I just wish you would quit pushing the whole college thing. It's not my thing."

Noah had always done alright in school. Never a star student, but never a failure in any subject either. Once he'd gotten past his rough stage of middle school, he was known in the family for bringing home straight A's without much effort. Noah knew school was important to his parents, especially Sara, which was why he made at least the effort for A's, though he didn't "apply himself" like everyone wished he would. But he just wasn't the college type, it seemed. The only reason he'd gone to college in the first place was because he felt pressured by his parents to do so.

"Noah, a college degree gives you so many options," Sara reminded him. "It'll give you so many opportunities."

"Thanks for explaining that for the hundredth time," Noah quipped in annoyance. "I don't freakin' care. I want to drop out."

Noah didn't know if he meant that or not. He did know that school wasn't for him but he wasn't sure what was yet. He understood that it was a good idea to stay in classes until he found another plan but he didn't feel that he had to take it quite as seriously as his family was. He just wanted them to get that. That maybe he could take his time with school until he figured stuff out... maybe saying he wanted to drop out would get his point across.

"You don't mean that," Sara said, feeling almost more hurt than she had at Noah's words. "School's so important."

"It's not that important," Noah said with a heavy sigh. He wasn't backing down but he was getting tired of fighting. "I mean... it's not like I have to finish in four years like everyone else in the world. Can't I just take a few classes here and there?"

"Noah," Nick said, through his teeth. He was trying to calm himself down but the truth was that he was still really livid with Noah for his comments towards Sara. "Just... just... get lost."

"What?" Noah asked. Never, in all of his life had his father ever asked him to leave in anger before.

"I just think you should make yourself scarce until supper," Nick said, knowing he was too angry to speak fairly with his son. "Just go!"

Noah didn't wait for another comment but just turned and left the room. He'd considered heading up the stairs to hang out with Jordan for a while but lost interest just as quickly. Instead he decided to go back out to his apartment and be alone. For the first time in his life he felt like being in his own apartment on the family property was not a blessing at all... he wanted to be as far away from home as possible.

He cursed silently at having his license revoked for the ninety-day period that it had been because he'd been issued a DUI for being under the influence of marijuana while driving. If he hadn't lost his license Charlie wouldn't have his car at the moment and he would be able to up and leave home whenever he wanted.

Not knowing what else to do, he pulled out his cell phone and called his mother's home. It would be nice to hear a friendly voice after such a huge blow out with his father and step mother. He got the answering machine, "Hey mom, Jared, Meadow, I was just calling to say 'hi' I guess I'll call again later."

He pushed the "off" button hard and slammed the phone down on his bedside table. Noah let himself collapse onto his bed and release a huge sigh. His heart was racing slightly from the argument. It was rare that he ever got into such a disagreement with his parents, and usually happened when he let something build up. He'd never really told them how he felt deep down about college; how he hated the workload, and especially hated how now he had to live at home instead of the dorms. Admittedly he felt a little bad at snapping at his parents but at the same time it felt good to get everything off his chest.

Noah heard his stomach rumble in the stark silence of his small apartment. There was no way he was eating dinner with the family now. Not only was he probably not welcome, but he didn't want to have to sit there with all the tension in the room. He'd disrespected Sara, and he knew it really pissed off his dad. It was best to just stay clear of his dad when he was pissed. Not that he was afraid of him, but Noah knew he'd already done enough damage.

Back in the Stokes home, Nick was back stirring the enchilada sauce a bit roughly as Sara got out the tortillas. Some of it splashed out the pot and onto his shirt and arm. "Shit!" He exclaimed, letting the wooden spoon come to an abrupt halt in the pot.

Sara tossed the tortilla shells onto the counter and walked over to Nick. She put a supportive hand on his shoulder and began rubbing it gently. "Baby, don't worry about it too much. He's just upset."

Nick leaned against the edge of the stove with his hands, letting out a huge sigh. "You know, I think I understand him, and then he goes and says something like that," Nick said with a heavy heart. He'd always had a little more trouble understanding his second son. Brandon was definitely more like him, and related to him much better. Noah had always been a little more difficult to understand.

"Like what?" Sara gently probed, now running her hand up and down his bicep soothingly.

"What he said to you," Nick said, finally turning to look at her. "And about not caring about college. He knows how important getting a college education is. I feel like he's just trying to tick us off. And it's working."

Sara nodded in understanding. "I think that's most of it," Sara agreed. "He had the freedom of living in the dorms for a while, and now that's been taken away - I think it's causing him to rebel against what we want."

"The last thing I want is to make him do something that he really doesn't want to do," Nick said, his eyes full of worry.

"Well then I think we're going to have to have this conversation with him again," Sara mused aloud. "If he really doesn't want to go to college I think that he has the right to have his parents sit down and hear him out about it. I think deep down under all that crap about wanting to drop out he may have a pretty good idea about what he wants."

"And you don't think he wants to drop out?" Nick asked, sprinkling some cheese over the enchiladas and putting them in the oven so it all melted together.

"Well," Sara said, thinking aloud. "I don't remember the last time Noah ever gave up on something before he'd finished with it. I mean the kid played baseball until the day he graduated high school. He's a committed guy and I think he'll finish this semester."

"He can't be missing class then," Nick said, still feeling a little heated about the idea that Noah had skipped class in the first place. "So, what do we say when we talk to him?"

"I'm sorry Nicky," Sara said gently. "He'll feel ambushed if both of us try... this is a talk you're going to have to have with him alone."

"I was afraid you were going to say that," Nick answered. "I really don't want to have another fight with him."

"You shouldn't be afraid to talk to your son," Sara said, a little forcefully. "As for what you should and shouldn't talk to him about... I can help you figure that one out if you want."

"I do," Nick said. "So, what's our stance on school? Do we support him wanting to leave? Or, are we going to push him to graduate?"

"I think we need to let him figure out his stance first," Sara said, "Before we figure out ours. For right now, let's just try to be open?"

"You're a little too nice," Nick said, wringing out a hand towel. "I kinda want to go to every class with him and watch him while he does his homework. This is school for crying out loud! It's his education!"

"Right," Sara said. "And you know how passionately I feel about it but Noah's a passionate guy too. Still, I agree he needs high marks this semester. No matter what he decides later on."

"So," Nick said still thinking. "We ride his ass until the end of the semester?"

"I think so," Sara said with a nod. "And then we let him decide if he wants a full course load in the fall."

Nick let out a tired sigh as he turned and got a pack of rice out of the cupboard to cook along with the enchiladas. Sara came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his middle, then placed a kiss between his shoulder blades. "It's gonna be fine. We'll work it out."

Their conversation was interrupted by a slamming door upstairs and loud screeching by two members of the family – from the sounds of it, Marley and Colin.

"Get back here, you little slimeball!" Marley yelled as she ran after her little brother, following him down the stairs, going entirely too fast. Colin just cackled and continued on, with one of Marley's training bras wrapped around his head.

Nick and Sara saw their youngest child dart past the kitchen area to make circles around the dining room table, and Marley following him closely behind. Colin was known as the prankster of the family, and his favorite targets were his sisters because he got the best reactions from them.

"Give it back NOW or I'm gonna get all your stupid tighty whitie underwear and throw it out the window!" Marley threatened her little brother, standing at the head of the dining room table. Colin grinned back mischievously from the other end, out of his sister's reach.

"Colin Matthew," Nick's voice warned from the kitchen, giving his son a stern look over the bar that separated the dining room and kitchen. Colin grinned at his dad innocently. "Quit tormenting your sister."

"Moooom!" Marley complained with embarrassment in her voice, mortified that male members of her family had seen her training bra. It had taken a huge pep talk for Sara to convince the girls to take that first magical trip to the department store to get training bras. Neither girl wanted it widely known they'd been shopping, especially by their brothers and dad.

"Nick, turn around and look busy," Sara whispered to her husband. Nick got the hint and turned around, then busied himself with opening the packet of rice and finding a saucepan to put it in. Sara walked around the bar and clapped her hands together once.

"Colin, give it to me now," she told her son firmly. Colin laughed again mischievously and hopped over to where his mother stood, holding out her hand. His sister stood by, her arms crossed and a truly horrible scowl on her face. After a little twirl in place, Colin reluctantly took the garment off his head and deposited it in his mother's hand. "Thank you. It's not appropriate for you to be waving around your sister's clothing, and especially something so private. I think you owe Marley an apology."

Th—th--th--that's not fair," Colin said. "Marley's mean to me all the time!"

"That's just Marley's way," Sara said with a slight chuckle. She'd read about boys messing with their sister's things but she'd never seen anything like it until now. "But you have to be the bigger person sometimes."

"I heard that!" Marley accused. "Mom you can't take his side. My bra is private! Nobody should get to see it but me!"

"Well I agree with you honey," Sara said shuddering at the thought of Marley getting to an age where she was the one that didn't agree. "That's why I made him give it back. But you have to admit that sometimes you're a little mean to him. You both need to be nicer to each other. You're only ever going to have one baby brother."

"Sometimes I think I have enough brothers," Marley said out of anger. "Couldn't you have had another girl?" She asked.

"I didn't exactly get a choice," Sara said with a laugh. The truth was though that she always understood boys better than girls. It was why she was closer to Nick, Greg, and Warrick the past decade and more that she'd been working at CSI.

"Well I know that," Marley said. "But you could try to stick up for me. You know I'm getting a little tired of being defined as the 'hell twin.'"

"I'm sorry baby," Sara said, not realizing that Marley had any idea about her nickname. The family had been referring to her as that since near her first birthday. It made Sara feel a bit guilty. "You're right, that's not fair.

"Yeah well it's not exactly like you can fix it," Marley said, sounding angry that her mother and father had given her four brothers and only one sister.

"No I can't" Sara admitted. Adding silently that she wasn't sure that she'd even want to. "But you're really lucky to have four brothers. They're always going to be there for you."

"So is Jordan,:" Marley said hotly. "It's about being family. Not necessarily about being a brother."

"Colin, come on over here a minute," Nick called from the kitchen, where he was getting out measuring cups to add the water needed for the rice. Colin gladly escaped the argument he had caused between his mother and sister, and scurried over to the kitchen with his father.

Sara tilted her head slightly to the side and gently fixed a tangle in Marley's hair. She smoothed the kink out delicately and sighed at her daughter's passion. Playing with the girls' hair was always a guaranteed way to calm them down.

"I know you're upset," she said softly as she continued to smooth Marley's dark brown hair. "Little brothers were made to embarrass their big sisters. You've just gotta let it go and move on."

Marley stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her mother appreciatively. Though she was getting older, and didn't always like to act like she still needed hugs from her parents, she still secretly loved being held by her mom and dad. "I just get sick of it sometimes, Mom."

"I know," Sara said, pressing a kiss to the top of her daughter's head. "Soon he'll be busy chasing girls at school and you won't have to worry about him stealing your bras."

That made Marley chuckle, thinking about how someday Colin might be interested in girls. Her little brother was such a prankster, and so annoying sometimes, that she couldn't imagine any girl being interested in him. Ever. "No one will want to date him."

Sara laughed at her comment, still stroking Marley's hair. "Someone will someday," she pulled her daughter's head back to look her in the face. Sara saw that her face had now softened, and her anger had dissipated. She winked at Marley and then pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You alright now?"

"Yeah," Marley replied. "Thanks, Mom."

"Sure, baby," Sara said, then cleared her throat a little. "Dinner will be ready soon, so can you tell Brandon and Jordan to wash up?"

Marley nodded as she pulled away and Sara handed her bundled up training bra over so she could take it upstairs. "Should I tell Noah too?"

Sara felt her heart sink at the mention of Noah. Presumably, he didn't want to be around her or Nick for the time being, even if it did involve free food. The last thing they needed was another argument to erupt at the dinner table. Nick needed to talk to him first, and she doubted he'd had enough time to calm down yet. "I think he has other plans."

Marley furrowed her eyebrows. "Is that because you and dad were fighting with him?"

"It's complicated, sweetheart," Sara said, rubbing her brow with her fingers. "But don't worry about, it'll be fine. Daddy just needs to talk to Noah some more about a few things."

Marley nodded in understanding and then turned to run back up the stairs.

Noah's living room window was placed in such a way that he could look down at the house and see inside the kitchen and dining area and when he glanced past he noticed that everyone, Charlie excluding because he wasn't home, was settling in around the table to eat. He felt a pang of something, though he wasn't sure what it was. Jealousy? Guilt? Whatever it was, he felt sure that he was partly to blame. He admitted that if he probably didn't have to fight with his parents over the issue but his father had been a bit out of line yelling at him without asking for an explanation.

He sighed and moved to his kitchen area to grab a bowl and box of cereal. He wasn't a bad cook actually, but he never cared for cooking when it was just him. A meal of cold cereal and a banana would have to be sufficient. He grabbed his phone again, looking to see if his mother had returned his call, even though he knew she hadn't. He sighed, feeling like nobody wanted him. The Stokes family cat was hanging out in his apartment with him, but she usually did that. She was a rescue cat and shy to boot because of it, and thus usually preferred the quiet of Noah's apartment.

"Thanks for hanging out with me," he said to her, pulling her onto his lap and petting her gently. Even the family dog, who they'd only had about a month and was the result of Noah's feeling bad for him at a pet fair didn't usually choose to spend time with him. She just snuggled up to him and purred, nosing at his cereal bowl asking for some of his milk.

Noah thought about the fight he'd had and the things he's said, feeling awful about the way he'd spoken to Sara. He knew that Nick would be coming to demand he apologize and part of him hoped he'd get to see Sara before his father had the chance. It always took something away from an apology, however earnest it was, if it had been an order.

He was about to give up on any further companionship other than from Puddin (the black cat who'd been given her name by a seven year old version of Marley) when his cell phone rang. Surprisingly it was his mother calling. He flipped it open and pulled it to his ear, "Hey mom."

"Hey baby," She said with that overly cheery voice she used for her boys. "I heard you called, what's up?"

"Just wanted to say hi," Noah answered. "See how you and Jared and Meadow were."

"Oh we're fine," Kathleen answered happily. She got over excited for a moment and said, "Your little sister came home from pre-school yesterday and told me the whole alphabet! She's only three and a half."

"That's really great mom," Noah said through a slight laugh. "Tell her her big brother is proud of her."

"I will bud, she's right here if you want to talk to her," Kathleen said, not noticing his tone. Sara would have already asked him what was wrong and gotten it out of him.

"Sure, that sounds good," he said. "Put her on."

He heard the phone move around a bit before he heard a tiny squeaky voice, "Hi Noah!"

"Hey Meadow," he said, forcing himself to sound happier. "What's up?"

Every time he said the name Meadow, he cringed internally. Thank God his father had been around when he was born, and he hadn't been given some ridiculous name like his sister had received. He imagined his name would probably be something like Eisenhower or Burr or Denim. Now that his mother had her lifetime companion, the much younger Jared, who was as equally odd as she was, Meadow was set for a lifetime of, "Meadow? Your name is Meadow?"

"Hi Noah!" She greeted him exuberantly. Meadow was a lot like any other girl her age, in that she was very imaginative, chatty, and curious about many things. She had a million questions about everything, and was one of the most adorable almost four-year-olds you could ever hope to meet. However, she was also a lot like her parents – somewhat self-absorbed, and dare he say…annoying. "Guess what?"

"What, sweetie?" He asked, playing along. With two little sisters, he'd gotten a lot of practice with how to talk to very young girls.

"I'm almost four!" She said, like it was the most impressive thing anyone had ever heard. And to her, it was, and Noah understood.

"You are?" He asked her. "You're not almost ten?"

"Uh-uh," she replied, and he could picture her shaking her head, her blond, wavy hair tossing about. "And guess what else? Mom took me to the theatre today and we saw a bunch of dancers and it was kinda weird and I told Mom and she said it wasn't weird, it's art."

Meadow was a highly intelligent almost four-year-old with an impressive vocabulary. His mother tried to "foster" her creativity and inquisitive nature by taking her to all kinds of events. It sounded like Meadow had been subjected to some kind of interpretive dance. Noah felt that his mother was so enamored with finally having a little girl of her own, she went somewhat overboard. Sometimes he wanted to remind his mother to give her a childhood.

"Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun," Noah commented, though he thought the opposite. "Did you do anything else cool today?"

Meadow sighed. "I had to clean my room," she said, obviously bummed out.

"Oh really?" He said, smiling. "Well, isn't it nice to have a clean room?"

He didn't mention to her that his apartment was usually somewhat of a pigsty. He was in college, so what did anyone expect?

"Ehhh…" she said disapprovingly. "I guess. Mommy says I gotta go."

"Alright, sweetheart. I love you."

"Love you, bye."

Noah flopped down on his couch and grabbed his laptop. He checked his email and responded to a few of them. He didn't pay attention to the time and was surprised when he heard a knock at his door. He picked up a few things and pulled the door open. "Oh, hey Charlie!"

"Hey Noah," Charlie said, making his way into Noah's apartment. "How come you're not down at the house?"

"I got in a fight with Dad and Sara," Noah admitted. "It kinda got a little out of hand. Dad asked me to come home and sit out from dinner."

"Wow," Charlie said awed and shocked. "Well, you really must have screwed up. I mean if you made Nick that mad you must have gotten caught smoking pot again or something."

"Shut up," Noah said, aggressively. "I'm not that stupid. I just skipped class this evening. Marley and Jordan were having a huge fight about something and I wanted to hang out and make sure everything was okay."

"You know Nick and Mom are really crazy about school," Charlie said, flopping down on Noah's couch. "I mean I get that sometimes you just have to cut out from class, hell I do it all the time. But you can't let them know."

"Right," Noah said laughing. "Point taken little bro next time I won't tell dad I skipped class."

"That's the idea," Charlie said, laughing. "It sucks that they're that mad at you. Are you going to go down there and talk to them?"

"I guess," Noah mentioned slowly. "I kinda feel like I owe Sara an apology."

"Come down stairs with me and have dinner," Charlie said, giving him a brotherly smile. "Nick won't ambush you in front of me and I'm sure you want more than cold Lucky Charms for supper. I know they put a plate up for me, I'll give you half."

Noah wondered if they were talking about the same man. Since when would his dad not "ambush" him in front of his stepbrother? Nick would never outright humiliate any of his kids in front of the others, but everyone would know he was in the doghouse with his parents. At the end of his meal, his father would bring up the incident, if he didn't bring it up when he was actually eating, and at this time of night, all the kids would probably be hanging around the living room, avoiding bed time. He really didn't want to get into an argument and get verbally spanked once again with the entire family around. Noah really wanted to handle this on his terms, when he was ready, not wait until his father called him out on it and look like a frightened kindergartener.

"Thanks, but I'd rather not," Noah declined as he picked up the remote control to turn on ESPN. "I'll talk to him later so you can have a peaceful dinner."

Charlie looked over at his older stepbrother in concern. He seemed pretty beat up about this whole thing. Charlie didn't know the whole story of what had happened, but was guessing that it had flared up into something worse than it actually was. A lot of the times, that was the case between Nick and Noah. "It's really that bad?"

"Yes," Noah answered, flipping through the channels mindlessly. Charlie got along so well with their parents that sometimes Noah didn't think he could possibly understand the arguments they had over the years. Not that he resented Charlie – okay, maybe a little sometimes – but how could he truly understand when he seemed to have a perfect relationship with their parents? "Thanks for coming to check on me, but I'd still rather just be alone for a while longer."

Charlie took the hint, and nodded as he stood up from the couch. "No problem," he said wholeheartedly. "If you wanna talk, you know where I am."

"Yeah. Thanks," Noah replied, catching his brother's eyes for a moment before directing them back to the television.

Charlie sighed to himself as he closed Noah's apartment door and headed down the stairs, on the outside of the garage. He cut across the driveway and back into the house, where just as Noah had predicted, the twins were on their stomachs on the floor, in their pajamas, watching an old episode of Full House. Colin was there also, snuggled up next to his father, who read him a chapter out of a book every night. Right now it looked to be Treasure Island, an old personal favorite of Charlie's.

Everyone looked up as the door opened, and Charlie walked back in. "Charlie, the microwave just beeped about twenty seconds ago with your food," Sara said from where she sat on one end of the couch, checking through the kids' homework to make sure everything was done.

"Okay, thanks Mom," he said as he headed towards the kitchen.

The Full House theme music came on to signal the conclusion of the episode, and the TV announcer reported another episode was about to air. "Mom, can we watch one more episode? Pleeaase?" Marley asked, turning over on her side to plead with her mother.

"One more," Sara said, surprising all three children scattered around her. The younger kids usually had a very strict bed time at Nine Thirty. "But then you have to go up. Deal?"

"Thanks!" The three younger voices chorused. "You're the best!"

"Quiet down so everyone can enjoy the show," Sara warned her children, as she started running her fingers through Marley's hair. Finally she leaned forward to where her daughter was sitting with her back against the front of the couch and whispered in her ear, "You mind if I braid your hair so it's curly tomorrow?"

"Sure," Marley said excitedly. She loved it when she got to wear her hair curly. There was something about going to school looking significantly different than Jordan that she loved. "You want me to go wash it really quick so it's wet and it curls better?"

"I thought you wanted to watch Full House?" Sara said, gesturing gently towards the television. "It'll still curl dry."

"It's okay," Marley said quietly. "It curls better wet and I love wearing it like that. Can you make really small braids so it's really curly?"

"I think I could manage that," Sara said playfully, stroking a piece of Marley's hair and tucking it behind her ear. "Go on up and get washed. And grab that can of mousse out of my bathroom on your way back down."

"Okay," Marley said, smiling. She got up and ran up the stairs quickly, excited to be being given special treatment from her mother.

Jordan, who had nodded off already, unconsciously pulled the blanket up over her shoulders more and curled closer to the couch. Sara watched her and smiled. The twins were so grown up now she couldn't believe it. She remembered being so nervous before they were born she had so many irrational fears. She remembered being afraid that she couldn't handle two babies on top of three rowdy, slightly obnoxious, adorable sons between her and Nick. She remembered being afraid that she wouldn't be able to relate to daughters being that she only had a son and her step children were both also boys. Eleven years later and Sara wasn't nearly as worried.

"Brandon," Sara heard her husband whisper gently as he leaned around Colin, who was about to try taking a turn reading a page. "Would you mind taking your sister up?"

"Let her rest there a while Nick," Sara said gently, feeling a little guilty that Noah was the only member of their family that wasn't perched somewhere in the living room watching the television. "I kinda like spending time with her, even if she's not awake to enjoy it."

Nick looked over at his wife and smirked. She surprised him sometimes the way she was with the kids. Tonight, she seemed to be in a quite affectionate, loving mood, especially with the girls. A lot of the time, they had to be pretty firm and strict with the kids, especially Marley, so it was nice that Sara was getting a chance to bond with her. Over hair, nonetheless – something he never quite got. Must be a girl thing.

"Sure," he answered, settling back into the couch as Colin began to read aloud. Sara put the kids' school papers aside and let out a cleansing, relaxing sigh. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the sound of Colin reading to Nick just a few feet away. With his speech therapy, he was doing mountains better with his stuttering. Reading aloud, especially in class at school, could make Colin stutter even more because he got so nervous about his condition. Practicing in the safe haven of home every night was really helping him, and his teacher had noted improvement.

It was bothering Sara that Noah wasn't here with them. It was a lot rarer these days that all six children were around at the same time. Brandon was hanging around for a little bit, so it would be very nice to have Noah around too, but it seemed he didn't want to be around them right now. Sara felt guilty that Noah was upset by her involvement in the conversation about school. She'd been a part of his life for so many years now, and it hurt that Noah felt she was butting in. Sara tried not to take it so personally. Over the years, whenever either parent disciplined a child that wasn't biologically theirs, sometimes feelings of resentment would arise. Sara just hoped Noah could move past that and realize she wanted what was best for him.

About ten minutes later, Marley returned with wet hair, the can of mousse, a hairbrush, and a few hair ties. She smiled, obviously excited, as she approached where her mother was sitting.

"Somebody smells nice a fresh," she commented as Marley sat down on the floor in front of where her mother sat on the couch.

"You don't have to tell me," Brandon teased from his chair. Sara gave him an amused look as she took the hairbrush from Marley's hand.

She began gently and slowly brushing her daughter's brown hair, which grew a couple inches past her shoulders. "Feeling sleepy yet?"

"A little," she agreed as Sara began braiding. "Not as tired as Jordan though."

"Okay sweetheart, I'll try to make it quick so you can go up," Sara said, dropping a kiss on Marley's forehead as she gently brushed through her wet hair.

"Thanks Mommy," Marley said, using a name she rarely used for her mother anymore. Marley had taken to calling her "mom" ever since she'd started middle school.

Sara woke up an hour and a half later to an empty living room when she heard the sound of someone coming through the back door. She looked around and realized that Nick had probably taken the three kids up, and was probably in the shower. She must have fallen asleep just after she finished working on Marley's hair.

She grabbed the remote and turned of the television and cable box and made her way into the kitchen to see who'd come inside and remind them to lock up, she wasn't surprised to see Noah. Apparently he'd finally decided to come back down to the house. "I don't think there's any leftover supper but you're welcome to make yourself something."

"Thanks," he said, pausing for a second. "Sara can I talk to you?"

"Sure babe," she said, pouring herself a glass of ice cold water from the freezer door. "What's on your mind?"

"Well I wanted to apologize," he said. "For uh... for the way I spoke to you earlier. I was really angry but that doesn't make it okay."

"I know you didn't mean it," Sara said, offering him a half smile. "And I'm sorry that I got in the middle of an argument between you and your dad but you know how I feel about school."

"I know," he admitted. "And I guess I can't expect you to know how I feel about it too if I don't actually tell you."

"So tell me now," Sara said. "No strings attached. I promise not to get mad."

"I'd like to Sara," Noah said slowly as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. "But I don't think my dad and I are done fighting about it yet... and I think I should probably talk to him about it first."

Sara nodded in understanding as Nick appeared at the bottom of the stairs, freshly showered. "That's fine," she whispered to Noah. Sara reached over and squeezed his shoulder in support. She knew her husband made a point of being approachable to all his children, but sometimes she figured it was downright intimidating for the kids to talk to him after an argument.

Nick walked into the kitchen to get a drink and found that Noah had come back. He was a bit surprised to see him, but he could see Noah was looking apologetic.

"Noah," he said with a bit of surprise to his voice. Nick let his eyes wander to his wife's face, and found a serious expression. One that begged him to keep his cool and hear his kid out. That would be easier said than done.

"I'm gonna go read in bed and I'll leave you two alone," Sara told the two men, feeling the tension building in the room. She gave Noah a wink and then began to walk towards the stairs. As she passed Nick, she put a calming hand on his forearm. They both knew they needed to stay firm with Noah about their feelings towards his schooling.

As Sara walked up the stairs, Nick opened the refrigerator door to get out some orange juice. Noah didn't say anything to his father just yet, just watched him with an observant look on his face. As Nick poured himself a glass of OJ, he decided it was best to get on with it.

"Did you wanna talk about school some more?" He asked his son in what he thought was a pretty calm voice.

Noah let out an annoyed huff. "Can we actually talk this time, or are you just gonna yell at me?"

Nick leaned back against the counter, opposite from his son. "You know how important education is to us. I'm not gonna tiptoe around the subject, Noah. If you're in school, and we're paying for it, you need to be going to class. I'm not backing down on that."

"But you're not even listening to what I want!" Noah raised his voice slightly.

"Keep your voice down, please. The kids are in bed," Nick reminded him.

"You never asked me if I wanted to go to college. You just assumed. I'm not like Brandon, okay? No matter how much you think I want the same things he does, I don't."

"If you didn't want to go to college, why didn't you just say something before Sara and I forked over thousands of dollars for your tuition?"

"Because you were so fucking dead set on me going!"

"Of course I was dead set on you going to college," Nick said, trying to calm himself down. If he managed to keep his temper in check it would be easier to calm Noah down. "But that's only because I want what's best for you. And watch your language when you're speaking to your father."

"Whatever," Noah said, scrubbing his hands over his head. He slammed them down on the counter in frustration and turned on his heels, ready to leave the room. There was no point in even bothering.

"Keep it down Noah," Nick said, pointing upstairs to where the entire family was sleeping. "And get back here. You and I still have a lot we need to talk about."

"Are we gonna talk or are you gonna start yelling at me again?" Noah asked hotly. "Because I don't have time for that."

"You raised your voice first," Nick pointed out, rather childishly. "Anyway, that's beside the point. You and I have to figure something out. We can't keep fighting about this."

"I don't wanna fight anymore," Noah admitted. For the first time in years Nick saw his son as the same happy and well adjusted child he'd once been.

"So, you tell me what you want," Nick said, feeling a lot calmer than he had all day. "And I'll tell you what I expect. Then we'll find a compromise, okay?"

"Fine," Noah agreed. "But you have to promise not to go crazy."

"Done," Nick said. "And you can't either."

"Deal," Noah said, quietly. He had never been the type of person to lose his temper overly easily. As a matter of a fact he was always the last one in his family, after his father, to over react. Somehow though Noah could not get along with his father.

"Okay, it's about time I heard it from you Noah," Nick said gently. He gave his son a concerned look and leaned back, prepared to listen. "What is it that you want?"

"I don't know exactly," Noah said with a heavy sigh. "And I do want to go to school... but maybe not full time. Can't I just take like two classes and do something else with my time?"

"You're enrolled for a full time course load," Nick reminded his son. "That means you've got a responsibility to do well in the classes you're taking."

"Fine," Noah said slowly. "I wasn't asking to drop any. I'm not a quitter, Dad."

"I know that," Nick said. "But I have no idea what you want. I wasn't sure."

"But maybe next semester I could take fewer classes?" Noah asked, hopefully. "I mean if I'm not living in the dorms anymore I don't have to have a full load. Or, maybe I could take a semester off." Noah saw the vein in his father's head start to throb. "Hear me out... I want a degree eventually, but maybe not now. You know how Sara's brother invited Brandon and then me out to the UK to live with him for a year when we graduated?"

"Yes," Nick said, remembering. Sara and Nick had both agreed that if the kids wanted to they could go to London to stay with her brother after college. "We talked about that."

"Not really," Noah reminded his father. "You and Sara talked about it. And, I'd actually really like to go. We never see Uncle Peter or his kids. And it's another country... think of everything I could learn? It's a great experience. In a year I could see so much of the world with them. Paris, Greece, Scotland."

"I didn't realize you'd wanted to go so badly," Nick admitted. "Brandon didn't really want to be so far from home when we ran the idea by him."

"Yeah," Noah said. "But I'm not Brandon."

"What about this summer?" Nick asked, blindsiding his son. "I know it's not a whole year, but you don't have to take summer classes and you'll get eight weeks. I think I'd miss you too much if you were gone longer than that. And when you get back you'll start taking classes again."

"But maybe only a few?" Noah asked hopefully. "I could get a job and start saving money for things like going back to Uncle Peter's if I want. Or a new car. Or, just so I can have some money put away for anything."

"If you need money son, we'll help you." Nick reminded him. "You know that."

"Yeah but I want to earn it myself," Noah said. "Besides I think I'd be happier working full time than going to school full time. And, I promise not to give up... but maybe I could take six years to graduate instead of four?"

"I think that would be alright," Nick said, feeling a bit foolish for not talking to his son sooner. He didn't want to defy his parents, he just wanted to do things differently. "But we've got to set some ground rules for this semester if you're going to go to Europe this summer."

"Name them."

"For starters," Nick said. "I don't want you missing any more class. I'm serious. Unless it's a case of life altering emergency you need to be there."

"Can't you just trust me to get good grades?" Noah asked. His father glared at him. "Okay, okay, fine. I'll go to class."

"I don't wanna treat you like a child, Noah, but I need to see that you're doing the work," Nick told his son. "When midterm reports and your final report card comes out, I expect to see all A's."

A 'C' had never been an acceptable final grade in the Stokes home. They understood that on some assignments or tests, their children might slip and get below a 'B', but overall they expected their kids to pull all A's and B's. Over the years, Noah had had some trouble with this, but from high school on, he had managed to pull mostly straight A's.

Noah sighed, knowing he could argue with his dad that he was a legal adult and didn't have to even show him his grades, but he now had the possibility of going to Europe for the summer. The last thing he needed to do was go against his father's wishes. Noah knew very well that if he crossed his dad, his Europe trip would be gone in a flash. His parents didn't mess around with school or something as big as a summer in the UK.

"Fine," Noah said, biting his tongue, because he knew he didn't have a choice. He wanted this trip so badly, and going to class wasn't exactly entirely horrible. There were other ways he'd rather spend his time, but he figured if he'd put up with it for twelve years, one more full-time semester wouldn't kill him. "I'll show you my progress report, and it'll be all A's."

"Good," Nick nodded, studying his son. He really, truly hoped his son would keep his word because a summer with his uncle would be special, and he'd definitely learn a lot. "This trip to see Uncle Peter is contingent on you keeping up your end of the deal. Understood?"

Noah nodded wordlessly.

"And first thing tomorrow you need to apologize to Sara."

"I already did," Noah told him. "Before you came downstairs."

"Well, good. Thanks for being a man about it."

"Sure," Noah said, feeling a whole lot better now. He wasn't sure why he was always so hesitant to talk to his father, because Nick was always pretty good about listening. Sure, he could get angry when what he'd done hit a nerve, but once he'd calmed down, his father was usually understanding. "I'm gonna head back to my apartment."

"Alright," Nick stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Noah's shoulders. "I'm glad we talked, and I love you."

Noah put one arm around his father and gave him a quick pat on the back. "Love you too. Night."

Nick followed his son to the door and locked it behind him, then began turning off the last few lights. It felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, having worked things out with Noah. Of all the kids, he seemed to have the most disagreements with his second-oldest. He of course loved him the same, but raising Noah had been stressful at times.

After he climbed the stairs, Nick quickly peeked in to Colin's room and the twins' room to make sure they were fast asleep. He'd always had a thing for watching his kids sleep, especially when they were little. As they got older, he still couldn't resist. With everything he and Sara had seen at work, it was so easy to worry about them. He especially worried about Jordan and Marley, almost teenagers, and all the pressure and potential danger they faced. Whenever he got freaked out, Sara tried to reassure him that they talked to the kids all the time about their safety. The Stokes kids had gotten all the safety lectures one could imagine – crossing the street, strangers, the Internet, dating, sex. They were smart kids, and Nick didn't believe they'd ever willingly put themselves in danger. But, being the CSI that he was, he still worried.

Charlie had given Marley, Jordan, and Colin a ride home from school that day. Their schools were both on his way home from the high school and he'd been given the night off from work, so he'd offered in order to save one of his parents from having to leave work early to get them. Jordan and Marley were chattering happily in the back seat about all of the girl topics under the sun. Boys, getting their nails done, hair, the new spring line from Coach—something he was surprised even they knew much about. Colin was in the front seat with his nose buried in a book. Charlie remembered at least a thousand car rides where he'd done the same thing.

"Whatcha readin this week?" Charlie asked his little brother. Both out of sheer interest and because he wanted to make conversation.

"Harry Potter," Colin answered, with a grin. "I hope you don't mind I borrowed this one off your sh-sh-sh-book case last night."

"That's fine," Charlie said, knowing that Colin would be really careful with his book. He was pretty respectful of property. "Which one are you on?"

"Oh just the first one," Colin said, "I just got to the part where Harry goes with uh—Cedric, I think, to go learn about Quidditch."

"I can't remember who it was," Charlie said, "It's been a few years since I read those. I've got all seven though, if you're interested in finishing the series."

"You know Harry dies in the end," Marley said from the back seat. "He has to fight Voldemort and he loses!"

"He who must not be named!" Jordan corrected her twin. "You can't say Voldemort. It's too scary!"

"That's a lie Colin," Charlie said, correcting both of his sisters. He reached behind the seat and swatted both of them, pretty hard, on the knees. "Quit being little liars!"

"We're not lying," Jordan said, playing into her sister's game. "And you know I've read them all!"

"I've seen the movies you know," Colin argued back. "I'm not a complete idiot."

"Jordan," Charlie said from the front seat. "Stop being such a little jerk. You know you always cry if someone ruins the end of a book or movie for you!"

"Well maybe he should have read them when the rest of us did," Marley argued in her sister's defense. "If he wasn't such a little nerd-bomber maybe he'd have time to read a good book when the rest of us are."

Charlie didn't point out to his sisters that Colin was still only nine years old and in the third grade. He wasn't as old or advanced in reading as they were and sometimes it was only natural that it took him a couple extra years to jump on the band wagon with actual novels. It's not like he could have read them when he was in kindergarten which is what grade he was in when Jordan was reading them or in first grade when Marley was.

Luckily Colin had a level head, even at the age of nine. He wasn't easily provoked by his sisters; a result of growing up the youngest of six. Colin knew they were just trying to get a rise out of him, and they weren't telling him the truth. His eyes remained focused on the book as Charlie pulled into the driveway.

"You know, one of the Weasleys dies," Jordan continued as Charlie put the vehicle in park. "It's a total tragedy."

Charlie sighed loudly. He was getting a small taste of what his parents dealt with daily – sibling rivalry. It was a whole lot more annoying when he was supposed to be in charge. Not that they babysat the little kids, but it was known by all that whoever was the oldest kid home was "in charge" in case anything needed to be done.

"Girls, get lost," Charlie told them shortly, tired of their bombardment of Colin. They all began to pile out of the car, gathering their backpacks. Colin mindlessly pulled his bag over his shoulder and continued reading as he walked slowly towards the door.

"You don't really mean that," Marley pointed out sassily. It was always amusing when one of her older brothers was left to rule the household, because they were fun to mess with. "I don't think Mom and Dad would appreciate you saying that."

Jordan giggled in amusement as Charlie gave Marley a warning look. "I don't think Mom and Dad would appreciate you taunting Colin. And if you don't stop, I'm gonna make you call them."

"They're in court," Jordan pointed out. They weren't allowed to bother their parents when they were in court unless it was an absolute family emergency, which had never happened. "If you make us bother them, they're gonna be REEEAAALLY mad at you. And I'll tell them you hit us."

Charlie sighed again, wanting to disappear into his room. "Shut up, Jordan. Leave Colin alone and we won't have a problem."

The twins both rolled their eyes as they walked inside the house and dropped their backpacks in the front hallway. A snack was always first on the to-do list when they arrived home, so they headed straight for the kitchen. Both girls found a pack of Cheez-It crackers and collapsed onto the couch to watch some TV. Colin retreated to his bedroom, too enamored with his book to care about much else.

"I'm gonna go to my friend Lucy's house to work on a project with her and Aiden," Charlie announced as he found his own snack. "Can I trust you two to leave Colin alone?"

"But of course, dear brother," Marley answered with a grin as she popped a cracker into her mouth.

"Noah's in his apartment for a while before he has class. I'm gonna tell Colin to call me if you two give him any more problems," he told his little sisters. Today, they were in one of their little moods when tormenting poor Colin seemed like so much fun.

"Can I go over to my friend Jenny's?" Jordan asked.

"Fine," Charlie said. "But leave your cell phone with Marley since Mom and Nick have hers. I don't want her watching Colin without a way to reach someone in case of an emergency."

"So I don't get my OWN phone in case I have an emergency?" Jordan asked sarcastically. "Marley gets to have my phone even though she's grounded from her own? Real fair Charlie!"

"Look Marley and Colin are two people," Charlie argued with his younger sister. "The Harrises each have a cell phone and they have a house phone. You'll be fine without it."

"Whatever," Jordan said, thinking her brother was being a big idiot but handing her phone over to Marley anyway. Now that she had a cell phone she'd be on the phone with Aaron all night, poor Colin would be left to his own devices. Good thing she didn't care! "When mom gets out of court I'm gonna call and see if I can stay the night."

"Do whatever you want," Charlie said. "I'm leaving. Noah's gonna be in his apartment till he goes to class so if you guys need someone he's up there. And don't be a little jerk to Colin, he's a good kid."

Jordan heard her sister ask, "are we talking about the same Colin?" as she slipped out the front door and turned right, towards Jenny's house.

Marley, the youngest of the twins and second youngest Stokes child by exactly thirty minutes, chuckled as she turned on the television and started watching a re-run of Jon & Kate Plus 8. There was something eerily empowering about being in charge of Colin, in a way it was more fun than being completely on her own in the house. Even if Colin didn't even know that Jordan wasn't home nor that Noah was only thirty seconds away. She watched as Mady and Cara made their way through the American Girl store in New York City and wondered if they had the same relationship that she had with Jordan. It sure didn't seem like it but she imagined people on the outside wouldn't realize how close they were, either.

As a matter of a fact Marley couldn't help but wonder what had Jordan's panties in a bunch. She had barely spoken to her all day at school. They were at different "academic levels" so, they had different classes except study hall—in which they usually spent chattering away about one thing or another. Today, however, Jordan had hopped onto a computer and avoided her for the majority of the class. If it weren't for Aaron, who also shared that class with them, she'd have been totally alone. She would've had to study. Lame.

"See ya later," Charlie told his little sister before heading out the front door.

Marley watched the end of the episode, and then another came on. She loved the show, but was getting a little bored sitting there all by herself. Since she had her sister's cell phone, she flipped it open and immediately dialed Aaron's number. He didn't answer, and she remembered he had soccer practice until five. Her two best friends also had practices after school, so she couldn't call them. Tossing the cell phone on the seat next to her, she let out a bored sigh. She was still grounded from the computer, but no one was around to see her break it.

Marley tucked the phone into her jeans pocket and climbed the stairs two at a time until she reached the top. Colin's door was closed, and she decided not to bother him for now, though it would be fun to toy with him some more. She opened her own bedroom door and shut it behind her. It was nice to have the room to herself, and she immediately logged onto the computer. The house was totally silent, and it was nice. Sometimes Marley wondered what it would be like to be an only child, or only have one or two siblings. It would probably be really boring, and she'd get into trouble even more, she figured.

She logged onto her instant messenger and saw that Noah was online. She knew he wouldn't rat on her, so she opened up a chat window with him.

GnarlyMarley: how's the doghouse?

Noah412: haha funny

Noah412: shouldn't u be…NOT on the computer?

GnarlyMarley: mebbe.

GnarlyMarley: do I tell u enuf ur my fave brother?

Noah412: sure.

Noah412: how was school

GnarlyMarley: boring

Noah412: u don't say…

Noah412: how could school ever be boring?

GnarlyMarley: good one!

GnarlyMarley: dont be mad

GnarlyMarley: but I kinda easedropped on ur convo w/ dad

Noah412: u mean EAVESDROPPED

Noah412: u little sneak

Noah412: I shouldve known

GnarlyMarley: r u mad?

Noah412: a little, but don't worry too much

GnarlyMarley: srry, hard to resist

GnarlyMarley: I cant beleive u get to go to UK

Noah412: yea as long as I don't piss dad off

GnarlyMarley: that could be hard…

Noah412: lol yea

Noah412: do me a favor and dont do anything to put him in a bad mood

GnarlyMarley: i'll try my best

GnarlyMarley: pinky swear

Noah412: dont try that full house crap on me

Noah412: i need to get ready for class

Noah412: tty soon

Noah412: stay out of trouble

GnarlyMarley: i'll try!

GnarlyMarley: byes!

Marley knew that Noah didn't have class for another half an hour, but that he'd probably want to take a shower before he left. For the life of her she couldn't figure out how boys could take a real and effective shower in so little time. It took her forty-five minutes to get ready in the morning when she was rushing—and she wasn't even allowed to wear make-up yet.

She messaged a couple of other friends who didn't respond and got bored with being on messenger. She didn't want to talk to anyone, anyway! She decided to check her email and realized that it was still logged in to Jordan's. She took a quick glance over her twin's inbox and realized there wasn't anything of interest except a confirmation email that she'd changed her password. Marley made a mental note to remember it now: "jordanelizabeth222" sometimes it amazed her how dumb her sister could be.

She clicked her way into her own inbox and laughed a little at Jordan. While Jordan's was completely devoid of new messages she herself had four alerts from Facebook telling her that other people had made the attempt to contact her that day. She also had one e-mail message from her teacher which she didn't really care to read. Having to listen to her at school wasn't enough, and she had to send the class mass e-mails?

All of the messages from Facebook were alerting her that she'd been poked. It almost annoyed her that she received emails about every little thing from Facebook—almost. She, unlike Jordan who put everything on her junk email list as soon as she received it, realized that having a flooded inbox meant that she was popular. Popularity meant she was loved!

After she was finished poking everyone back and in Aaron's case leaving him an affectionate note on his wall, she grew bored again. She still had Jordan's cell phone in her pocket and decided to call Jenny's to see what they were up to. Maybe she could drag Colin over and the three of them could hang out (she Jenny and Jordan. Colin could go sit in a corner someplace and read. What did he care where he was when he did that!?). She flipped through the phone for Jenny's number, one she didn't have memorized because she really didn't spend as much time with the fifth grader as Jordan did. They had all been really close friends as littler children but when Marley got to the upper grades in Elementary school she'd lost interest in hanging out with younger children.

There were a few rings and finally Jenny answered her cell, "Hey Jordan, you gonna come over?"

"Uh," Marley said, feeling really confused. Wasn't Jordan already there? "This is Marley, is my sister there?"

"No," Jenny said, sounding just as confused as Marley was. "I haven't seen her since Tuesday when we took Bojangles for a walk."

"Oh," Marley said, feeling a little spooked. Jordan left for Jenny's house, which was only a block away, almost an hour ago. "Could you have her call me if she comes over?"

"Yeah," Jenny said, still sounding awfully confused. "No problem."

Marley turned the phone off and held it in her hand in thought. There was no way Jordan shouldn't be at Jenny's house yet. Her mind started to race with wild possibilities. Her sister could've been kidnapped, or beamed up by space aliens, or got swallowed up by a manhole! Jordan was such a goody two shoes, so she wouldn't have gone somewhere she shouldn't be going.

Marley thought about the message she'd come across from the mysterious Justin yesterday. Her twin sister had promised her, PROMISED HER, that she wouldn't try to meet him. In their tightly-bonded world, that held a lot of weight. Jordan wouldn't break her promise, would she?

She cursed herself for getting grounded from her own cell phone, and having Jordan's instead. Now she couldn't try to call her sister to check on her. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't do nothing! Her sister could very well be in danger, and Marley couldn't stand the thought of her own twin getting hurt and doing nothing about it. Marley would never be able to live with herself if something happened to Jordan.

But who could she call? Her parents were in court, and she didn't want them to worry if this was all nothing. And boy, would they worry. If any of the kids made them worry unjustly, everyone knew they'd be in for huge talking-to when they got home. Maybe Jordan had gone to another friend's house instead? With a slightly shaky voice, Marley called two more of Jordan's close friends, and neither had heard from her. Marley was really starting to worry.

Finally, she knew she needed to ask for help. Hopefully, Noah would still be in his apartment. He was supposed to leave for class pretty soon. Marley poked her head in Colin's room and told him to stay put, and that she needed to ask Noah something. She raced across the yard and up the steps to her big brother's apartment. After pounding on the door and yelling his name, Noah opened the door, his hair still wet from his shower.

"What IS it Marley?" He asked, slightly annoyed, but his expression softened when he saw how worried Marley was. "What's wrong?"

She struggled to catch her breath from her dash through the house and across the yard. Paired with all her emotions, she felt like she was going to burst. "Jordan, she, she, I think she went somewhere she's not…she was supposed to go to Jenny's and I know I'm not supposed to be on the phone, but I called Jenny and she's not over there, and she's not at Katie's or Mandy's and I don't know what to do."

Noah tried to wrap his mind around what his little sister was ranting about. Whatever it was, it sounded like Jordan was in some sort of trouble. "Calm down, Mar," he put his hand on her shoulder and brought her inside. "Just slow down a minute. She was supposed to go to Jenny's, and she's not there?"

Marley nodded her head vigorously, on the verge of tears. She should've told her parents yesterday that Jordan was talking to that boy. But she wanted to trust her sister, so she hadn't, and now she might really be hurt. It made Marley sick to her stomach. "And she doesn't have her phone. Charlie made her give hers to me!"

Noah sighed and tried to think clearly. "Do you know where she might be?"

Marley couldn't stop a sob escaping her throat. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone," she stressed. A promise between her and Jordan meant a lot, but Jordan had broken her end, if it turned out she had gone to meet Justin. Something in her gut told Marley that's where she was.

"Marley," Noah said gently. "Look you're obviously really upset about this so I can already tell it's pretty damn serious. Where's Jordan?"

"Okay," Marley said, sucking in her breath and preparing to be honest. If she was wrong about where Jordan was she would be giving away her twin's biggest secret in the world for no reason. "There's this boy she's been talking to—online. I think she might have gone to meet him."

"Fuck Marley," Noah exclaimed really loudly. "How long ago did she leave? And why didn't you tell someone? This jackass could kill her!"

"I know!" Marley replied, choking on a sob. "Noah, what are we gonna do?!What if she's in real trouble? What if Justin's like fifty and we never see her again? We've got to go get her."

"Well I promise you Marley, I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen," Noah said slowly. "Do you know where they are?"

"She said something about ice cream," Marley said, trying to remember all the information she'd gotten out of her twin. They'd been talking back and forth for a while. Suddenly, Marley had the idea that she might be able to find some info in her twin's emails. Good thing she'd made it a point to remember her password. "I'm gonna run upstairs and read her emails from him really quick, see if I can find out."

"Okay," Noah agreed. "Charlie has my car so I'm gonna get Sara's and pull it around front. Meet me there in five?"

Exactly five minutes later Nick rolled slowly into the driveway as he saw Noah pulling out. At first the sight of Noah behind the wheel of Sara's car didn't bother him, they'd agreed he could use it to get to class that day if Charlie hadn't returned his car yet. No—what bothered Nick when he realized what he was seeing was that Marley was in the car with him and that meant there was no way he was going to class. Instead he was off to do something irresponsible and he'd taken his sister along for the ride.

When he got inside and realized that Colin was in the house alone and Jordan was nowhere to be seen his anger at Noah sparked again. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since they'd had a discussion about responsibility.

What's worse, they hadn't even left a note to say where they were going. How many times had they told their kids to do that? Nick angrily swiped up some snack wrappers the kids had left out and tossed them in the trash can, trying his best to stay calm. But why should he stay calm when Noah had broken a promise he'd only made yesterday? That boy could kiss his trip to Europe goodbye.

"Dad, I'm okay. Really," Colin tried to smooth things over a little bit. Marley and Noah had left in a hurry, without even say anything to him, but he was nine years old, after all. It wasn't like he was a baby.

"I'm glad you are, Colin, but they shouldn't have left you alone. They know better," Nick told his young son, who had joined him in the kitchen. He still had his suit and tie on from court. He'd been so happy that court had gotten out a little sooner than they'd anticipated - a rarity - so he could come home and spend some time with his kids. Nick took off his jacket and loosened up his tie. It felt like he was being strangled.

"Is Mom coming home early too?" Colin asked.

"No, man, not for a little while. She has more work to do." Nick set his jacket on the counter and picked up his cell phone. "I need to call Noah and find out what's up. Why don't you go upstairs and play, or go in the backyard."

Colin nodded in understanding and headed back up to his bedroom. He could tell his father was angry and Nick really hated having to yell at his kids in front of others. Not that he yelled so much, but Nick didn't want Colin having to listen to it. Nick speed dialed Noah on his phone and heard it ring. It continued to ring five times before his voice mail came on.

"Dammit!" Nick said, shaking his head, feeling even more angered. Why wasn't he answering his phone? He clicked the off button without leaving a message, because now he was too angry. Nick thought about calling Marley, who was in the car with him, but of course the little runt was grounded from it yet again. After taking a few deep breaths, he dialed Jordan's phone, hoping she had some idea of where her siblings were going.

Back in the car, Marley heard the cell phone ring and looked at the caller ID and saw that it was her father. She bit her lip, half elated that he was available, and half nervous because she wasn't sure what he would think.

"Daddy?" She answered a little nervously.

"Marley?" Nick answered in confusion. He was without patience right now. "Why are you on Jordan's phone? You're grounded from the phone. Do you need a reminder what that means?"

"I know, dad, and I'm sorry," Marley told him in her nicest, please-forgive-me voice.

"Where are you anyway?" He walked towards the laundry room as he spoke to get a fresh shirt and a pair of jeans from the pile of clean clothes. "And why didn't Noah answer his phone?"

"Oh, he forgot it," Marley explained. "We're uh...well, we're in the car to go pick up Jordan," she said evasively.

"Oh, are you?" He asked, his voice showing his obvious irritation. "Well, did you forget that Colin was home? Because you guys left him all alone."

Noah grabbed the phone from off of his sister's ear and pulled it to his own. "Dad look, this is really serious okay. I'm sorry I left Colin at home alone, but can we talk about it when we get home?"

"I think you should come home right now and talk about it with me," Nick told his son hotly. "Since obviously you have no intention of going to your class."

"That's right," Noah said defiantly. "As a matter of a fact I have no intention at all of going to my class tonight. Go ahead and cancel my trip to Uncle Peter's if you want."

"Oh, consider it gone," Nick promised him. "I want you to bring your sister home right now. Whatever you're doing, she doesn't need to be a part of it."

"She already is," Noah spat. "I'll be home in an hour, I hope. You can thank me then."

Noah closed Jordan's phone abruptly and popped the battery out so that his father couldn't call them again. Jordan's safety was way more important to him than any trip to London ever would be. He just hated that his father simply wouldn't trust him. If it had been Brandon leaving the house with Marley when he was supposed to have class Nick wouldn't have batted an eyelash. The irony was that Noah had had straight A's in school since the ninth grade. Granted, they weren't high A's like Charlie's were, but he always pulled good grades. Even last semester when he'd gotten in trouble, he still had A's in every course.

"You should've just told him," Marley said with tears in her eyes. She was obviously terrified. "He could help."

"He'll get all worried and upset," Noah told his little sister kindly as he reached across the car and grabbed her hand, squeezing it a little too hard. "And he'll freak Colin out... you know Colin doesn't do well when he's upset."

"Yeah I know," Marley said quietly. "But what if we don't get there in time? What if you can't protect her? What if this guy really is a psycho creep? What if he has a gun Noah?"

"Then I distract him and you get Jordan the hell out of there," Noah said flatly. "I mean it Marley. Take the car if you have to, if this guy's bad news I want you two to get the hell out of dodge."

"What if you get hurt?" Marley said, as she started crying a bit more heavily. Noah admired her, she was trying to be so grown up but she was obviously so scared. He realized he'd been a bad brother by bringing her along, she would have been better off sitting at home worrying.

"I won't Mar," he promised squeezing her hand again. "I promise you, nobody's gonna get hurt."

"You don't know that," Marley pointed out smartly. Noah sighed and made a left turn. No, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but he wasn't thinking about smart. He was thinking about his little sister. It was pure stubbornness that he didn't want to involve his father.

"She said something about ice cream?" He asked her as he headed towards downtown Vegas.

"Uh-huh," Marley said, wiping at her eyes.

"Maybe she's at the Baskin Robbins we always go to," he figured, speeding up just a little bit, but he kept his eye on the speedometer. The last thing they needed was to get pulled over. Marley was getting very nervous, and was unable to stop herself from tapping her foot anxiously as her brother made another turn. She just hoped this was where Jordan was, because if she wasn't, Marley had no idea where she would be. There were dozens of ice cream places in this city.

Noah slowed down as they approached the Baskin Robbins they often went to as a family. As he pulled into the parking lot, they immediately spotted their sister Jordan sitting at a picnic table next to a guy. He definitely didn't look like a sixth grader. This kid was at least a few years older than her.

"That fucking piece of shit!" Noah cursed loudly, seeing that loser of a kid Jordan was with. He looked kind of nerdy and like he might be a bit of a loner. Probably why he had to stalk eleven year old little girls on the Internet to get anyone to pay attention to his lousy ass. Noah knew he could easily take this guy if he even put up a fight, which it didn't look like he would. Noah screeched the car to a halt at the curb right next to the picnic table. The noise caught the attention of the couple quickly, as well as several other people nearby.

Noah opened his door, and Marley moved to open hers also. "Stay there, Marley," he barked. "This shouldn't take long."

Marley obeyed and stayed put, but rolled down her window so she could hear what was going on. Jordan had since recognized the car and saw her older brother get out of the driver's seat, looking absolutely pissed. "Jordan, get in the car. Now."

Jordan stood up, her eyes narrowing at her big brother. She looked just as pissed as he did. "No! Why are you even here?"

Noah took several steps towards her and gave the guy she was with a venomous look. "To stop you from doing anything else stupid, and to tell this sleezeball to stay the hell away from my sister," he told Jordan, and gave the kid the worst glare he could muster up. The boy looked absolutely terrified.

"He's not a sleezeball! He's my boyfriend!" Jordan defended Justin, putting her hand on his arm.

Noah scoffed, not knowing what to say. "Listen, I'm sorry if I caused a problem," Justin offered Noah. "I've been talking to Jordan for a while now and we thought it would be cool to meet. I'm not gonna try anything, I swear."

"How old are you?" Noah asked him, his voice defensive.

"Fourteen," Justin answered.

"My little sister here is eleven, you punk. And if you ever try to contact her again, I will personally hunt you down," Noah threatened.

Jordan looked her older brother in the eye and pecked a kiss on Justin's cheek before wandering back to the car, without even speaking. By the time she made it back to the car and realized Marley was in it, she was beyond angry. It was one thing if Noah betrayed her trust but Marley? How was it that the two siblings that she was the closest to couldn't—no wouldn't trust her?

"Jordan are you okay?!" Marley asked, turning around in her seat as Jordan slammed her way into the back of the car. Jordan gave her twin a dirty look and turned away. "Did he hurt you? Did he like... touch you?"

Jordan shifted again making a point of kicking the back of her sister's seat. She finally pawed through her purse and pulled out her iPod, putting the buds in her ears and turning the volume up to the maximum. Marley had about enough with her sister and turned around violently, she reached up and yanked the headphones out of her sister's ears.

"I asked you if you were okay," Marley said, loudly. "I didn't tell you that you broke a promise. I didn't yell at you for being stupid. I asked if you were okay! The least you could do is give me some sort of nod. You could've been killed! Or raped! Or kidnapped?! And you can't even tell me you're okay? And you know what? Noah gave up his trip to Uncle Peter's for you!"

"I hate you," Jordan said pointedly as she shoved the ear-buds back in her ears.

"Whatever," Marley said as Noah climbed into the car. She looked up at her brother and gave him a half smile, she felt a lot better having him there. "Can we go home?"

"Oh, trust me that's where we're headed," he said, glaring back at his little sister in the back seat. "Put your seatbelt back on, Marley."

The tension in the car was thick as the rolled back into the driveway. Noah told Marley to get out of the car, and he pulled the car around back of the house, where Nick wouldn't be able to see for sure that they were home. He hoped that he'd have a few minutes alone with his little sister before his father came out either to chew him or Jordan out, depending on what Marley said on her way in.

"I get that you're pissed," Noah said, "but I just wanna explain a few things before you and dad have it out, okay?"

"Whatever."

"Look," he said slowly, trying to figure out how to reason with her. "Marley and I didn't know anything about this guy. And, you didn't even tell us where you were going. We weren't trying to ruin your date or your life... we just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm not a toddler," she said, coldly. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, you are, and you're damn lucky you are." He sighed. "God, I don't know what I would've done if you weren't there."

"I'm fine," she said again. "And now thanks to you and Marley I'm going to be dead! Do you have any idea what mom and dad are going to do to me?"

"Sorta," he said giving her a slight chuckle. "Probably something close to what they're gonna do to me for missing class."

"They're not really gonna take London away from you?" She asked, finally starting to calm down a little. "I mean, not that you had any reason to skip class and come looking for me but still...that's not cool."

"Dad's pretty pissed," he admitted quietly. "But it's okay." He couldn't get the horrible image of her in some guy's basement out of his mind. Even though she was safe and in his back seat, still writhing with anger, he couldn't help thinking about it. It was worth losing his trip and whatever else it cost him just to know that wouldn't happen to her.

Jordan's face contorted the way it always did when she was trying not to cry. Now that she was sitting in the driveway, about to have to face her dad, it hit her how much trouble she was going to be in. For a kid like Marley, it may have been easier to accept, but Jordan was different. Getting yelled at and punished in any way felt like the world was ending. "It's not okay!" Her throat closed, the tears threatening to start. "Mom and Dad are gonna hate me!"

Noah sighed, knowing there wasn't much he could do. "They're not gonna hate you," he assured her, reaching out to pat her knee. "They're gonna yell at you and you probably won't be able to leave the house for a long time, but they'll still love you."

"Can I go hide in your apartment?" She asked hopefully, not joking at all. Jordan would do anything in that moment not to have to go inside.

Her older brother chuckled in understanding. "I think you know the answer to that. Come on, I'll go in with you."

Inside the Stokes home, Nick heard the back door open and his heart skipped a beat. He was on the phone with his wife, trying to figure out exactly what to do given the situation. His son had taken off with one of his daughters, and no one was answering the one cell phone in the car. Nick walked into the dining room and saw Marley walking in, looking very upset. "Marley's here. I gotta go," he told Sara, and hung up the phone.

"Marley, honey, what's wrong?" He asked, rushing over to her. Nick put his hands on her shoulders and then delicately brushed some hair out of her face.

The girl choked on a sob, trying to compose herself. Why was she blubbering so much? Jordan was okay, wasn't she? It had just scared her so much, and Jordan had made her so angry. "Daddy, it was awful!" She said, not knowing where to begin.

Nick gently gripped her upper arm and led her to sit on one of the dining room chairs. He knelt in front of her and took her hands to calm her down. "What's awful honey? Where's Noah and Jordan? Are they okay?"

Marley nodded, relieving some of Nick's worst fears. "Daddy, don't hate me, but y-yesterday I was on our computer and I was looking in Jordan's email," she still choked on a few tears. "And she wanted to meet this, this boy she's been talking to online."

Nick's face hardened in deep concern, but he didn't say anything. "And I should've told you yesterday but I didn't cause she promised she wouldn't meet him, but she did! And we didn't know where she was, and she didn't have her phone, so Noah and I were driving around looking for her. Don't be mad at him for missing his class, Dad!"

So much information was coming Nick's way he wasn't sure exactly what to think. Noah hadn't been skipping class for an irresponsible reason at all. He was trying to find his sister, who despite all their talks about safety, had gone to meet some guy from the Internet?

"Where are they now?" He asked, standing up.

"Out in the car," she told him, wiping her eyes with her forearm. Nick torqued his jaw in absolute rage and fear. What the hell had Jordan been thinking? Always well-behaved, sweet, gentle Jordan had done what?

Just as Nick was about to storm outside, the doorknob began to turn slowly.

Nick watched as Noah stepped through the door holding his sister's smaller hand. He met his father's eyes and squeezed his sister's hand gently, and Nick could see the fear on both of their faces. Marley saw them step inside and took the chance to run up the stairs. She really didn't want to be around for this. Nick didn't know which of them to begin with. He owed Noah an apology but still had words he wanted to share with him. Though Noah's motives had been good, he'd gone about the whole situation in the absolute wrong way. And then there was Jordan, he didn't even know where to begin with her.

"Jordan I'm gonna talk to your brother first," He said, trying not to give away that Marley had told him. "I want you to go sit in the living room and stay where I can see you."

"Daddy," she started. "Don't be mad at Noah! Don't punish him!"

"Stay out of it Jordan!" He demanded, fuming. When had he become the bad cop? "Go wait for me in the other room, and don't make a sound!"

Jordan wandered off quietly, too afraid to talk back this time. Nick turned back to his son and squared his jaw, completely unsure of where to begin. "Tell me what happened!"

"Jordan went to meet some guy online," Noah explained matter-of-factly. "I kinda freaked out and I wasn't thinking straight. I know I should have told you what was happening but... all I could think about was that she could be in danger. Dad what if he was some fifty year old pervert? What if he did things to her?"

Nick could tell that his son was still very upset by the whole episode by the way his voice was still shaking. "And what if he was? What if he had a gun Noah?"

"You know Marley asked me the same thing," Noah admitted, frowning. "I didn't care. All I could think about was Jordan and what could be happening to her. Look, I know it was stupid for me to go down there without telling you what was happening but honestly... I wasn't thinking."

"You're still just a kid," Nick said aloud but quietly, imagining how much he could have lost that day. Noah didn't see it, but Jordan wasn't the only one of his kids who had knowingly put themselves in danger that day. "And so is Marley. You should have come to me and let me handle it. You kids don't have to face every problem alone and there are a lot of things that the younger kids shouldn't be involved in."

"I'm sorry," Noah said, still very shaken up. "I kinda figured that one out half way there. Dad, Marley was so upset! I was losing control myself and I was trying to keep it together for her... but we were both just so scared!"

"Well you thought something might happen to your sister," Nick pointed out. "It was okay for you to be scared, hell when you hung up on me I was scared!"

"I guess," Noah admitted quietly. He started walking towards the back door wanting to be away from the chaos for a while. "I'm gonna go up to my apartment and relax. I'll be up there if you need me."

"Okay," Nick said with a sigh, unready to start his talk with Jordan. A moment later he stopped his son, "And Noah—thank you."

Noah gave his father a bit of a half-smile. It felt kinda good that his father had thanked him, but at the same time it made him feel crappy. He wasn't sure what he was trying to prove earlier. He guessed he was just mad that his father had been so quick to judge. At least Jordan was home safe. That was all that mattered. Noah turned and winked at Jordan for good luck before he left.

Nick let out a cleansing sigh, facing the wall with his hands on his hips. He had a million things he wanted to say to Jordan, and demand to have her answer. And probably none of it would make him understand why his daughter would disregard her safety like she had.

Jordan didn't dare say anything, afraid she would set him off. The fierce set of his jaw, and his body language was something she'd never seen before and it terrified her. She'd really screwed up this time, she knew, but at the same time she was glad she met Justin. He was amazing, and she definitely wanted to see him again. Nick turned to face his daughter finally, finding her sitting on the couch nervously, her legs pulled up to her chest. Her eyes immediately darted away.

"Alright, Jordan," he began, stepping further into the room. "I can't imagine you have a good explanation for what you've done, but let's hear it."

"You won't understand," she told him in a tiny voice, avoiding his eyes. Jordan wasn't trying to be rude; she just knew he wouldn't get it.

"No, I probably won't," he agreed, crossing his arms over his chest. "I really don't understand how you could disregard your safety like you did, how you would even consider meeting someone you met on the Internet. We've talked about this, Jordan, and you know people aren't always who they say they are on the Internet."

"But he was!" She told him, surprised by her braveness, finally meeting his intense eyes. "He was a kid just like he said he was, and we just met for ice cream. What's the harm in that?"

"What's the harm in that?" He asked, incredulous. "Luckily he WAS who he said he was, but you didn't know that! What you did was completely reckless. We had no idea where you were, you snuck off and lied to us. Do you know how much worry you've caused all of us today?"

Jordan teared up and put her hand over her eyes. She was ashamed for causing the family so much worry. She really was. "Dad, I really like him," she admitted, hoping in some way he could understand. Jordan knew she'd gone about it in completely the wrong way, but she really did care for Justin. "I really do. I wouldn't have done this if I didn't think he was really special."

Nick sighed deeply, not really ready for this conversation. His daughter was only eleven years old and already so into a boy she was willing to be honest with him about it. Brandon was in his twenties and just barely at an age where he talked openly with his father about his love life. Still, even at the risk of breaking his daughter's heart, he knew he couldn't be soft about this one.

"Okay," Nick said. "Sweetheart I understand that you care for this boy. But if you want to date you have to talk to your mom and I. I'm not sure we would have been okay with this one if you'd been honest, or not. But this way we're surely not. You're not going to see him again!"

"Dad that's not fair!" She said, feeling really trapped. The last thing she had wanted to happen out of any of this was to lose the one person she cared about most. Justin was special. "Just because Marley and Noah went off the handle you're going to take the best thing that ever happened away from me?!"

"I think that it's pretty obvious that the best thing that ever happened to you," Nick said, frustrated. "Was your brother and sister."

"Yeah!" Jordan said sarcastically. "Two people who'll sell me out!"

"Jordan we just talked about this sort of thing," he pointed out. "Don't you remember anything we talked about last night at all? The world isn't exactly a safe place."

"Actually," Jordan said, deciding that she'd already dug her own grave and she might as well make it deep enough to enjoy for a while. "That's what made me realize I'd be okay. I realized that I can trust Justin as much as my own family. More—obviously! And that if I could trust him that much it was stupid for us to be apart. I knew I wasn't going to come back like one of your victims."

"You can't be serious!" Nick said, going blind with frustration. "Jordan you put your own life at risk! And you had the rest of us worried out of our minds!"

"Daddy," she said, still trying to make him understand. "I-"

"I don't want to hear it," Nick interrupted her. "I want you in your room for the rest of the night. Don't come out unless I, personally, come to get you. And if you even think about getting on the computer I'll take it to the lab and have Archie go through it and give me every last keystroke you or your sister have made since you've had it."

Jordan made her way up the stairs silently, not stomping as Marley frequently did. Though, she thought that maybe if her father could see her conversations with Justin he might understand how important he was. He was so much more than Aaron was to Marley. Maybe her father would understand... but he wouldn't, and she knew that. Nobody understood but her and Justin.

While Jordan thought about sneaking onto the computer, weighing the pros and cons of the risk, Sara was in the car with Greg on her way home. When Nick had had the opportunity to go home early, Greg had offered to give her a ride. They were both finishing up when Nick had called her in a panic, saying that he didn't know what was going on with Noah and the twins. So, she and Greg had stepped up their game and left a bit more quickly than they usually did. It was amazing how much both of their priorities had changed since they'd become parents.

"So, Nick didn't say anything? Just that he had to go?" Greg asked his coworker again as they travelled down the road. He was speeding by over 10 miles per hour, something he didn't do for just anyone.

"Nope, nothing," Sara told him. "So I spent almost fourteen minutes scared out of my mind until he finally called back."

Almost as soon as Nick had finished with Jordan, he called his wife back, knowing she was probably worried. He knew she worried worse than he did. "Well, I guess he was taking care of important business, huh?"

"Yeah," Sara agreed. "I don't know the full story yet, but it involves Jordan meeting someone from the Internet, and Noah making some really bad decisions about how to handle it. And Marley's in there somewhere."

"Jordan met someone from the Internet?" Greg asked, shocked. Jordan had always been such a responsible kid. This definitely wasn't like her at all. Sara nodded and let out a huge sigh. "Wow. That doesn't sound like something she'd do."

"No, it doesn't. I can't believe it myself. These kids of ours are growing up, Greg, and they're getting crazier and crazier," Sara quipped. Jordan had never caused them so much worry. Is this what they were in store for for the girls' teen years?

"I hear you," Greg said as he continued down the road. "Rachel just started high school and it's like she's a different person. I don't like her new friends at all, and she's dressing differently."

"Was her friend Katie the one you had to question in that high school case?" Sara asked.

"Yea, it was," Greg told her, checking his rearview mirror. "I had the pleasure of interviewing her, and then promptly forbade Rachel from hanging out with her and several other kids."

"And how's that going?" Sara asked, curious as to how Greg's kids were doing.

Greg chuckled. "Let's just say she's been grounded a lot."

Sara managed a small smile, despite how concerned with Jordan she was. It wasn't exactly nice to hear about the problems Greg had been having with his daughter, but it made her feel better that she and Nick weren't the only ones having issues with their kids. When Noah got busted for pot, she felt like the worst mother in the world. But she knew for a fact Greg was an amazing parent, and he still had trouble with his children on occasion.

"Kids, Greg," Sara quipped. "They're the best and hardest thing that's ever happened to us."

"Amen," he said as he turned onto Sara's street. As they approached the Stokes home, it looked so completely normal and quiet, like everything was perfectly alright. However, inside the drama had been brewing, and while it had settled down, there was still a lot of tension.

Greg pulled into the driveway and put the car in park. He looked over at Sara, who already had her seatbelt undone, poised to exit the car quickly. "Thanks again, Greg. So much. I really owe you one."

"Don't mention it," he said, and winked at her. "Good luck with that kid of yours."

Sara laughed a little as she pushed the door open. "You should probably be saying that to Jordan instead, because I feel like throttling her. Thanks, Greg."

Sara stepped into the house and walked towards the kitchen, where she heard noise. Even if it wasn't Nick, hopefully whoever it was would be able to tell her where her husband was. As she stepped onto the linoleum she smiled at seeing her husband. Nick heard her come in and looked up, he dropped what he was doing when he saw her and stepped forward. In a moment she was wrapped up completely in his arms as he hugged her. She felt the full weight of his body pressed against hers and the tight muscles of his arms locking her close to him. Realizing that what he needed right now was a hug she wrapped her arms around him and pulled tightly onto his back deepening the embrace.

Several long moments later she felt him drop a couple of kisses above her ears before pulling away from her, "We should talk about your children."

"Excuse me?" She asked, pretending to be offended. "I'll remind you that they're your kids too..."

"Likely story," he said and then frowned. "Jordan met some boy from the internet. She didn't even tell us where she was going."

"You told me," Sara said. "What happened?"

"Well I can't get a straight answer out of anyone," Nick told her, letting her see his frustration. "All I know is that Jordan went to meet some boy and Marley was the one to catch her. Noah and Marley took off to go get her and according to Noah he was too worried to think about calling either of us."

"And the guy she met?" Sara asked. "Who was he? Was he her age or older?"

"I don't think he was dangerous," Nick sighed. "The way Jordan was talking about him I'd say she actually had a pleasant time."

"That's not the point Nick!" Sara said loudly. "She could've been abducted or worse!"

"I know that," Nick said, pulling his wife into another hug. "But Noah brought her home safe. I swear sometimes I want to shake that kid and other times I want to hug him."

"That's part of being a parent," Sara informed him. "So, he skipped class... what're we doing?"

"Well," Nick said. "He has to learn to be an adult someday. He can't just handle his problems recklessly and then when he gets lucky and things work out just expect it to be okay."

"I agree," Sara said. "But you said he could miss class for a life altering emergency and I think this qualifies."

"So you think we should still let him go to your brother's?" Nick asked, still not completely convinced. Noah hadn't exactly proven himself to be the most responsible person in the world in the past few years.

"He's a good kid Nick."

Nick sighed and pulled back, then linked his hands with his wife's. "He is," Nick agreed, thinking of the son who had made him both proud and very frustrated over the years. "I just wish he'd stop and think a little more before he does things."

"Me too," Sara agreed, and then placed a supportive kiss on his shoulder. "But I think he should go. It'll be good for him."

Nick nodded in acceptance. While his son had done something incredibly reckless, his heart was in the right place. He was concerned for his little sister. Nick had to admit that he'd done some pretty dumb things when family members' safety was it stake.

"Alright. He goes," Nick said. "As long as he doesn't mess up any more. What about Jordan?"

Sara rested her forehead against Nick's shoulder, as if she had no idea. "Any dungeons nearby?"

Nick didn't think he'd be doing a chuckling that evening, but he did. "I wouldn't stop you," he admitted with a heavy sigh. "I sent her to her room for the evening and told her no computer, but I wanted to talk to you first before we punished her any more."

"Does she seem to understand at all how dangerous that was?" Sara asked.

"No," Nick said, his frustration evident in his voice. They dealt with crime every day, and girls and women who'd been taken advantage of, beat up, or worse. They'd always tried their best to shield their kids from that world, but how could they make her understand? "She wants to see him again. Says she really likes him."

Sara shook her head in disapproval. "I never even saw this coming."

"Me neither," Nick chimed. "That's what's so scary. I think I know my kids, and something like this happens."

Meanwhile, upstairs in the girls' bedroom, Marley was still being given the cold shoulder by her twin. It was really starting to frustrate Marley because she'd done what she did because she loved her sister. She didn't want her to get hurt, but Jordan didn't seem to care. Jordan still had her iPod buds in her ears, like they'd been from the moment she entered the room. Now she just lay on her bed facing the wall. Marley swore she could hear her crying softly.

Marley was debating whether to try to say anything to her again, when Jordan sat up in her bed suddenly and took out her earbuds. "Where's my cell phone?"

Marley looked at her sister, her face red and wet from her crying, but determined. She reached into her back pocket and retrieved her twin's cell phone. "What do you want it for?"

"It's my cell phone," Jordan snapped as she stood up. "I don't have to explain myself to you. Give it to me." She reached out her hand to her twin, but Marley crossed her arms, tucking the phone against her body.

"I'm not gonna let you call him," Marley told her seriously. "How could you even think about doing that with everything that happened today?"

"What happened today," Jordan began, her voice terse and threatening, "is that my own twin sister ruined my life cause she can't mind her own business!"

"Look I'm sorry that I broke your trust," Marley said, realizing that her sister wouldn't ever forgive her for this without an apology. "But I was worried about you. And, in case you didn't figure it out you broke my trust first. You promised you wouldn't meet him."

"It was a dumb thing to make me promise though," Jordan said wiping her eyes. "It's not like I was ever in any real danger. Do you honestly think I'd go meet someone I didn't completely trust? I'm not stupid."

"But how did you know you trust him?" Marley asked, hoping that her sister would start to see where she was coming from. "You'd never met him?"

"You know you can get to know someone without seeing them face to face," Jordan informed her. "And at least I can say that my boyfriend cares about me for me."

"Well so does Aaron," Marley said. "And he's never asked me to do anything dangerous for him."

"Why do you keep saying that?" Jordan asked loudly. "I wasn't ever in any danger! Justin cares about me. He would never put me in danger. I trust him completely. More than I can trust you, obviously."

"Jordan you know you can trust me," Marley pointed out, hurt. "I'd do anything for you—even risk you hating me forever."

"Well you don't have to worry about that anymore!" Jordan said, lunging forward and grabbing the cell phone out of her sister's hand. "I'm never going to forgive you for this. I swear if mom and dad never let me see Justin again then I... well then I guess I just don't have a sister anymore either."

"Don't be stupid Jordan," Marley said. "I'm always gonna be your sister. You're stuck with me and if you ever do something that dumb again I'm still gonna save your ass! So, good luck trying to get rid of me."

"Whatever," Jordan snapped as she began scrolling down her phone book, looking for Justin's phone number. "I'm gonna ask mom and dad if I can move to another room."

"Good luck with that," Marley retorted, thinking her sister had really gone off the deep end. She was blowing this whole trust thing way out of proportion. Jordan thought she was the one being ridiculous, but Marley knew it was the other way around.

A moment later, they heard a knock on their bedroom door. The door opened, and their parents stepped inside. Jordan stuffed her cell phone quickly into her jeans pocket and crossed her arms back over her chest. Her mother crossed the room quickly and immediately took her daughter into her arms. Jordan wasn't sure what it was about her mother looking so relieved and angry, but it made her feel really guilty. For some reason, it always made her feel horrible to know she'd worried her mother.

"Jordan, don't you EVER do that again, do you understand?" Sara told her daughter, her voice soft, but very firm as she held Jordan tightly. Jordan heard fear in her mom's voice, and felt how hard she was hugging her. But even that didn't cause her to want to promise never to see Justin again.

"Mom," she said, again on the verge of tears. Why couldn't she get anyone to understand?

Nick put his hand on his hips and sighed, his shoulders falling. It was really starting to scare him how persistent Jordan was being about this kid. "Marley, can you go downstairs a minute please?" He asked his daughter softly. Marley nodded in understanding and discreetly slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Sara pulled back from the embrace and put her hands on Jordan's arms. "Promise me, Jordan Elizabeth."

Jordan furrowed her eyebrows, staring straight back at her mother. "How can you ask me to do that? You love daddy, right? Well what if you'd happened to meet him over the Internet? What if you'd never met him because you'd never seen him face to face? Maybe I scared you, but it's only because I really REALLY like Justin."

"Jordan, stop it," Nick interrupted, having heard her little spiel earlier. "You may like this Justin kid, but what you've done is shown us you're not responsible enough to date. You didn't use the Internet responsibly, you didn't go about meeting him responsibly, and you don't seem to have any idea how much danger you were in."

"Dad, you don't –"

"Enough!" Nick raised his voice, frustrated that no matter what he said, Jordan didn't seem to understand. "There's no excuse for it, Jordan."

Sara took her daughter's hand and led her to her bed. "Let's sit down," she suggested. Nick was still too livid to sit, so he stayed standing and paced a little bit. "I understand that you like him, sweetheart. But as your parents, we have to look out for your safety. You may think he's trustworthy, but there's no way to know for sure."

"We were in a public place. If he tried to do anything, I would've screamed," Jordan explained logically.

"Okay, did you think that maybe that could just be a front he puts up? Do you really think, if he's a bad person, he's gonna try something right away?" Sara tried to explain without scaring her too much. From her mindframe, it seemed like Jordan needed a scare. "What if he was trying to build up your trust, and then when you think everything is fine, he offers you a ride home and he tries something?"

"He wouldn't do that," Jordan said, her eyes swimming with tears.

Sara paused and made sure to make direct eye contact with her daughter. "That's just it, sweetheart. You don't know," she said the last sentence very slowly.

"But mommy," Jordan said just as slowly. "I wasn't wrong about him! I wasn't! Justin's a really sweet guy and he cares about me and he's my best friend. Please please don't take him away from me. Please. I'll do anything. I'll promise anything."

"Okay," Sara said quietly. She heard Nick suck in a deep breath in disapproval. She honestly felt that she was going to lose her daughter to this boy if she didn't try to compromise about the situation. As little as she liked the idea of her eleven year old dating a fourteen year old she liked the idea of Jordan never forgiving her or Nick even less.

"Okay?" Jordan asked, surprised and excited. "Really? Okay?"

"Okay," Sara nodded. "But there are going to be some ground rules."

"We can handle ground rules," Jordan agreed. The grin on her face told her parents she couldn't believe that they were even having that conversation.

"Sara," Nick interrupted her for a moment. She gave him a half smile and a shrug and he knew the same thing she did - there wasn't going to be any getting past what Jordan did if they didn't try to see it her way. No matter how hard. He shrugged again and frowned, not wanting to hear the rest of the conversation. This was one time he was just going to have to trust his wife. "I uh... I think I'm going to go down stairs and start dinner. Fill me in?"

"I will," Sara said, following her husband to the bedroom door. She dropped a kiss on his cheek on his way out and closed the door behind him. She moved to sit on Marley's bed and crossed her legs, "Come sit over here with me baby."

Jordan sat slowly next to her mother feeling calm for the first time since Noah and Marley had showed up at the ice cream shop. "So, what do I have to do to get you and Daddy and everyone to forgive me? And how can I still see Justin?"

"For starters," Sara said. "You're grounded until the end of the school year. No phone. No internet. No friends. No TV.... nothing. If you're using any sort of technology or socializing at all outside of school your father or I are to be in the room with you where we can hear and see everything you're doing."

"Mom--" Jordan started to protest but quickly gave up. She knew her mother wasn't willing to compromise. "Okay, I guess that's fair."

"It's more than fair," Sara told her sternly. "Now, since you'll be grounded until then this doesn't really matter anyway but you're not allowed to even think about having a boyfriend until the end of the school year. The boys were all allowed to date in seventh grade so until this June, you're not."

"Fine," Jordan said, thinking about how both her and her sister already had boyfriends. She just wouldn't advertise it.

"Once the school year ends we'll consider lightening your punishment," Sara informed her. "You'll be allowed to see Justin as long as you've been following our rules to the letter. And trust me... if I doubt you for a second I'll have Archie in here tracking your every move so fast it'll make your head spin."

"I promise," Jordan said quietly. "I won't break any of the rules. Just tell me what I have to do to see him."

"When you start getting privileges back," Sara said slowly. "You may see Justin. But only at our house when both your father and I are home. And it'll be that way until he's built trust from your father and I. Okay?"

"I can live with that," Jordan said, deciding that Justin was worth everything she was giving up. "Anything else?"

"Thank your brother and sister," Sara said. "And tell them you're sorry and you love them. They really put their necks on the line for you today... not every kid in the world is that lucky."

Sara wrapped her daughter into a hug one more time thinking about how lucky she was to have Noah as an older brother and that she hadn't been in more danger. It was obvious that Jordan still didn't grasp how horrible that day could have been for her and a part of Sara was thankful. At least Jordan had the kind of family backing her up that hopefully she would never have to know how terrible the world really could be.

She pressed a kiss to her daughter's head, and took a moment to let her body relax a little more. Yes, it had been a terrible afternoon, but it had all turned out okay in the end. "Oh, you mentioned you've talked to Justin a couple of times. I need his phone number, because I need to talk to his mother."

Jordan nodded and took her cell phone out of her pocket. She scrolled through the phone book and showed her mother his home number. "Thanks, I'll write that down," Sara told her and held out her hand to receive the phone. "And this you won't be needing for quite a while."

Jordan sighed in mourning, but she wasn't about to complain. Her parents were going to let her see Justin again, so being grounded for a couple months didn't seem all that bad any more. "I'm gonna go downstairs and explain all this to your dad. We'll come get you when it's dinner time."

"Okay, Mommy," she agreed as she laid down on her bed and picked up a notebook. "Thanks for understanding."

"You're welcome," Sara walked to her bed and dropped another kiss to her forehead. "I love you."

"Love you too."

Sara left her daughter's bedroom and headed down the stairs, hearing her husband carry on a conversation with Marley over cooking. "Measure out half a cup for me, sweetheart," he instructed her as Sara stepped into the kitchen. She leaned against the entryway and just watched them for a few moments. Marley's much smaller frame stood next to her husband's, well built and athletic. Despite the way he was being gentle and patient with Marley, like he always was, Sara could tell he was a bit concerned. He kept his jaw slightly clenched, and his whole body just looked tense.

She probably should've talked to him first before deciding on the spot that Jordan could see this boy again. Sara thought he understood her reasoning though, and he could see it too – Jordan really did care for this boy. She very rarely disobeyed them or did anything wrong, which was why this caught Sara's attention. If he meant that much to her, that she'd do something she knew her parents wouldn't approve of, then maybe that was reason they should see each other. Once the initial shock and anger had worn off, Sara had begun to see the situation more clearly.

"Hi, Mom," Marley chirped a little hesitantly, still trying to gauge her parents' mood. Nick looked over at his wife for a moment and then turned his attention back to what he was doing. He didn't look angry or upset, just a little tired.

"Hi, baby," Sara stepped inside and walked over to her daughter. "I'm sorry, I don't think I even hugged you earlier." She wrapped her arms around Marley and squeezed her tight. It was easy to lose track of the other kids when one in particular had given them a problem.

"It's okay, Mom," Marley told her, hugging her back. "You were busy."

"Thanks," Sara replied softly. "How was your day, other than all this drama?"

Marley smirked a little bit. "Boring," she replied. "But I got a 'B' on that science test you helped me study for."

"Good job," Sara praised her, dropping a kiss to her head. "Hey, do you mind if I talked to Daddy in private for a minute?"

"Nope," she answered cheerfully. "Can I go to your room and call one of my friends? Since it's Friday that means I'm not grounded any more."

"Sure," she said. Within a few moments, Marley had scampered off up the stairs happily. It was silent in the kitchen for a few moments, only the sound of chicken simmering on the stove and Nick chopping up some vegetables. Sara stepped over and gently wound her hands around his strong midsection and pressed a kiss between his shoulder blades. "Sorry if I pulled that out of nowhere," she apologized.

Nick stopped what he was doing and set the cutting knife down and wiped his hands on a dishtowel. Sara felt his warm hands cover hers. "Well, I'm trying to trust you on it," he told her. "I am a little upset you didn't talk with me about it first. I mean, we agreed on our approach before we went up and talked to her, and that wasn't part of it."

He turned around in her arms so they could talk face to face. That always worked to her advantage because she'd been told her eyes have quite an effect on him. "I know," Sara said softly. "I should've checked with you first, but I started to see how much she really cares for him."

"Sar, she's eleven," Nick pointed out. "She's just a child. She doesn't know what love is, and she shouldn't. Not that kind. And I'm really not sure if we should be rewarding such bad behavior. What's that saying? If you really really want something, disobey your mom and dad and put yourself in danger, then they'll be willing to compromise with you?"

"I don't think so," Sara said delicately. Honestly she had no idea how to handle the situation. None of their children had ever been as well behaved as Jordan was over the years—not even Charlie. Yet still none of them had ever messed up this badly—though Noah's stint with Pot brought him pretty close. It was really hard to judge how to handle it. "All I know is that it's usually better to parent and govern each child based on his or her needs. I think this is what Jordan needs right now."

"And what happens the next time she thinks she really wants something?" Nick asked, frustrated. He knew that his wife was right; at least in part. It didn't make it any easier. "Do we just give in then, too?"

"Jordan doesn't lie to us," Sara stated quietly. Jordan was the only one of their combined six that had never told them a lie. "I don't know about you but I'm not ready to lose that. Even if she doesn't stay our little girl forever I want her to be our honest daughter forever."

"I'm not ready to lose that either," Nick agreed. "Do you really think we would have if we hadn't let her see this boy? I don't like him."

"We don't know him yet Nick," Sara said trying her hardest to reserve judgment. "And our daughter does like him. We're damn good parents. Both of us. This is the right thing to do. I know it is."

"I think you're right," Nick agreed. "I just don't exactly like it."

Sara stopped and grabbed her husband. She gave him a warm hug and then planted a kiss on his lips. "I love you, you know."

"I do," he whispered, dropping a kiss on her lips. "I love you too."

"You better," Sara said playfully and shoved him a little. "We'll get through this. She's a good kid, you know? This came out of left field and all but I'm willing to bet she's still our good one."

"Oh I hope so," Nick laughed. "Because I'm not sure I could handle it if she was the bad one more than once every decade if she's gonna give us whoppers like this one."

Sara tugged her husband a little closer and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She leaned in and captured his lips in a soft, but passionate kiss. After such a long, trying day, it felt so good to be in his arms. It seemed there was nothing his kisses couldn't cure.

"Did I ever mention what a great kisser you are?" She asked him, pulling back just slightly. Nick let his hands rest on her hips before chuckling and leaning in for more.

A few moments later, the front door opened, interrupting their make-out session. Nick pulled back and pressed one last kiss to her forehead. "We should go to bed early tonight."

"We should," Sara agreed as Charlie walked into the living room area, looking exhausted after an afternoon of work. He was oblivious to the mountains of drama that had occurred since he'd left earlier.

"Hey Mom, Nick," he greeted them dismissively as he plopped down on the couch.

"Hey, Charlie," Sara told him as she moved closer to the living room. "How was work?"

"Oh, fine," he said, nudging his shoes off so he could lay them on the coffee table.

"You didn't spend your paycheck on clothes again did you?" Nick teased his stepson, seeing a small bag on the floor next to him. Charlie had been known to spend a large chunk of his paycheck on clothes from Hollister, the store he worked at. At least he got it at a discount, and it saved Nick and Sara from having to go in there with the girls, who were quickly developing expensive taste for clothing. Especially Marley.

"Nope, this is for Marley," he told his parents, picking the bag up to retrieve the item. His parents usually previewed any clothing items for the girls to make sure it wasn't inappropriate. Jordan had never tried anything, but Marley had already chosen some items that were later vetoed. Charlie tossed a v-neck t-shirt to his mother, and then a different t-shirt to Nick. "That one's for Jordan."

Nick slung the shirt over his shoulder. "She won't be getting this for a while," he commented to his wife.

"Why? What happened?" Charlie asked as he settled back into the couch. Nick and Sara looked at each other, not knowing quite where to start. Then, despite the day's stress, Sara started laughing and sat down next to her son.

Charlie looked puzzled to say the least as his mother gently kissed the side of his cheek. "Oh, Charlie," she sighed tiredly. "It's amazing how much you miss in this house in just a few hours."