Brian gets to Loren and Kevin’s.  He knocks on the door and she answers.  Things are kind of okay between the two of them now.  At least he’s speaking to her.

Brian - “Hey.”

Loren - “Hey Bri.  What brings you by.”

Brian - “Jess and the boys are getting discharged today.  I’ve got to go get Tommy’s car seat.  She said you had the keys to her house.”

Loren - “Oh yeah come on in.”  He follows her in.

Brian - “Is Kevin around?”

Loren - “Yeah he’s out back in the yard with Tristen.  They’re trying to build a clubhouse.  Go ahead out while I find the keys.”

He wanders out and finds Kevin going over the directions while Tristen is pulling the pieces out of the box.  He just walks over and sits on the step next to Kevin.

Kevin - “Hey honey.  Couldn’t you have gotten one with better instructions?  I’m not a carpenter ya know.”

Brian - “Sorry next time I will.”  He looks over at Brian and then over his shoulder.

Kevin - “When did you get here?”

Brian - “Just now.  I came to get the keys to Jess’s house.”

Kevin - “Everything okay.”

Brian - “Yeah she and the boys are going home today.”

Kevin - “Well that’s a good thing.  So why do you look like someone just ran over your dog.”

Brian - “I don’t know.  Things were just easier when they were all in the hospital.”

Kevin - “What do you mean?”

Brian - “We didn’t have to think about what had happened between us.”

Kevin - “Well you knew this was coming.  I mean you all couldn’t live at the hospital forever.”

Brian - “I know.  I’m just scared.  Not only of the thing between me and her but of being a dad.  She seems like she’s fine but then she’s had months to get use to the idea of being a parent.  I’ve been a dad for three days.  I feel like crying every time I look at them.”

Kevin - “You’ll be fine.  Like you said it’s just going to take time.”

Brian - “What if I’m not.”

Kevin - “Then you will just do the best you can.”

Brian - “I’m going to screw them up.  I know it.  Look what I did to my own life.”

Kevin - “You’re talking like you’re an ax murderer.  Okay so you’ve not exactly made the best decisions on some things but for the most part you are a good person Brian.  A bit of a whiney bitch at times but a decent soul.”

Brian - “Hey!”

Kevin - “Hey nothing.  Stop moping and go get your sons and take them home.”

Brian smiles.  “I do like how that sounds.  My sons.  All right man I’m out.  I’ll give you a call tomorrow from Jess’s.”

Kevin - “Oh you’re staying there.”

Brian - “Yeah.”

Kevin raises an eyebrow.  “That was quick.  You two just are picking up where you left off.”

Brian - “No.  I’m staying in a spare room till we can figure out what’s going on.”

Kevin - “Sure you are.”

Brian - “What is it with you and Nick?  Are you two sharing a brain or something?  It’s all you guys want to talk about is me and Jess getting back together.”

Loren - “You know she never stopped loving you.”  He turns and she is closing the slider.

Brian - “How do you know?”

Loren - “Because I know Jessica.  Trust me it’ll take her time but she wants you and Tommy and Noah to be a family.”

Brian - “Yeah well I should probably get going.”

Loren - “Here’s the keys and directions.”

Brian - “I know how to get there.”

Loren - “No she sold the house over by the school.”

Brian - “She loved that house.”

Loren - “She said it had too many memories.”

Brian takes a minute to think about the little house.  “It does.  Thanks Ducky.”  He kisses her cheek as he passes.  “Talk to you guys tomorrow.”  After he’s gone.

Loren - “Does that mean he’s finally completely forgiven me?”

Kevin – “It’s a good sign.  Hey knock it off.”

Loren - “What?”

Kevin - “I see that little worry line between your eyes.  Stop it.  They will be fine.”

Loren - “I hope so.”

Kevin - “If you don’t knock it off.”

Loren - “okay.”  She closes her eyes and then opens them again smiling really big.  “There completely forgotten.”

Kevin - “Yeah right.  Okay here you read these to us that will keep you distracted.”

Brian gets to my house and unlocks the door.  He takes a deep breath and then walks inside and starts laughing as soon as he walks in.  There is a little table in the foyer that was a picture of Mud on it, he is in his typical bad ass mood and is giving the camera a ‘what the hell do you want’ look.  The frame says ‘This is my house if you don’t like it get out.’  He takes a minute and walks around the bottom of my house.  The living room is cozy.  I have two big overstuffed couches because I just love those, facing the big windows that over look the beach then out to the ocean.  He goes in to the kitchen and starts looking through the kitchen cabinets.  They are stocked with all my favorite junk food.  Chips, candy, marshmallows, crackers, you name it was in my pantry.  There are a few more rooms but they are mostly empty.  Just some boxes sitting in the one that’s going to be the office.

He then goes upstairs.  The first room he goes in is one of the guestrooms.  I had it set up for my mom who was going to be staying with me for a couple days.  It’s a little girly but then I decorated it for my mom.  The other three rooms up the hall where empty.  He gets to the end of the hall and walks in to the nursery.  It’s done up in little baby ducks and frogs.  It really is adorable.  He walks over and looks in the crib.  It is all set up to bring a baby home.  The changing table is stocked with diapers and powder.  He sits in the rocker for a minute and sees the picture frame sitting on the table.  He gets up and walks over and picks it up.  It’s a set of pictures of me and him.  He remembers Nick taking them.  I had surprised him at a show they were doing in Cleveland.  In one we were both smiling and had our arms around each other.  In the other we were just sitting laughing together in the bus.  And in the last one we were kissing.  He touches the frame and then sits it back down.

He walks in to my room and pause for a second.  Except for the balcony and the big wall of windows that face the ocean it looks exactly like my room back at my little old house.  I had the same bed and dresser set.  He walks over and sits on the bed.  He pushes down on the mattress on the side he used to sleep on.  It was still there, one night we had gotten a little drunk and he craved our initials on the head board, but for some reason we had taken the mattress off the bed first so when we put it back on the morning the craving was covered up.  He looks around the rest of my room.  There are other pictures in here too.  Ones with me and everyone I consider family.  But none of me and him.  He peeks in to the master bath.  There is a little vanity area that we can tell I’m going to be using.  It was my perfume and lotions and stuff set up on it.  It also has my favorite picture in the whole world on it.  It’s a picture of me, Stephen, mom and dad.  It was taken at Christmas years ago, we are all outside building a snowman.

Deciding he should probably be getting back to the hospital he grabs the car seat out of the closet in the boys’ room and leaves locking the house up.