Coreene walked into the girls' house and saw Howie sitting at the kitchen table. "Hey," she said.
He looked up and smiled. "Hey," he replied.
She went over to him and sat down. "What's up?"
"Not much," he said. "You?"
"Actually something is." She leaned over and planted her lips on his. "I left Brandon. I realized that after all of the looking that I've done for the perfect man, he was sitting in front of me the whole time."
"I guess so. I've been waiting for you to realize that I'm just so perfect."
Coreene laughed. "Don't flatter yourself." They laughed.
"Hey, you want a drink?"
"Sure." Coreene smiled as she watched Howie walk off into the kitchen.
Cassandra ran upstairs and was about to walk into Nick's room when she heard his voice and someone else's. His voice was shaking and the other voice was definitely female, none that she'd ever heard before, and they sounded young. Cassandra gently tapped on the door. "Nick? Honey?"
"Oh, Cassie," Nick said. "C-Come in."
Cassandra slowly walked in the room and found Nick sitting on the end of his bed. His face and eyes were completely red from crying and Linden was standing next to him. "Hey Linden. I thought that you weren't coming back?""
"Hi to you, too. Well, I decided to make a special occasion."
Cassandra rushed over to Nick. "Nikolai? What's wrong?"
Nick wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her shoulder. "Oh, Cassia. I, uh, I have something, rather someone, that I want you to meet."
"Who?"
All of a sudden, a little girl walked out from Nick's closet. She had short, dirty blonde hair and she looked to be about seven or eight years old. She walked over to Nick. He lifted her into his lap and she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "Nicky? Who's she? Oh, is that Cassie? The one that you always talk about?"
Nick nodded his head and laughed softly. "Yes, Sweetie. This is Cassie. The one that I always talk about."
The girl reached over and touched Cassandra's face. "She's pretty. Just like you said Nicky."
"I know," Nick said. "She's very pretty."
Cassandra gave Nick a confused look. "Thank you."
"Um, Cassie," Nick said, "Sweetie, I'd like you to meet my little sister, Katie. Katie, this is Cassandra."
Brian walked through the door of the guys' house and saw the back of Mercedes' head as she sat on the couch. He quietly crept up behind her and put his hand over her eyes. "Honey, I'm home," he said.
She gasped and tore his hand off of her eyes and whipped around. "Brian!" she screamed. She wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped off the back of the couch, sending them both flying to the ground.
He started to laugh. "I wish I'd get that kind of welcome every time I walked in the door!"
She kissed him over and over again all over his face. "It's been so long since I've seen you! I stopped counting a while ago! Jeez, where the fuck have you been?"
"Honey, I have a surprise for you."
All of a sudden, the door opened. Mercedes looked up and gasped.
"You can thank me later," Brian said, not being able to see the doorway.
"What the hell is he doing here?"
"You're not happy to see him?"
"Eric? No!" Mercedes stood up and so did Brian.
"No, no. That's not my surprise," Brian said.
"Gee," Eric said, "nice to see you, too." Eric stuck his hand out of the door and waved it. Suddenly, someone else walked through the door. When she saw who it was, she dropped to her knees and covered her mouth.
"That's my surprise," Brian said. "Chase is here to stay."
"It's very nice to meet you, Katie," Cassandra said and smiled.
"You, too, Cassie," Katie replied and turned to Nick. "Nicky, are you two still together?"
"Yes, Sweetie," Nick replied. "Of course we are."
"I'm glad. You guys will be together forever."
Nick looked at Cassandra and smiled. "Yes we will."
"Um..." Cassandra started. "Honey, can I talk to you...for a second?"
"Sure. Um, here Katie," he said and stood up and went over to his drawer and pulled out a coloring book and a box of crayons. She sat down on the floor and he put them down in front of her. He kneeled down to meet her face. "Here. Play with this for a while. I'll be right back. Are you going to be okay?"
"She'll be fine," Linden said sitting down next to Katie. "I'll play with her."
"Yeah, Nick," Katie agreed. "Go talk to Cassie."
Nick smiled and gave her a hug. "I'll be right back." He stood up, took Cassandra's hand and walked out of his room, closing the door quietly. Outside the door, he fell to the ground. He was still holding Cassandra's hand and it pulled her to the ground. His grip on her hand kept tightening. Cassandra was confused and scared for Nick.
"Honey, what's wrong?" she asked him.
"Oh my...oh my...oh my God."
"Nick," she gasped. "Is that...you're sister?"
Nick couldn't think. His mind was reeling and his thoughts were jamming. He could barely see or hear Cassandra who was right in front of him. His grip on her hand grew steadily tighter but he wasn't even aware of that either. He couldn't believe that his sister, who died when he was seven, was sitting in his room at this very moment. She was supposed to be fifteen years old, but she looked and acted like she was seven.
"Nick!"
He snapped back into his mind, his thoughts vanishing.
"Nick, you're hurting my hand!"
He looked deep into her eyes, a pleading look flashing through his eyes. He jumped into her arms.
"Nick, what is the matter?"
Without pulling away, he said, "She's my sister. You know? Katie? The one who died when I was seven? Linden found her for me. I don't know how, but she found her."
Thoughts began to race through her mind now. She became increasingly aware of the floor they were sitting on. She wrapped her arms tighter around him. "Oh Honey, oh my God. How?"
Nick pulled slightly away and looked at her. "I-I'm not really sure. I was just thinking about her and then my emotions started to rage and then..."
"Then...what?"
"Then she was just there. With Linden. Just there."
"Honey, that's wonderful!"
He pulled away and looked in her eyes again. "Do you mean it?"
"What do you mean? I am so happy for you! For us! I could use another sister." She smiled.
"You cannot be serious."
"C-Chase?" Mercedes studdered.
Brian put his hand on her back and gave her a little push towards Chase. "Go on." He smiled when she looked up at him.
She slowly walked up to him and kneeled in front of him. She couldn't believe what was going on. Her husband had just walked in the door, after being gone, and had just told her that her son, her Chase, was home and was staying. She turned around and looked at Brian. "I-I don't understand."
"Honey, I'll explain the legal propaganda later. Right now, say hi to your son."
She turned back to Chase and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Hi Chase."
"Hi...mom."
"You...you know who I am?"
"Of course, Brian and Eric explained everything to me. I guess I understand it. I guess now I have two sets of parents!" He smiled.
"Um, yeah." She tried to smile.
"Brian and Eric are much nicer than my other parents."
"Honey, how old are you now?"
"I'm almost nine years old."
"Well you're very, very smart for your age. Must've gotten that from me."
"Well, my other parents, they gave me a lot of stuff but Brian gave me one thing that they didn't."
"What's that?"
"Brian told me that he loved me."
Bobby grabbed his suitcase in one hand and Mariah's in the other.
"Bobby! Stop!" Mariah yelled.
He whipped around. "What? What is it this time?"
"Where the hell are you going?"
"We're leaving. We're getting away from here. Forever."
"What? No! Will I ever see my sisters again?"
"Sisters? Idiot, you only have one left! Cassandra died."
Mariah turned pale. "No. No! No she didn't!" she screamed.
"Yes. Yes! Yes she did! Now, you can either come with me or you can stay here and see Coreene maybe once more in your lifetime."
Mariah paused. "Why me? Why do you want me to come with you?"
"You want to know why?"
Mariah nodded. "The truth for once Bobby."
Bobby took a deep breath and rested his hands on her shoulders. "Because for the first time since your sister, Cassandra, I think I'm really falling in love again." He paused. "And it's not because you're her sister. It's you. I love you. Believe it or not but you're the only person that can put up with me and all of my bullshit."
"You're right," Mariah said laughing. "I love you, too. But why are we leaving now...so suddenly?"
"Because..." He stopped. He couldn't tell her about the dream that he had had about Cassandra. "We just have to go now. No one can find out about something and I promise you that I will tell you later. Just not now. You're not ready."
"Well...okay. I trust you." Mariah smiled. "Let's go."
Bobby smiled back at her and took her hand. He was finally going to get away from everything and no one would ever know about his connection with Isabella's death. Ever.
"Nick, what are you talking about? What can't I be serious about?"
"You can't just expect me to believe that my little sister just gets thrown at you and I want her to stay and you're okay with her staying and we don't even have children of our own?"
She gave him a weird look. "I'm completely okay with it but am I not suppose to be?"
He started laughing. "I'm just testing ya!"
She lightly hit him on the arm and smiled but then quickly became serious.
"What is it?" he asked her when he saw her expression change.
"You said that we don't even have children of our own. What does that mean?"
"I dunno. You know how important family is to me. It is so important and I've always wanted to have a family. When I met you, I-I knew that I wanted to have a family with you. I hope it's still possible and I hope that you would want it. Do you? I mean, want to have a family with me?"
Cassandra dropped her eyes to the floor. The thought about having a family had only crossed her mind a couple of times and they had never talked about it. She had known this day would come but she didn't think it would be so soon or under the same conditions. They didn't even know if it were still possible.
"He did?" Mercedes asked Chase.
"Yeah. Brian was real nice to me real quick. Longer than my other father was but I still love my other parents."
"Oh Chase, Honey, that's wonderful." She stood up and took his hand and led him towards the kitchen. "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah, I could eat."
Mercedes stopped in her tracks and so did Brian. She turned around and looked at Brian. "Nick," she mouthed. Brian only nodded. What Chase had said, was the same thing that Nick always used to say. Mercedes shook her head and sat him down at the kitchen table. She sat down next to him. "Now Chase, I need to ask you a favor and I'll completely understand if you don't want to."
"What is it?"
"Well, in a couple of days there is going to be a funeral, and I would like you to go with Brian and I."
"Um...okay. Who's it for?"
Mercedes clenched her teeth to keep from crying. "Well, her name was Cassandra and she was my best friend and my cousin. I would just like you to be there. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Thank you, and later on we'll introduce you to some of the other people that live here. Hey Brian, who else is around?"
Brian looked up from the counter where he was making sandwiches. "Um, I think that Emalia and Kevin are at the other house, Coreene and Howie are around somewhere and Nicole and Jonathan are probably at his house, as usual."
"Okay."
"Well, Cassie?" Nick asked. "Oh God, I knew it!" He stood up. "I knew it! I said the wrong thing again."
Cassandra looked up at him. "No! Nick, it's not that it's just-"
"Jeez, I can't believe it. Why do I always do this?"
"Nick, shut up!"
He looked down at her. He took her hands and helped her off of the floor. "Cassie?"
"Find out if it's possible." Saying nothing else, Cassandra walked downstairs.
Nick stood in the hallway for a second then shook his head. "Cassie, wait!"
When Nick ran down the stairs, he saw Cassandra's back, standing at the edge of the kitchen, watching Brian and Mercedes. When he came up behind her and touched her back, she jumped.
"Damn it, Nick!" She hit him on his arm.
"What?"
She didn't reply. She only turned around and continued to stare into the kitchen.
"What are we looking at?"
"Shh!"
"Hey, who's that with Kevin and Emalia?"
"That," Cassandra pointed, "oh my God. It's Chase."
"Who?"
"Nick, shut up! I'm trying to listen!" Cassandra and Nick listened to their conversation and realized that they were talking about Cassandra's funeral. "Damn."
"Cass, are you all right?"
"I'll be fine. What about you?"
"I guess I'll be okay, but did they have to choose that date?"
"I'm so sorry, Honey. But look, that's Chase."
"Who's Chase?"
"Oh. Chase is Mercedes' son."
"I don't get it. I'm so confused!"
Cassandra turned and looked at Nick. She smiled and then gently kissed him. "You're so cute and I'll explain it to you later."
"We have a lot to talk about."
"Tell me about it."