"You mean she's been here the entire time?"

Simon's jaw dropped slightly when Elaina nodded slowly in response. She was sitting on the floor, her back to a wall painted a pale yellow colour with a zoo-animal print paper border running along the top. Needing comfort, she reached one arm out and carefully pulled Elizabeth, who had been playing two feet away, naturally oblivious to what her father had done- almost done- into her lap.

"Why did you keep her hidden?" Taylor asked, unable to tame his curiousity,"It's not because of us, is it? 'Cause I love little kids and-"

Simon was quick to shoot Taylor a look that shut him up instantaneously. Frowning sheepishly, Taylor apologized to Elaina for being so nosy.

"It's alright, Taylor..." she said, not taking her eyes away from Elizabeth, whose hair she was stroking much like Taylor had hers not long before,"I didn't want her to be stuck in here... You have to believe me... "

"...Clayton?" Simon asked quietly, his voice tense.

Elizabeth nodded and no furthur words were said on the topic...

"Hey there, little man!" Isaac exclaimed, meandering over to where Zac stood. Ruffling his brother's hair, he went on to warn him,"Don't let Mom & Dad hear you say 'fuck' ok? Ooooooo, the evil F-Word.

"Ol' Johnny at the bar told me I was too young to be cursin'... So I told- I told him that if I was too young to be cursin'... then why the hell was he givin' me all the drinks I asked for when I'm only 18? Heh, I got him, man. Shut Ol' Johnny up with that one... Really shouldn't've said that, though, 'cause he kicked my ass outta the bar right away... "

Isaac then started giggling. Not muffled, trying-my-best-not-to giggles. All-out girly giggles that one would expect from a first grader who had wound up with a dab of blue finger-paints on their nose.

"Ike, what's so funny?" Zac asked, sighing as he released the baseball bat from his hands put his arm around his brother's waist, attempting to get him inside as quietly as possible. Before the pair was even two steps closer to the door, Isaac stopped.

"What's so fuuuuuunny?" Isaac leaned his head closer to Zac's, so close that his beer-breath was impossible to miss.

"What's so fuuuuuunny is that my little brother... is dragging his big brother... into the house."

Zac tried valiantly to uncover the logic behind Ike's drunk-speak, but even so failed to find any real humor in it. Shaking his head, he half-laughed/half-snickered and only prayed that Isaac wouldn't hit the post-binge-puking stage until he had been safely deposited in a bathroom.

Fortunately for the two, the light in their parents bedroom, as well as those of their siblings, were off. Zac mentally slapped himself for not having given his mother the pills she had asked for, but quickly decided the issue at hand was more important. Besides, she was asleep now, anyway, he reasoned.

"C'mon, Ike, into your room..." Zac said, pleased to see that his brother had regained slightly better control of his ability to walk - without the possibility of slamming into any and every object in the surrounding area.

"Hey! WAIT!" Isaac suddenly exclaimed. Twisting himself away from Zac, he began patting his clothing; first the pockets of his jeans, then those of his jacket.

"Ike, what is it?" Zac whispered, groaning yet again,"And keep your damn voice down!"

"Shit, I loooost them-"

"Lost what, Ike?"

Isaac turned and gave his brother a nervous look, then shrugged as non-chalantly as possible,"Nothing- nothing.... Uh...... Just my wallet... or somethin'. Nothin' to worry your pretty little blonde head over, mmkay?"

"Smart, man, really smart," Zac said, once the two were in Isaac's room,"Listen, do you want something for your headache?"

"Wooooah, how'd ya know I have a headache?" Isaac asked, thoroughly admiring Zac's new-found psychic abilities.

Rolling his eyes, Zac replied,"I don't know; must be a natural gift."

"Well, would ya mind taking you... and that little 'natural gift' of yours... and going to the corner store?" Isaac asked. Now laying on his bed, he had a pillow covering his face, from his eyes up.

Zac smirked,"That depends. Does it look like I'm wearing a sign that says 'Isaac's Personal Servant'?"

"Owww," Isaac whined,"You don't have to yell! Geeze..."

"Ike, I was hardly whisper-"

Limply holding up his hand, Isaac summoned Zac to be quiet.

"You asked me if I wanted somethin' for my headache... and I. Said. Yes. So all I want is for you to go to the store and buy me some pills. The white kind with the little writing on them. And make sure it's a reeeeally big bottle..."

Zac shrugged,"We have some Advil or something downstairs; I was getting some for Mom before I discovered a certain brother of mine. I'll just go grab a few-"

"They're all gone, Zac."

Zac gave an exasperated sigh,"No, they're not. Before I witnessed your drunk-ass in the backyard I was get-"

Interrupting yet again, Isaac scowled,"Zac, just trust me, the Aspirin's gone."

"Aspirin? Who said anything about Aspirin?"

"Oh gawwwd," Ike groaned, pulling the pillow even furthur over his face.

"Ike, Mom said that-" Zac paused to grab the pillow, revealing his brother's pale face,"...she just bought a new bottle of Aspirin, but when she needed some tonight, she couldn't find it."

"Uh, yeah... So?" Isaac said meekly.

Zac crossed his arms across his chest,"You stole the bottle, didn't you? The whole fucking thing..."

"I- Zac, I wasn't feeling good. I just took a couple of Aspirin for my headache, I swear."

Kicking the bottom of the bedframe, Zac shocked Isaac into an almost-sitting position,"Headache, my ass! Normal, sane people don't need an entire bottle of Aspirin just to make a damn headache go away!"

In a bitter, biting tone, Isaac replied, his speech much less slurred,"No, Zac, 'Normal, sane people don't need an entire bottle of Aspirin just to make a damn headache go away'... But did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, abnormal, insane people like myself need an entire bottle of Aspirin just to make their world go away?"

Zac spent the night that followed tossing and turning on the floor of Isaac's bedroom, too scared of what might happen, should he leave his brother alone. This was undoubtedly a what-if situation that Zac hadn't bargained for, nor did he want to accept. Life was troublesome enough - this added stress would be enough to crumble the shaky wall of the family's strength.

Zac had even gone so far as to drag his sleeping bag into the room and place directly in front of the door.

Isaac had protested, but weakly; when Zac had brought the coveted Advil and water upstairs, Ike had realized there was no point in biting the metaphorical hand that fed him.

Or something like that.

Things went hazy shortly after the pills had reached their destination, and Isaac's thought-processes gave way to sleep.

Zac awoke to a hard thud, a chance encounter between his head & the bedroom door. Sitting up, crawling foreward, and moving his bedding out of the way, he let in the source of injury - which turned out to be his father.

"Uh, hi Dad, I was just-"

Before Zac's imaginative mind could create a lie, his father interrupted.

"Aren't you boys getting a little too old for sleepovers?" Mr. Hanson nodded his head in the direction of sound-asleep Isaac. A sly smile crept across his face, as he backed up and left the room.

With a sigh of relief, Zac flopped down on the crumpled mass that at one point resembled his sleeping bag. Wincing, his hand instinctively reached for the back of head, which was now throbbing. Zac reluctantly stood and retrieved the bottle of Aspirin, which he had hidden in the bottom drawer of a desk, soon after Isaac dozed off.

As he open the bottle and shook two of the round tablets into his hand, Zac began to mumble/sing under his breath...