She carefully buckles her young daughter into the backseat of the SUV. Taking extra care in making sure the seat belt is in the correct position; not too high, not too low.

Once she's certain her daughter is safely secured, she shuts the back door and slides into the driver's seat. She adjusts the seat to the proper distance from the pedals, swivels the rear-view mirror to the right place, and then buckles her own seat belt across her lap. Turing on the ignition, she locks the doors before turning around and placing one hand on the headrest beside her. She watches a car whiz by, then puts the car in gear and slowly backs the large vehicle into the street.

Putting the car in drive she makes her way out of the neighborhood and towards the freeway. She sighs deeply and massages her temple with one hand. Having dinner with your parents shouldn't be this stressful. But when your parents had never really been married, and you had only just recently found out that they were together again…well, that tends to complicate things.

"Mommy, where are we going?" comes the innocent voice from the backseat. Catherine lifts her head to look at her daughter in the rear-view mirror.

"We're having dinner with your grandma and grandpa, remember Linds? I told you that earlier," Catherine replied sharply, turning her eyes back to the road. She was slightly annoyed that her daughter already didn't listen to her. The eight-year-old was not happy with that statement. Much like Eddie in that respect, she did not like being told that she had done something wrong. Lindsey crossed her arms over head chest, and turned to glare out the window.

Catherine glanced at her watch. 7:30? She thought to herself, how did it get to be that late already? She was supposed to meet her parents at the restaurant at seven. Glancing briefly at the seat beside her, she spotted her purse. Flicking her eyes back to the road, she reached one hand across to the passenger seat, fishing around inside her purse, blindly searching for her elusive cell phone. Finally she felt the cool plastic at her fingertips. Grasping it firmly she pulled it out and flipped it open with one hand. Without taking her eyes off the road, she found speed dial six and pressed it. She held the phone up to her ear. It rang; once, twice, three times before he picked up.

"Hello?" came the raspy voice.

"Sam, thank goodness," she checked quickly over her shoulder and changed lanes, "we got a little tied up at the house," Lindsey had been difficult about her dinner outfit, as always. Catherine had thought it was cute, Lindsey, apparently, had thought otherwise. As Catherine had found, when the dress came flying into the hallway with a disgusted scream. "I'm on the freeway now," she hoped he wouldn't be too upset. She heard him exhale softly on the other end of the line.

"Just glad to know you're okay Muggs," he said, sounding relieved.

"Oh, yeah, we're uh, we're fine. Sorry about this Sam, I just-" he cut her off.

"It's alright Muggs. Just get here safely, we can wait." Catherine was a little shocked at this, she'd never heard Sam be so…understanding.

"Okay, well, we should be there in about fifteen minutes," she estimated, looking at her watch. 7:34.

"See you in a few," Sam replied, then hung up. Catherine shut her cell phone and tossed it back into her purse. Catherine was struggling a bit to comprehend the tone of Sam's voice. So calm, and...caring. It's not that she thought he didn't care about her, it's just...well, most of the time he had a funny way of showing it.

Catherine was pulled from her thoughts as a small sports car cut her off. Looking around, she realized she had missed her exit.

"Damn it!" she swore, changing lanes quickly to make the next available exit. She heard giggles from the backseat.

"Mommy! You said a bad word!" Lindsey said, followed by more giggles.

"Not now Lindsey," Catherine replied sharply. She signaled, and turned the car to the off-ramp. She craned her neck to see the sign for the exit as it went overhead. Her heart sank, as she realized she had taken an exit that would take her to one of the worst parts of town.

"Shit," she swore again. More giggles could be heard from the backseat.