"Mama?"

"Yes Thomas?" Elsie replied as she tapped her fingers onto the steering wheel of her SUV.

"Where are we going again?"

"To a counselor that will help our family."

"What kind of help?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Your Father and I have decided to do this so we all can sit and talk with each other as a family without arguing."

"Oh." Thomas said softly. "Are you and Papa getting divorced?"

"Why would you ask that?"

"My friend George from school said that his parents went to see a counselor then they got divorced."

"Thomas, not everyone that goes to counseling gets divorced. Counseling is the last thing couples do before they decide to not want to be together anymore. Some people work things out with the things that they learn while they're there, some people can't work things out."

"Will you and Papa work things out?"

"Dear, that's for me and your Father to worry about."

"What if..."

Elsie cut the eight year old off. "Thomas Charles, one more question and no dessert after dinner tonight."

He huffed, folded his arms and slouched in his seat in the back. Elsie smirked as she looked back at him in the rear view mirror. "We're meeting your Father and your sisters there. He picked them up from school. You can ride home with him and ask him questions all you want."

"Thanks Mama!" Thomas exclaimed.

"You're very welcome, Dear." Elsie said laughing.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Tell me about yourselves Carson family." Their counselor, Mrs. Mason said as she looked at them.

Elsie cleared her throat. "Well I'm Elsie. Would you like the children to introduce themselves?"

"If they like."

Elsie looked at them. Her youngest daughter rolled eyes and looked at the counselor. "I'm Gwen. I'm twelve years old."

"It's nice to meet you Gwen." Mrs. Mason smiled. She then looked at the eldest. "What about you?"

"I'm Anna. I'm sixteen." She replied timidly. Elsie had been worried about Anna for a while now. Around New Years, she completely changed from a very outgoing, loving and happy girl to a very quiet, tense and always wanting to be alone. Elsie had never seen Anna be like this.

"Thank you Anna." She turned to the youngest.

"I'm Thomas. I'm eight years old. I'll be nine in two weeks."

"Oh wow! That's very old, Thomas."

"Not as old as my Papa." Thomas smiled turning towards his Father.

"Thanks Thomas." Charles said gruffly, getting a giggle out of his son.

"You're welcome, Papa."

"I'm Charles."

"It's very nice to meet you all. Now let's get started. Why are you here?"

"Mama said that Papa and her want to get divorced."

"Thomas, I said no such thing."

"You did to Mama. On the way here, you said that people that go to counseling come here to get divorced."

"That's one way of bringing it up." Charles said softly, mostly to himself but Elsie had heard him.

"What do you mean by that?" She said sharply.

Charles flinched visibly. "I was going to bring something up when we were alone so the children didn't over hear."

"What would that be, Charles?" Elsie asked.

"I'm not going to say it while they're here."

"They're going to find out regardless if they're here or not."

"Very well!" Charles gave in. "I have to marry Alice."

Elsie was shocked. "Why do you have to marry your secretary?"

"I have to marry her because she's pregnant!" He exclaimed throwing his arms up. They whole office was silent. Everyone was looking at Charles except for Anna, who had her head down.

"I thought Anna was pregnant." Everyone then turned their attention to Thomas.