"Rod, Nicky, what's this?"

The two men looked up from the TV to see 13-year-old Moses holding an extremely dusty cardboard box that was about the size of Moses himself.

Moses wrinkled his nose and looked like he was about to sneeze from all the dust. "I found it under Nicky's bed," said Moses, plopping the box on the floor in front of them. A cloud of dust mushroomed from the box.

"Did I put that there? I don't remember... lemme see," said Nicky, waving away the dust. He bent down and lifted away the box's flaps. He peered inside, and, for the first time in a long while, his face broke into a huge smile.

It's been years since I've seen Nicky smile that happily. Whatever was in the box must mean a lot to him. Maybe it was that Gameboy he lost all those years ago when we first moved in. And his laptop. And all his college books. And his old cellphone which he claimed to have the numbers of hundreds of hot girls.

"Rod... it's... it's..."

I sighed. "What is it, already, Nicky?"

"Pictures!" cried Nicky happily, plunging his hand into the box and lifting out a fistful. "Pictures! Of when everyone was still here! Look! There are hundreds! I thought I lost these years ago! I remember now! I was too lazy to put them into an album, so I got everything and dumped it all into this box!"

Nicky laughed and rifled through the pictures in his hand. He laughed again, throwing the pictures to me and going back to the box for more.

I looked through the pile Nicky had given me, and felt a laugh bubbling up my own throat. I looked at Moses' delighted face, as he reached into the box with Nicky, the two of them pretty much ripping the box between them.

Most of all, they were both laughing. It had been a long time since there was this much laughter in the house. Not since everyone left.

I let my laugh come loose too, and joined them, tearing away at the box and digging through the pictures. It was like Christmas. Maybe even better.

Hours later, we had finally demolished the box, and were now sitting in a sea of pictures, a little sea of memories. Moses was lying on his stomach, grabbing random pictures and looking at them.

Nicky and I were sitting against the couch, looking through piles that we grabbed, while Nicky kept up a steady flow of commentary.

"This was at Around the Clock... oh, but you were at home. You said you had to work. But you really should have come. Even Trekkie did. Lucy was awesome, but then again, you might not have enjoyed it that much ya know... and oooh! Look! These are from Brian and Christmas' wedding! And this one was at the Fish Aquarium! I went there with Kate, we almost didn't go cause she said she had jury duty, but I convinced her otherwise... and oh, this one! This was when we took Princeton out... but you weren't there, were you? Nope, I think you were at work. And you were mad at me then, too... oh, and look at this one! Do you think this is a guy, or a girl? I said it was a guy, but Brian said it was a girl..."

And on and on and on.

I nodded, not really listening to his words, but more to the sound of his voice, savoring the nasal quality, and the way it would go up an octave when he got especially excited about a picture, or would lower slightly when the picture was an embarrassing one.

I smiled and put my arms around Nicky's shoulders, and for once, he didn't squirm or jerk away. Instead, he leaned back a little and continued his rambling. I felt tears well up in my eyes as I looked from the picture -one that Princeton had taken during Brian and Christmas' wedding- to Nicky.

"Nicky, do you remember what Princeton wanted to do? He wanted to make a show about his journey to finding his purpose, right?"

Nicky looked up from a picture of Christmas beating the crap out of Brian, his eyebrow raised. Moses looked over and gaped.

"Daddy wanted to make a show?"

"Yeah, he did," said Nicky to Moses. He turned to me. "What about it?"

I smiled. "I think it's about time that show became a reality."

Nicky laughed. "Yeah. And let's name it... Princeton's Purpose. Very alliterate."

I was about to agree, but somehow, I thought it should be more than that.

"No," I said, standing up and wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. "Let's call it..."

I paused, unable to think up a name.

"Call it what, Rod?" asked Nicky from down on the floor.

"Um..." I turned, and happened to notice the signpost outside the window. Avenue Q, it said. Home, it meant. Home to the dreams of so many. Home to the beginnings. Home.

I smiled.

"Let's call it Avenue Q."

This fic was written for The I, an anonymous reviewer that said:

...What if Nicky and Rod told Moses about Princeton's idea of putting the events of avenue Q into a show, and Moses decided to make that HIS dream, creating the musical as we know it and thereby immortalizing Avenue Q, even though the real thing has died?

Well, here you have it, The I. I hope you liked it... or found it, at the very least.

Moses is my character from "Til Our Dreams Come True". He's Nicky's and Rod's adopted son, and the offspring of Kate of Princeton.