Hello guys,

I know it has been a while... More than 4 years actually...

Anyways, all I wanted to do is to let you know that I am going to revive this story and maybe actually finish it this time around.. ;)

I will start by publishing an improved repost of the already existing chapters. The plot will not change. I really want to correct a few things now that I am no longer 15 and my English skills... Well, I like to think that they've improved, now that I am almost 20... Not that I would actually dare to bet on it… We'll see... ;) So, rewriting the old stuff to get back into the whole thing seems to be a logical choice.. :)

Updates will probably still be slow. I know that at some point, I had the whole story planned out but the plan only ever existed in my 15-year-old brain and it got lost somewhere in there, so I'll have to do some digging around and come up with new things. Still, I am determined to do this, partly because even after such a long time, somebody recently added this story to their favorites (Thank you, Kelbell347!) and I still can't believe that anyone would even take the time to read what my teenage brain came up with, and partly because I am on a personal mission to prove a point to myself... ;)

I really hope that a few of you are still around and will enjoy what I am going to do here... ;)

A huge thank you and kisses to everyone who ever read this story or even reviewed or favorited it!

You are awesome and I don't deserve your kindness!


"Thanks a lot, Carolyn! I have no idea what we'd do without you! I'll pick him up tomorrow!" Samantha Sloan called out while she was already leaving the Shepherds' garden without even looking back at her two-year-old son. Carolyn Shepherd sighed and kissed little Mark's cheek as he watched his mother disappear around the corner.

After she was out of sight, Carolyn carried the boy into the living room where her own son Derek was playing. He was just a few months younger than Mark and they had known each other for almost all their lives. (At the age of two, this didn't mean a lot, but it was still true…)

Mark spent almost every other day (and night, for that matter) at their house because his parents often had to work at night. When they had some time off, Clayton and Samantha Sloan went out instead of spending time with their little son. Since they were neighbors, Carolyn had soon found out about the fact that most of the time, little Mark was alone with his chain-smoking, underage nanny, so she had offered to look after the boy herself instead.

Mark had been very shy at first and seemed to be afraid of every kind of physical contact but Carolyn treated him like her own son and soon, he was one of the most adorable kids she knew.

Carolyn's mother, who sometimes visited to help with housework, often found her daughter asleep with her arms wrapped tightly around Derek and Mark, who were also sleeping peacefully. Nobody would've ever suspected that one of the boys wasn't originally part of the Shepherd family, if it hadn't been for his looks. While Derek's eyes were of a bright shade of blue and his dark hair was slightly curling when it got longer, Mark's hair was straight and much lighter and his eyes were a cool shade of grey. Not to mention the fact that he was much taller and less skinny than his younger friend. But still, Carolyn considered little Mark her son and Derek, when he was old enough to understand those things, would come to love him like a brother…