Hello Animal Kingdom-ers! Thanks for opening up this story and taking a chance on it with the shitty summary I wrote for it, hopefully I can come up with something better soon.

Anyway, this is my attempt at a fic for this awesome show, so hopefully you enjoy. Leave me a review and let me know what you think.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING FROM THE TV SHOW.

xoxo- Lus

It was only 9:30 when the large cargo ship finally pulled in to the San Diego harbor and Dez couldn't have been more relieved to be back on dry land after spending the last week at sea with a bunch of men she didn't know, some of which did not speak English. She could feel the exhaustion start to creep in from all the nonsense she had endured specifically over the last 6 months. To put it lightly, the backpacking trip she had gone on a year and a half ago through Central and South America had not been kind to her and she had somehow found herself caught up in a whirlwind of shit that ultimately left her with very little money, no identification, no way of communicating to her family and a case of anxiety like she had never felt before.

"Here's your bags Senorita." Ramon, one of the workers from the boat said to her as he dropped 2 large duffle bags at her feet. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a sympathetic nod. "Thank you." She paused. "For everything. Especially getting me on the boat with the crew. I'll find a way to repay you." Dez said to him, placing her arms around his shoulders into a tight hug. She meant every word. Ramon hadn't known her prior to her boarding the cargo ship only the brief run in they had with each other in a small market in Guadalajara. He had sensed she needed help and offered her some food, to which she declined but asked for information on how to get across the border without identification. It had been a strange thing of an American to ask but he was smart enough to realize that she was in a jam. From there he vouched for her with the ship's captain and was allowed passage on to the vessel. She was thankful to him and the entire crew for that matter.

Ramon looked at her, sympathy still lingering in his eyes. "You don't need to repay me for anything." He smiled. "Just take care of yourself and get home safely to your family." Dez smiled back and said her final goodbyes, the weight of his last words to her sitting on her shoulders.

Get home safely to your family. Dez didn't really have a family, all she had was the Cody's. They were her surrogate family after her mother decided to join the Peace Corps or whatever hippie shit she had gotten into when Dez was 13. Her mother had left her in Smurfs care only sending for her daughter for the holidays and summer vacations. Dez hadn't minded it when she was growing up, at the time she was head over heels in love with Deran and he seemed to share the same sentiment, until they were 16 when she found out that he was into boys. That put a huge pitchfork into things, but she loved Deran and he had been scared shitless to even tell her his secret. She remembered so vividly telling him that nothing had to change, she would still be his girlfriend for as long as he needed her to be in front of his family and when he was ready to tell them, she would be right there.

Of course, in the meantime, she had allowed her eyes to wander up the Cody line right to Craig, one of Deran's older brothers by 2 years. However, that was a secret she kept exclusively to herself although sometimes she was sure that Craig felt the same way.

Dez inwardly groaned, she needed to get to a phone to call Deran to come get her from the harbor, which she was dreading because she knew that once he saw her they would be playing 21 questions. She groaned again as she pulled her hat over her eyes a little more and headed for one of the local shops to use their phone. Let's get this over with.

It only took 15 seconds to remember that she hadn't committed her faux boyfriends phone number to memory and the only number she could remember was the house phone. Dialing the numbers slowly, Dez said a silent prayer that Smurf wouldn't pick up. She definitely wasn't up for getting grilled by her surrogate mother. After a few rings, someone finally picked up but the voice on the other end wasn't one that she recognized.

"Hey, I don't know if I have the right number but I'm looking for Deran." She was confused, the voice sounded like that of a teenager but why would some kid be at the Cody house? "He's gone, he won't be back until about noon. Can I get your name and have him give you a buzz when he gets back?" The kid said. She was relieved to know that she had the right number but the relief slowly slipped away when she looked at the time. It was barely 10. She would have to wait a few more hours to get picked up from where she was.

"Yea, tell him it's Dez and that he can call me at Gorgio's Diner on PCH" She said looking over her shoulder at some of the patrons that had entered the tiny eatery.

"Some chic named Dez." The kid said repeating her name. She heard someone speaking to the kid in the back ground the muffled sound of someone asking him who was calling the house phone and why did he answer it. She rolled her eyes, only the Cody's got paranoid about people calling their house. "She said she's calling for Deran." The kid said to whoever he was talking to.

"Dez, is that you?" She could feel her heart pounding at the sound of the voice on the other end of the phone, a small smile creeping across her lips. Craig.

"Yeah, it's me." She said breathlessly, she hadn't realized it until that moment how happy she would be to hear a familiar voice after the year she had been through. The familiar voice being Craig's made it all the more satisfying.

"Damn girl!" She could tell he was smiling through the phone. It was one thing she loved about Craig, he smiled more than he should have considering his families dealings and you could hear the smile in his voice, even when he was on the other end of a phone. "It's been forever." He spoke again, his deep baritone voice sending a chill down her spine. "Where are you calling from now? Ecuador?" He asked curiously.

"Actually no. I'm looking for Deran." She gave out quickly. "I uh.. I'm back in town. I'm home" She stammered.

"You're home?" Craig questioned. He seemed just as lost about that fact as she was. A large part of her wasn't entirely sure that she should have been telling Craig that she was home, as she was still unclear on whether or not she was still being hunted down like a wild animal and the fear of getting more people than necessary involved in her shit more prominent than anything else. But the Cody's were her family and she had nowhere else to turn, if anyone could handle the mess she had wound up in, it was them. Or at least that was what she hoped and desperately clung to.

"Yea. It's a long story." She said clutching the phone a little more tightly and looking over her shoulder, a habit she had picked up on her travels.

"Well, are you at the airport or something?" He quizzed. "I'll come and pick you up."

It took about twenty minutes after hanging up with Craig for Dez to see his car pull up alongside the diner she was currently seated out front of. She smiled and grabbed her bags as she began to walk towards the green jeep he and Deran sometimes shared. Craig hoped out and jogged to the passenger side of the car, scooping Dez up into a hug that only he knew how to give. "I fucking missed you Dez!" He boasted, pulling her into another hug, this one a little gentler than the one before. He looked down at her, his eyes hungry as they always seemed to be when he stared at her. She shook her head.

How was this happening already? She wondered.

Craig always flirted with her, sometimes even in front of Deran, that was nothing, but over the years his flirtations had gotten bolder. He constantly made a point to make things uncomfortable for her, almost like he knew that her relationship with Deran wasn't real. It was that or he really was only trying to get a rise out of the two of them. He was never shy about making lewd comments about her body or having sex with her, again those comments were nothing and she easily brushed them off, although deep down she didn't want to, it was when he did things like stand too close and just stare at her or on the rare occasion that they were alone, he would stand behind her and whisper how beautiful she was in her ear. It drove her crazy because at times she wanted nothing more than to just take him up on those offers or just spend one night in bed with him, pretending that the world they coexisted in didn't exist at all.

That was likely to never happen though. To everyone in the family, Dez and Deran as a couple were for life and unless one of them died or Deran came out to his family, that would remain the same.

Craig grabbed Dez's bags and threw an arm over her shoulder and pressed a kiss to her temple, "Let's get you home." He said as he tossed her bag in the backseat. She smiled and climbed in the car after him, a rush of excitement surging through her body. She was finally home, and it felt good. As they drove off Dez allowed her eyes to wonder over to Craig. He wasn't smiling, but he seemed happy. "See something you like?" He smirked.

She laughed. "I'm sure you think so." She said as she placed her arm on the car door and rested her head in her fist. It never took long for her to start to think about her troubles, somehow they always seemed to creep up whenever she found herself relaxing.

"So, are you going to tell me why I had to pick you up from the pier and not from an airport? Or why no one seemed to know that you were coming home today?" He asked seriously. Her body tensed as the words fell from his lips, of course he would be curious about why she was back so secretively but she hadn't expected him to want to know so soon.

"Not today." She sighed. She had hoped that her arrival would cause enough excitement to not ask questions right away, but not with this Family, especially Craig. Most people wrote him off as a dummy, someone who was too stupid and too strung out on drugs constantly to ask questions, but Dez knew different of him. He was fearless and he was calculating, he saw things most people didn't but always kept it to himself.

"How bad is it?" He asked quizzically

Dez sighed again. The level of bad was nothing she could describe, she was being hunted down by a Brazilian Drug Cartel for money that she didn't have and didn't take to begin with. How does one even begin to explain that to someone? She wondered. "Bad enough that I had to ditch my passport and cell phone six months ago, barter my way through Central America and give up my last $400 to get on to a cargo ship in Mexico to get here." She said in an exhausted tone.

"Shiiiiitttt!" Craig dragged. "You'll tell me tomorrow then." He spoke firmly as he looked at her to assert that he was serious. Dez only nodded in response. "I'm sure once Deran, my mom and brothers see you there won't be any time for us to talk." He said as he pulled into the driveway of the compound.

And I'll just stop there for now. Next chapter Dez will see the whole family, you'll get to see her relationship with Deran and Smurf and she'll meet J. Lot's of fun for the next chapter. Still trying to decide if I am going to include the Craig and Nikki relationship.

Any thoughts on that?

let me know in the review section!