VERY IMPORTANT A/N: I KNOW THAT I HAVEN'T PUT ANYTHING OUT IN A WHILE, FOR THAT I AM SORRY, BUT REALITY HAD CALLED AND THINGS HAD TO BE TAKEN CARE OF.

CHAPTER FOUR

Feeling more awkward than ever, Slash reached up to ring the door bell as Kimber knocked on the front door and then opened it and walked on in. "Or we could do it that way."

SHe stopped in the entryway and looked at him. "It's my parents house, I don't have to ring the door bell. I just go in." Walking back over to him, she put her hands on his hips and looked into his face. "Just wait here for a minute. Okay? Just until I can find out what he said and think of the best tactics for the situation." Nodding he gently closed the door. Standing up on her tippy-toes, she placed a kiss on his lips. "Thank you. If I'm not back in three minutes, text me." Watching her walk farther into her parents house he pulled out his phone to check his email.

"Mom? Mom where are you?" Walking into the kitchen she found her mom and dad sitting at the table, she could hear her brother playing guitar hero in the living room. "Hey, what are you guys doing?" Her parents were giving her the 'we're very disappointed in you' look. "What's wrong?"

Her father cleared his throat. "You wanna clear up what your brother told us earlier?" The only thing that Kimber knew he had done recently was mess up her house.

"You mean about how he trashed my house while I was gone?"

Shaking his head her father looked down into his coffee cup, her mom put a comforting hand on his forearm. "We're refering more to the guy that your brother saw this morning."

Taken aback by that, Kimber sat down at the table. "He was at my house this morning?"

Her parents nodded and 'Um-Hmmed' in unison, before Sara continued. "He said that when he went in he saw a guy sitting at the counter with long hair and tattoes on his arms. So would you care to explain?"

"Uh yeah we've been together for four months and got married yesterday when I was in Vegas. I'm not moving untill I finish school though so he's going to be coming out to see..."

Her mother's eyes got huge and her father's face turned red with fury. "This is not a joke young lady."

"No it isn't." She placed her left hand on the table and showed them her wedding rings, her MOm grabbed her hand and brought it colser to her face. "Do you want to see the liscense?" Thomas nodded. She pulled the envelope out og her cjacket pocket and placed it in the middle of the table.

Her dad opened it and took the contents out and examined them, before he showed them to his wife. "Oh great he's fourty-seven. He's fourty-seven Sara, that name looks familiar though. Do we know him?"

"We didn't really want to tell you guys this way, but thanks to Eric .."

Thomas chose to interrupt her at that moment. "You're the only one telling us. What's going on with that? He not want to face us?"

Smiling sweetly Kimber responded. "No dad. I asked him to let me talk to you and find out what was going on, before I got him to come in. Can we all go into the living room please?" They nodded and got up. Kimber took a deep breath and went back to the front door.

When she got there Saul was standing there watching her. "How'd it go?" He closed the distance and wrapped his arms around her.

"It could have went better if Eric wouldn't have ran his mouth." Saul rubbed her back reasuringly. "Come on, we're all going to the living room to talk." Leaving the comfort of his arms, she led him throught to the living room. Where her parents were trying to get her younger sibling to turn the game off.

"I've seen her get into trouble before."

"Eric this is serious, your Father asked you to turn it off."

He didn't even look away from the screen. "Hey if she wants to sleep around let her. It'll just bite her in the butt later after she ends up knocked up and he disappears."

Her mother's mouth dropped open. "Eric Caldone! Just because you are mad because she wouldn't take you, not that you are even old enough to go, does not mean that you can take that out on us. You know that your sister can't have children. Now turn that off like we asked you to." He just shook his head defiantly. "That is it. You're no longer part of this discussion. Go to your room. Now!" He just continued to play the game.

Before Kimber knew what was going on Saul had crossed the room and switched of the TV as well as the game console. All he saw was the screen go blank, thinking that it was his father. "Hey I was about to do Welcome to the Jungle! You can not know how hard that is?"

"Do not speak to your parents like that. They asked you to do something. You shouldn't ignore them or be rude. You should just be doing it. You got it? And yes. I do know how difficult that song is, more than you could ever imagine." That was when Eric practically threw down the control and stomped out of the room, without looking at the person that had spoke. Turning around, Saul had the good graces to look a little remorseful. "Sorry for taking control of the situation like that. I can put up with alot of things from kids, but that's not one of them."

Kimber smiled and crossed the room, taking his hand and pulling him over to sit on the love seat with her, but he remained standing. "Normally I don't like confrontaions. I know that this conversation got started off on the wrong foot and I know how it looks, but believe it or not I do love your daughter. That being said."He reached over the coffee table to Shake Thomas' hand. "I'm Saul Hudson and going by the look on your face I guess you already know who I am."

Thomas was nodding. "Yeah. It's nice to meet you I'm Thomas and this is my wife Sara. The kid with the attitude problem is Eric."

"It's nice to finally meet you too." They released hands and he sat down by Kimber. "You have a lovely home. The rough cut lumber looks really nice in here."

Sara, who had been sitting on the couch by Thomas with her mouth agape in shock, finally pulled herself together. "Oh well, thank you. How did you meet Kimber exactly?"

"Oh that's kind of funny actually, we met on Facebook."

KImber was siting there looking between her parents and her husband as they continued the conversation without any input on her part. Saul did however put his arm around her letting his left hand rest on her shoulder with his thumb making circles in a soothing manner. Her parents demeanor had changed so quickly. She focused back into the conversation just as her mother continued.

"Well how long are you going to be in? Through Thanksgiving, I hope?"

"Yes, ma'am I don't need to head back for a couple of weeks."

Kimber watched in horror as her mother's face lit up. "Oh wonderful. You'll get to meet our oldest daughter Halen, her husband Bill and their daughter Auria. Along with all the rest of the clan."

Kimber quickly looked at Saul to judge his reaction to that news, only to find a genuine smile on his face. "Sound's like a party." Her face changed to that of pure confusion when her parents laughed at that.

This conversation was getting really weird. "Okay, did I walk through a looking glass or something, because you guys are acting really strange now. Well you're acting normal now compared to earlier in the kitchen. I mean I'm thrilled that you've calmed down, but in all seriousness, what flipped the switch?"

Her mother gave her the sweet loving smile that she's always given her for a job well done or when she was really proud of her. "The fact that we know you're going to be taken care of."

Kimber raised her eyebrows in question. "What are you talking about?" As soon as the words had left her mouth, it sounded like a herd of elephants were running down the stairs. Her brother burst into the room, not two seconds later.

"It's too quiet have you guys killed her yet?"

Every one turned to look at him and then turned back to their conversation after his jaw dropped and the color left his face. "So what did you mean mom?"

Her mother looked at her like she thought Kimber is wonderful, but something of an idiot. "Sweety, you really don't know who you married do you?"

"What do you mean? He's just Saul." She turned in her seat to face him. He was giving her the goofiest look. "What?"

"Kimber, do you know what he does for a living?"

SHe looked at her dad. "Yeah he's in a band or something."

"Let's go with the 'or something'. Okay hang on." He left the room and came back a few moments later with a laoptop. After walking around Eric, who has yet to move, Thomas sat back down on the couch by his wife and started typing on the laptop that he had just retreived. He spun it around and what Kimber saw floored her. It was pictures of Saul with his boys and Perla, obviously in California. He's holding a plack and standing behind a star on the hollywood walk of fame with the name Slash on it.

He spun it back around and pulled up an article. Then spun it back around. It was about the ROck and Roll hall of fame induction of 2012. Her husband was standing with three other guys along with the guys from greenday. "Oh. My. God. But you're just Saul."

He leaned down and pulled her to him using the arm that was already wrapped around her, and faced away from everyone to whisper in her ear. "And I am very grateful that you think of me like that." He pressed a kiss to her temple before sitting back and looked over at her brother. "Is he okay?"

Sara answered since her husband was to busy trying not to laugh at their daughter and said daughter was in shock. "I think he's just shocked. We all are."

Kimber glanced at he clock on her dad's computer. "Holy crap I have to go to work. Okay, so I still can't wrap my mind around this. It'll just have to sink in slowly."SHe turned and looked at Slash. "I don't even know what I'm supposed to call you now."

"Saul seems to be working good, but it's okay if every one else just calls me Slash."

He had said the last part for his parents benefit she knew. "Okay well, do you want to stay at the house or tag-along with me to work."

"I think I'll go with you. That way you can be there to tell your brother how to clean up his mess."

Kimber raised her eyebrows and nodded her agreement, then laughed at the way her brother's face went from colorless, to green in a second.

Sara, remembering what Kimber had said about her house earlier in the conversation, looked at her son. "Eric? What did you do?" She sat there patiently waiting for her son to formulate an explanation.

"I was mad."

Sara nodded. "Okay I understand that, but what did you do?"

His mouth dropped open to speak and quivered a little. "I thought I'd get even, so I...trashed her house."

"How?"

He wouldn't look at anyone. "I took some of our recycling and put it in her house. All over the living room and kitchen."

Her mother closed her eyes in carefully reigned in frustration. "So you're telling me that you trashed her house to get back at her for not taking you? So your sister and her husband/your new brother-in-law come back to a completely filthy house?"

Apparently his voice was just continuing to get smaller and smaller with every answer. "Yes ma'am. Wait Kim got married?"

That's when Kimber spoke up. "What I wanna know, is how you got a key to get in to begin with? Because I know that it was locked when I left and other than Mom and Dad, Cheyenne has the only other spare. I don't leave one outside Eric. Either way you can explain it to me later, because I have to go to work unlike you and then we have to go to the grocery store. Maybe by then you'll have thought of an intelligent response."

Slash had settled into Kimber's chair and was watching as she pluged in all of her styling tools and started leying out her other utensils.

Kimber went through a door at the back of the shop and came back with a laundry basket full of towels then dropped it at Slash's feet.

"Make your self useful."

Chuckling he did as she asked and folded the towels while she went to check the shops messages. "Hey Babe, will you go switch on the coffee pot for me?"

He nodded and stood up. "Yeah where is it?"

"It's in back with the washer and dryer." Kimber had put the towels in their rightful place, the cabinet over the sinks, then pulled out and opened her appointment book when Bridgette walked through the door. "Hey Kimber. How are you today?"

Kimber looked up and smiled at her friend. "I'm good how are you?"

"I'm good. Did you already get the towels?"

"Yeah. Oh... Mrs. Jenkins called." Bridgette paused in plugging in all of her stuff. "She decided to try something new this week. She wants to get a perm. Wanna flip for it?"

Slash had come back into the main room and dropped back down in Kimber's chair. "Who's flipping what?"

"Holy Crap!" The other lady that he assumed is Bridgette, Kimber's 'boss' jumped a good foot off of the ground. " Sorry. I didn't realize you already had a client."

Kimber didn't even look up from her book. "Oh that's not a client. That's my husband."

'Oh he's here? Well it's nice to meet..."Turning she stopped mid- sentence. "Holy crap."

"You're saying that alot today B."

"You look a lot like Slash. You're not him are you?"

He just smiled and picked up a magazine and without giving her an answer, began to flip through it. Accepting that he wasn't going to give her an answer, Bridgette changed topics." Oh Kimber, Tiffany called."

Kimber had been stocking the display case that houses all of the shampoos and things they sale. However, after hearing Bridgette's comment, she went to stand up a little too quickly and hit her hed on the top of the case, causing her to drop the bottle that she had been holding. Rubbing her head, she climbed out of the case carefully. "Oh, ow! Well, that was embarassing. Do I even want to know what she wanted?"

Bridgette gave her a sympathetic look. "She wants you to touch up her hair this morning. First thing. Before I cut and you frost her brother's hair."

"Kimber's face fell. "That's going to go over into lunch...with Tiffany and Roger all morning...Babe would you get me some more coffee please?"

After he Slash had walked out of the room, Bridgette stepped closer to Kimber. "They've still been giving you shit? Does he know?"

"Yes they have, no he doesn't and I'd really like to keep it that way. He has more important things to think about than some petty teenage twins trying to bully his wife. Besides I'm handleing it pretty well right now."

Their conversation got cut short when he came back into the room and handed Kimber her coffee. "Mmmm, Carmel I love you."

He rolled his eyes. "One would hope so. Okay so who is Tiffany? By the look on your face, something tells me that she can be hard to tolerate."

"Oh yes, very hard, but it is possible, barely." Kimber sat down in Bridgette's chair and exhaled. "Just so I know how long I have before the 'Queen of Ridgeway High' comes in, what time is it?"

Slash looked at his watch as Bridgette turned on the radio. "Like nine-forty five."

"Crap only fifteen minutes." Beautiful dangerouse came on the radio."At least a good song's playing. This girl sounds a lot like Fergie."

"That's because it is Fergie. She featured on the album and became pretty good friends with Perla...which can be kinda scary sometimes, those two can shop like no one's business." He jusmped as his phone started ringing, he pulled it out of his rear right pocket and checked the I.D. before he answered it. "Speak of the devil. Hey P what did the other doctor say?"

This caused Kimber to look up from her coffee in concern, but said nothing as he continued his conversation. "Damn. I know Cash isn't going to be too happy about being in it that long." Bridgette decided that this was something that she didn't need to be hearing and walked to the back room. "Yeah, just keep me posted. Tell him we'll skype later... Yeah tell them I love them... yeah I'll talk to you later...yes I'll tell her...okay bye." He hung up before anything else could be said on the other line. "Cash, being the invalid that he is at the moment, demanded that I tell you 'hi' for him so ... hi."

The bell above the door dinged and some one chatting away on a cell phone came on, they carried on their conversation. "Okay then tell him I say 'hi back' next time you talk to him. So why is he an invalid?"

"He was being Cash on his skateboard. The first doctor thought that it was just spraing. Then P took him for a second opinion and he deduced that Cash nearly shattered it. Then he gave him like a whole bunch of happy pills."

Kimber smiled and shook her head. "Oh Lord. Poor baby. Would you put this cup in the sink for me, babe?"

"Yeah, Perla says he's stoned out of his mind." He stood up and took the cup from her before heading to the back room.

Kimber started giggling and continued untill she heard that the person had finished their call and a voice that always reminds her of nails on a chalk board. "Uh are you going to do my hair or are you just going to sit there and laugh all day? Because I will call in a complaint."

Kimber's face fell and she closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath, before she plastered a fake smile on her face. "Hello Tiffany. How are you today?"

"Uh, I'll be great just as soon as get off your butt and get started on my hair." Kimber got stood up and turned to look at the door that Saul had went through hoping that he would find something and become distracted.

Kimber took a deep breath and got her drape from it's hook, grabbed a towel off of the basket on her station and waited on Tiffany to sit down. "So Kimber, how have you been without my brother? Lonely I'll bet. You know that no one else is going to want you. Especially after you're surgery. That big scar hip to hip... ha...sucks to be you." As soon as she sat down and Kimber had her drape set up, Roger, Tiffany's twin and Kimber's ex-boyfriend/dictator, came through the door. "Hey brother!"

"Hey sister...oh..Helllloooo Kimbi." He walked up behind her and kissed her neck before she could dodge him.

Slash had been standing in the sink area for a few moments just watching the whole interaction along with Bridgette. He didn't like where this was going and motioned for Bridgette to follow him in the back room. Once inside and out of ear-shot he turned on her. "Okay I know you know what's going on. So spill." He leaned up against the washer and crossed his arms over his chest.

Bridgette glanced over her shoulder and closed the door for more privacy. "God help me if Kimber finds out that I told you. These two have made Kim's life a living hell ever since she broke up with Roger the boy in there."

Slash cocked his head to the side. "When and why did she break up with him?"

"Well she broke up with him in May, because he kept pushing himself on her and told him that she wouldn't have sex till she got married and he got all aggressive so she broke it off. Of course him being completely controlling didn't help his case either. SHe had to have a hysterectomy soon after."

"I see. He's pissed and embarrassed. Now they're trying to make her feel like damaged goods." Bridgette nodded. "I'll be back about eleven with some lunch would you like anything?"

"No, I have Roger's appointment at eleven. I'll get my husband to bring me something. Thank you though."

"When I come back, I'll take care of this. You got my back huh?"

"Depends...is it illegal?"

"Nope."

"Absolutely! Count me in."

Kimber glanced at the clock, she had already finished trimming Tiffany's hair, and is now nearly done with her layers. Ten-thirty. "What color did we use last time? Butternut wasn't it?"

Tiffany gave her a disgusted look. "You're the stylist, you should know."

Kimber rolled her eyes. "I have not had nearly enough sleep to deal with this."

Roger looked up from staring at her butt. "What did you say Kimbi?"

"Don't call me that Roger. I'll be right back." She walked over to the counter and flipped through the box that holds all the clients cards. After finding Tiffany's she walked through to the back room and unlocked the cabinet that holds all the developer and dyes.

Finding what she needed, she headed back to her client mixing the products on the go. "Okay here we go." Kimber sat the bowl down on her cart and grabbed her foils, then began applying the product to her client's hair.

Kimber had a few more streaks to do when her cell phone rang. Bridgette walked over and handed Kimber her BluTooth. "This is Kimber."

"Hey babe I just got done picking up some chinese food, because I know that it's your favorite and am wondering if you want to do lunch?"

"You know what? Chinese would be really nice right now."

"Okay good, do you want me to bring it in or do you wanna go home to eat it?"

"Yeah I think we can go home and eat. That way I can make sure that Eric hasn't destryoed anything else."

"Haha Sounds good to me. I'll see you in a few. Love you."

"I love you to sweetie." Ignoring the looks that she was getting from Roger and his sister, Kimber ended the call, finishing the last streak and sat down her utinsils. "Okay, just have a seat underneath the dryer and theres water in the little mini fridge right beside it." Turning to Bridgette she waved ."I'm going to lunch Bridgette, you okay with this? You want me to bring you back anything?"

"Bridgette swmiled. "No thanks Hun, I'm good. I have David bringing me lunch. He should be here soon." Nodding and saying good bye, Kimber walked out the door and climbed into the black suv.