Donny had a lot of side work. Sometimes, Lincoln did more of that than washing dishes. Every week like clockwork, he took a pizza box full of money to the same house. Every time, the same man answered. "This is from Donny," Lincoln would say, and hand him the box. After the third time, the man started tipping him. A ten here, a twenty there. Lincoln never knew what it was until he was in the car, because you never look a gift horse in the mouth. That was fast becoming one of his mottos. Geez, he had a lot of them nowadays.

Donny's was closed on Sundays. One Saturday in the middle of July, Donny asked Lincoln to come in anyway. Lincoln raised his eyebrow curiously but agreed. He showed up at eight like usual and found Donny in his office off the dining room, a pair of reading glasses on his nose. "Hey, Freddie," he said, looking up. "You wanna work?"

Of course he did. He said as much, and Donny smiled. "Alright, here's what I need you to do..."

Lincoln spent a good part of the afternoon driving around the city with a pizza box. He would go to the door of an address Donny had indicated, knock, and hold out the pizza box. "Donny," he'd say, and whoever came to the door would put money into the box. Only one person refused, a big black guy living in a motel room near the freeway. "I don't have it," he said and slammed the door. In the car, Lincoln put a check next to his name just like Donny told him. Lincoln wasn't stupid, he knew something fishy was going on, but bills were due, and if they didn't pay, the power company would shut off their electricity; the thought of his pregnant girlfriend sweltering in a dark apartment disturbed him. It may have been the year 2022 and people may look at gender roles differently, but he was the man and as far as he was concerned, if he couldn't provide for his family, well, then he wasn't a man.

At the end of the day, Lincoln parked the delivery car in the alley behind Donny's and went in through the back. He found Donny standing at the counter and talking to three men sitting on barstools. They were rough looking but wore designer suits. Lincoln's stomach twisted and he started to sweat as he walked up.

They looked like gangsters.

"Hey," Donny said happily when he saw Lincoln. He threw out his arms and hugged him, shocking him. "You have a good day?"

"Y-Yeah, pretty good." He handed Donny the box and then pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket. "One...one didn't have any money."

Donny's brows raised. "He didn't, did he?"

Lincoln squirmed. He did just what Donny said. Was Donny mad at him? "N-No."

"Sounds like he needs someone to convince him he does," one of the men said. He was youngish with a crooked nose and slicked back hair. The guy next to him was older, thinner, with steely gray hair and cold blue eyes. "I bet he has something, and something's better than nothing."

"You did alright, kid," Donny said and patted Lincoln's arm. He took a bill out of his pocket and pressed it into his hand. "Now go home to that girl of yours."

Outside, Lincoln took the bill out of his pocket and looked at it. 100 dollars. 100 dollars for half a day's work.

At home, Luan was taking a nap. Instead of waking her, he took a shower. He sent his mind back over the day's work. A part of him wanted to deny that he knew what he was doing, but he couldn't. He didn't know exactly, but he knew it wasn't innocent. He remembered the men Donny was talking to when he came back to the restaurant. He thought they looked like gangsters.

With the hot water pounding on his head, he had a realization.

They were.

He thought of all the extra money he'd made over the past few weeks, and he had another realization.

He didn't give a shit.

When he got out of the shower, Luan was sitting up in bed. She smiled when he came in. "Hey," she said, "how was work?"

Lincoln shrugged as he sat on the bed next to her. "It was alright."

"What'd you do?"

He hated to lie to her, but something told him he had to. "Deep cleaning."

"That sounds fun."

"It wasn't," he said, and grinned, "but I got it done."

"Well, I'm proud of you."

She leaned forward and they kissed, their tongues meeting and caressing. It had been four years since he and Luan shared their first kiss, and each one since was just as powerful, just as intense. Lincoln touched her face and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him against her; they tumbled back on the bed, their kissing more urgent, more hungry. She slid down her shorts and unzipped his jeans with expert hands. He pulled them down and pressed himself against her moist opening, burying his face in the crook of her neck as he pushed into her. She let out a gasp and wrapped her legs around his waist. She lifted her hips to meet his thrusts, her sighs rising until she was panting heavily. Her silky walls constricted against him, and he moaned, then kissed her bare neck and shoulder.

"I love you, Lincoln," she said as she approached her climax. "Uhhh, I love you!"

"I love you too, Luan," he wheezed. His orgasm was rapidly forming in his loins like hot lead. He swelled against her walls and she bit her lower lip to stifle a scream. He held back as long as he could, but finally, nature won out, and he poured his love into her. Her legs tightened around him and she grabbed handfuls of his shirt. She moaned long and low, bringing her hips up again and again as he filled her.

When it was over, he rolled off and lay next to her, fighting to catch his breath. She took his hands and laced her fingers through his.

"I love making love with you, Lincoln," she said.

"I love it too," he smiled.

"Making babies," she grinned and turned to him.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Better. This morning after you left was really bad. I puked three times and passed out." She chuckled. "This little guy or gal likes making mommy sick."

Every time she referred to herself as mommy or to him as daddy, a dreamy smile crossed his face. It was all still so surreal. He was going to have a baby with the woman he loved, a little boy or girl that was a combination of them, a testament to their dedication to one another. He couldn't wait to hold it in his arms.

"He or she's stubborn like mommy," Lincoln said.

Luan slapped his arm. "Like daddy."

"I'm not stubborn," he said.

"Yes, you are," Luan said.

"Okay, maybe I am a little," he admitted.

"Yes you are."

She rolled over and they kissed. Then she climbed onto him and they made love again, slower this time, more tender. They held hands and rode out their pleasure together, and for that moment, nothing else mattered.

Lynn Loud Sr. waited each day to hear from David Stone. He knew that the detective would not call every single day, but it could come at any time: When the phone would ring, his heart would stop, and he would imagine picking up the handset and putting it to his ear, into which Stone would utter three simple words: I got them. Through July, those words did not come. Stone would check in, explain that he hadn't found anything, and that would be that. "I'm close, though," he would say, "I can feel it."

Lynn tried to distract himself from the constant anticipation in his chest. He fixed the siding, cleaned the shed, and cleaned out both the basement and the attic. His daughters came and went. Lynn returned from Albany and helped him carry boxes from the basement to the curb; Lana helped him replace a frazzled light fixture in the upstairs hall; and Leni swept the attic while he arranged and rearranged boxes. He was glad for their company. He loved each of them with all of his heart and loved it when they spent time with him. Soon enough, they would start lives of their own and they wouldn't have time for Dad. It was the course of nature, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant to think about.

He hoped Stone found Lincoln and Luan soon. Each day that passed, the ache in his chest grew until one day, he imagined it would kill him, literally kill him. How much stress and grief can one heart stand? He didn't know, but people had endured worse than him, so he figured a lot. The only thing was: Lynn was soft. He knew it. It didn't bother him because that's how he'd always been, it was his way. Being soft, though, meant he could stand less pain than some. He barely made it through the past two years, and just when he was beginning to think he was coming to grips, Amber Paulson called Lynn Jr. with the news that she found Lincoln and Luan...in California, where Lynn had suspected they were since that summer day two years ago when Wayne DiRosario assured him that's where they would go. He hoped she was right. Getting his hopes up only to have them dashed would end him.

Leni enjoyed being home with her siblings. During the day while her parents were at work, she took the van and brought them to fun places. The lake, the ice cream parlor, the mall, the museum. By the middle of the month, she made a decision: She wanted to start a family of her own, and soon. That was a big deal, and she knew she couldn't just jump into it. She had been with Kevin for over a year and really liked him, but was he ready? Would he think it was too soon? She didn't know, and she wouldn't see him for another two months, a long, agonizing wait. If he was ready, then they would try as soon as possible. Leni liked working at the fashion magazine, but she wanted a baby more than anything now; everything else could take a flying leap for all she cared.

Family, Leni knew, is the most important thing in the world. Nothing can compare. Looking at her siblings, she felt so much love and comradery that she couldn't help but want a big family herself with lots and lots of kids who would be close and play together and love each other the way she and her siblings loved each other. The thought brought a dreamy smile to her face. Yes. She wanted that very much. How could one have anything but that?

She hoped her kids were like her siblings: They were all so unique and, like, their own person, and she loved each and every one. She liked painting Lola's nails and talking about glitter; she liked playing in the dirt with Lana; she liked learning things from Lisa. She never liked science in school, but now she was able to appreciate how cool it was. She didn't understand a lot of the more complicated stuff, but the basic stuff was neat. She liked having tea parties with Lilly and watching football with Lynn. Lynn was so passionate, it was cute. She'd yell at the TV and jump up and down when her team made a score.

Being with them, however, only served to spotlight the two empty spaces where Lincoln and Luan should have been. It had been so long since she heard one of Luan's puns, and what she wouldn't give to play a video game with her brother. Just one video game.

She wanted them to come back. Dad said they thought they were in L.A. and they had a cop looking for them, which gave Leni hope, but she remembered all too well the cops looking for them in San Francisco and finding nothing. They all got so hopeful only to be let down. She didn't want that to happen again. She wanted Lincoln and Luan to come home and tell her jokes and play games with her. She bet they had a lot of interesting stories about their life in California. Oh, and about that crazy guy who tried to run them off the road and got in a shootout with them. That was like something from a movie. They had a video of Lincoln shooting the guy, and she wondered how that affected him. He was always so nice and sensitive, she bet it really bothered him. Poor Lincy. If she could she would throw her arms around him and tell him he only did what he had to do and not to be sad, because he was home and everyone loved him so much.

As long as he and Luan weren't here, their family would be incomplete. Her family would be incomplete because her kids would never know their uncle Lincoln and their aunt Luan. And if Lincy and Luan had kids of their own, hers would never know their cousins. Their family would never be as close as they were growing up, and that was depressing. They all had such a beautiful relationship, and she wanted her kids to have the same not only with each other but with their cousins as well.

Wherever you guys are, please come home soon.