In the heat of the day, the boys found a way to keep cool. They were running around in their swim trunks, having a wild water balloon fight, trying their best to hit each other with the squishy projectile, making the most of those last sweet summer days.

Suddenly, a beige minivan came driving up and pulled into the driveway. Out stepped Mr. Slave from the driver's seat, wearing a simple polo shirt and khaki shorts, going over to the back passenger door and helping little Karen get out of the car.

"Thanks Henry." she said when she had both feet on the asphalt.

"Henry?" Cartman wondered to himself.

"Kenny!" Karen said, running up happily to her brother and giving him a hug, which he returned.

"Hey, Kiddo. You have fun at Tricia's house?" Kenny asked.

"I had a blast! We did all kinds of cool stuff. Craig even let us hold his guinea pig Stripe. He's so cute!", remembering the older boy's instructions on how to properly hold the tiny adorable creature.

"Well, I'll be sure to thank Craig next time I see him."

"Please do." Karen let go of her brother. "Hi, Kyle." She waved at Kyle.

"Hi Karen." Kyle waved back. Back when Mr. and Mrs. McCormick were first arrested, it had been Kyle who had insisted to his mother and father that Kenny and his siblings stay with them for a while. His parents had agreed and the McCormick children stayed at their resistance for a short time, until they found a foster couple in Big Gay Al and Mr. Slave, who after going through the approval process, took in the children. Kenny, Kevin, and Karen were all eternally grateful to the Broflovski family for their kindness in that dark time and now held a fondness for the whole family.

Karen turned back to Kenny, "I'm going inside now. I'll tell you everything later."

"Okay, see ya." Kenny waved goodbye as Karen skipped away inside.

He heard Mr. Slave laughing at his side. "Heh, she seems to have had a good time. Looks like you are too."

"Yeah." Kenny said.

"Well, I'll leave you boys to it." Mr. Slave started towards the house, then stopped and turned. "Did you boys leave towels by the door to dry off with?"

The chorus of um's and uh's told him what he needed to know. "There will some when you all come in."

"Thanks Mr. Slave."

When he had closed the door behind him, Cartman turned to Kenny and asked, "Henry?"

"Huh?"

"Your little sister, she called Mr. Slave Henry?"

"That's his real name, dude. I've told you that."

"I know that! What I wanna know is why she's calling him that? Mr. Slave's mom and dad aren't around." Cartman reiterated.

Kenny shrugged his shoulders and answered, "She thinks it's a nicer name than Mr. Slave. He says it's okay."

"Do you ever call him Henry?" Stan asked Kenny.

"No, not really, except when his parents were here and talking on the phone with them." Kenny responded.

"Why don't they like the name Mr. Slave again?" Cartman asked.

"Because it's too slutty. They don't like him being a slut. Kenny's already told us all this." Kyle explained.

"Well I'm sorry I can't memorize every single fucking word of every fucking conversation we have, Kahl!" Cartman snapped.

While Mr. Slave's parents loved and accepted the fact that their son was gay, they didn't love the fact that he was also a gigantic slut. They feared for him. They feared that with the sheer amount of men he slept with, something terrible was bound to happen. Like maybe he sleeps with someone already in a relationship and the cheated partner finds out and kills Mr. Slave in revenge ( they could see them standing over him with bloody knife in hand as his life slowly bleeds out, leaving a pool of scarlet blood all over the sheets and dripping onto the carpet. ). Or maybe he ends getting some horrible sexually transmitted disease like Syphilis, which can seem to have harmless symptoms at first but if left untreated, can turn into much worse, with debilitating, dangerous complications. Some of which include heart disease, brain damage, nervous system damage, which can lead to problems like blindness and dementia to name a few. Or maybe Mr. Slave hits on a guy who turns out to be a violent homophobe, who gets so angry that he rounds up some of his buddies and they take Mr. Slave to some remote field where they all beat on him within an inch of his life and leave him to die cold and alone where no one can hear his desperate cries for help. Mr. Slave's mother and father didn't care that their son slept with men, they cared that he slept with so fucking many of them.

That's part of why they loved Big Gay Al so much, for being a genuinely good guy who helped 'tame' their son into a loving 'monogamous' relationship ( Actually the two men had an open marriage but as of late with their new foster children, they had to put the open part on hold ). They did love him for more then that of course but they'd be lying if they said it wasn't an added bonus.

They also hoped that parenthood would further calm their wild child. That Henry and his husband's new responsibilities would make him stop and think more about his own safety for the children's sake. Maybe curb some of his more risky and raunchy stunts ( the less said about what Herold and Kate had the misfortune of stumbling upon over the years, the better ).

"It's just strange, knowing a real name for him. Henry Weatherly." Stan held his hands out like he was holding up an imaginary banner with the name written on it. "It's weird."

"Yeah, well. Imagine how weird it is knowing that you'll be sharing part of that name before you know it." Kenny pointed out. He and his siblings had been in foster care for five months at that point, almost half a year. When a full year passed, they would take their then adopted father's last name.

"Kenny Weatherly." Kyle said it slowly, getting a feel for the name. "I like it. What do you think, dude?" he asked Kenny.

"...It's fine, it's a nice name." Kenny said in a tone that his friend's had become all too familiar with, the one that signaled troubled thoughts that he was reluctant to share.

"Oh boy, what is it now?" Cartman's remark earned him a punch in the arm from Stan. "Ow!"

"What's wrong Kenny?" Stan asked while Cartman rubbed his bruised arm.

"...It's sounds insane."

"You promised you'd be more honest about your feelings with us. If something is bothering you, we want to know what it is so maybe we can help." Kyle said.

Kenny sighed, turned, then walked a short distance away. With his back turned to his friends, Kenny gave them his thoughts. "I've been Kenny McCormick my whole life. My parents gave me that name. And soon, part of it will be gone, replaced, and my mom and dad will officially be replaced as well." He turned back to his friends. "And they deserve it! For all the crap they put me and Kevin and Karen through, they deserve to be replaced by better parents. We deserve better. We deserve dads that don't spend all our money on scotch and then dare get angry at us when there's nothing left to buy food. We deserve to live in a home where we don't have to be around parents that are constantly at each other's throats. We deserve to not have to share our space with drug dealers that make deals with children for fucks sake!"

Kenny lowered the volume for the next thing he said. "And yet...and yet I feel guilty for letting them go."

"What?" was Cartman's dumbfounded response.

"It's like...it's like my mom and dad were holding us underwater, holding us down with chains, anchoring us to the bottom and slowly suffocating us. Now the chains are broken and we 're finally on the surface and can truly breathe and yet, they still can't and I feel guilty for that. I feel guilty for leaving behind, locked up in jail. I feel guilty for being happy while they're miserable."

"They fucking deserve to be miserable! You shouldn't feel guilty for dropping them like the dead weight they are for all the hell they put you through!" Cartman said with great conviction.

When Kenny didn't respond right away ( being quite stunned by his friend's impassioned statement ), Cartman went on to add, "They didn't give a shit about you so why should you give a shit about them?"

Finally, Kenny found his voice. "I...It's not that simple..."

"Why not!?"

"Because I still love them! And they love me, all of us!" Flashes of memories came to Kenny. Making his princess dress with his mom. Playing catch with his dad. Mom and Karen doing a sock puppet theater. Mom giving Kevin pep talks, saying that he was smart and don't let those assholes tell him otherwise. Dad carrying Karen on his shoulders when she got too tired to walk anymore. Dad and Kevin fixing the car, laughing over some dirty joke. Times could be good at the McCormick home, they were just shadowed by all the bad.

"...They sure had a funny way of showing it."

"I'm not saying they're saints but they're not monsters either! They could be loving and kind and...and that's the part I miss." Kenny swallowed a lump in his throat, then spoke in a strained voice. "I miss them. I miss my mom and dad."

Kenny walked over to the front steps and sat down. "Dr. Fugue says that it's okay to miss them, to still love them. It's okay to grieve the relationship I had with them, what I wish we had, as long I recognize that what we had in reality wasn't healthy."

Dr. Fugue was Kenny's new therapist and also Kevin's, Karen's and Tweek's ( Tweek's old therapist was exposed as a shitty therapist for not recognizing the emotional abuse Tweek was receiving from his parents or the fact that he was constantly tweeking ).

"I know they did horrible things. Like allowing violent drug dealers to stay on our property. Standing by and watching a little boy do business with those people, business that could have easily gone horribly wrong! One bullet and Tweek could have died! Karen could have been hit and died! Kevin could have! They put us kids in danger and didn't care! They didn't care...all they cared about was the rent money."

Kenny hid his face in his hands. "It feels so wrong, still caring about them but I do and I hate it." He looked up, staring right at Cartman, who along with Stan and Kyle had stepped closer to their friend. "I hate them. I hate them and I love them all at once and I wish I could just stop caring but I can't. I just can't." Kenny covered his face again and shook his head.

Stan walked over and sat down next to his friend and said in a gentle tone, "Look Kenny I...I know it isn't the same. Far from it but...I want you to know that I understand. I understand that feeling, loving and hating your mom and dad at the same time. I know mine haven't done the same shit as yours's but...what I'm trying to say is, I get what you're saying, dude, and I'm here whenever you want to talk about it."

"Ditto. We're both here for you, man." Kyle sat on Kenny's other side.

"Guys..." Kenny threw his arms around his friend's, giving them a tight squeeze. "Thank you." he added softly and warmly. Stan and Kyle returned the hug.

Cartman stood by for a moment or two, looking a bit lost, then said hesitant but still sincere, "I don't entirely get it but...if you want to cry some more and shit, I'm here too."

"Get in here, Cartman." Kenny said, motioning with his head. So Cartman came over and hugged Kenny's chest, completing the group hug. Kenny knew that Cartman cared too, he had seen it for himself plenty, especially throughout that year. It was just that when it came to emotional intelligence, his friend was a moron. So he couldn't get but so angry when he could see the genuine effort put in trying to comfort him, even when those efforts didn't go that well.

Though they were different, Kenny could also see similarities between his former home-life and his friend's current ones.

The feud between Gerald Broflovski and Randy Marsh started while Kenny and his siblings were staying at the Broflovski resistance. Gerald and Shelia tried to be amiable in front of the children but it was plain to see the great effort on both parts. The forced smiles, the stunted dialogue, the distance between them. According to Kyle, while they still tried not to argue in front of him and Ike, his parents barely spoke to each other otherwise. No kissing, no hugging, Gerald sleeping in his office every night, just distance was now the norm.

While Mr. and Mrs. Broflovski's relationship had gone cold, Mr. and Mrs. Marsh's was scolding hot, with years of pent up rage boiling over, burning to the third degree. Randy and Sharon didn't hide their disdain for each other, perfectly fine with directly insulting the other to their children, their friends, their children's friends, the UPS man, whoever was unfortunately around to hear them vent. Then when someone dared to suggest anything along the lines of marriage counseling or divorce, then the aggression would be directed at the unfortunate party, both Shelly and Stan ending up in that awful position more then anyone. They were clearly unhappy but unwilling to listen to any situations for that unhappiness, so the contempt and disgust was left to grow and fester and entangle themselves and those around them, all encompassing, smothering.

Kenny knew that Stan and Kyle understood his feelings.


Mr. Slave knew something was up when Kenny and his friends came back inside. Months of living together had taught him some of how to read the boy's body language, especially when he looked to be carrying the weight of the world on his little shoulders. So after everyone had gotten dried off and changed and the other boys went home, he asked what was the matter and Kenny told him how he missed his mother and father and still loved them, shitty parents as they were.

Herold and Kate Weatherly had their opinions about some of their son's life style choices but at the end of the day, they were still loving and decent parents that Mr. Slave was eternally grateful for. So he couldn't relate with Kenny's parent problems, not really, but he still tried to understand. He wanted to understand.

Karen had already told him and Al more then once about how she too missed their mother and father and even before that, Mr. Slave had other experience with someone he cared for venting to him about their abusive parents. He had found that just listening and letting the other person talk was the best way he could offer comfort for that kind of situation. So he did just that, listening and letting Kenny do the talking.

Karen walked in on them like that, sitting on Kenny's bed, surrounded by balled up tissues, Kenny clinging to Mr. Slave's shirt, which he was staining wet with tears and mucus. Mr. Slave with his arm protectively wrapped around Kenny, gentle hand on his small shoulder. There was a lull in the conversation, Kenny's voice tired from talking so much and Mr. Slave silently there.

"Kenny?" Karen asked with concern.

Kenny looked up. Oh God, how much had she heard?

She walked over and joined them on the bed.

"I miss them too." she said, the longing and regret in her little voice liable to make both Kenny's and Mr. Slave's hearts shatter right then and there. Kenny hugged his sister, which she gladly returned. Mr. Slave wrapped his other arm around Karen and gave both children a gentle squeeze, completing the hug.