(A/N: I'm glad everyone is enjoying this. Seeing everyone's positive feed back is good motivation, so keep reading and reviewing. Now that I'm back from my break, let's get down to it. And if you didn't know already, this story is based off of the 80's and 90's incarnation of the chipmunks. One last thing, some readers might want to go back and re-read Chapter 9, its been modified somewhat.)

CHAPTER 10:

LETTING IT ALL SINK IN

THE EVENING AFTER THE ANNOUNCEMENT (MAX'S POV):

Remember the thing I said about the days you'll never forget? Well today topsmy list. I never in my wildest dreams thought for a second that Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor were family by blood. But now that I think about it, we all bonded within the first few hours of our first meeting. I just thought that because they where so young, they looked to me as a father figure. I don't remember much about my father, and they probably don't either, so I can't tell which attributes of him they have.

That's not the only thing, I wonder about the girls and what they must be feeling right now. They just learned that the man they casually refer to as "big brother", IS their real big brother, albeit half brother. Not only that, they learned that their mother sent them to the home of their sole remaining relative when she knew that her life was coming to an end, instead of leaving them to fend for themselves in the outback. I saw them crying when I told them, whether they were tears of joy or sadness I don't know, but it was enough for me to start welling up as well.

What I did know is that I needed time to process all of this. So I went in the basement studio with my guitar. It's 9:00pm now, and I'm half way through playing the guitar riff to Black Sabbath's "Iron man" with my head phones on, when Jeanette comes down the stairs and trips over my amp cord, pulling it out of the socket as she falls to the floor.

"Ow!" Jeanette yelps

I take my headset off help Jeanette get back on her feet. "You ok lil sis?"

"I'm okay, thanks big brother." She says, and I pause. Those phrases, which we used to say so casually, now carry so much weight.

"Good." I stammer, and sit down on the stool behind me. "So what's up?"

Jeanette grabs a seat on the stool next to mine and faces me. "Mrs. Miller wanted to make sure your ok. We haven't seen you since this morning." She says.

"I'm ok, how are you feeling?"

Jeanette plugs in her guitar and starts tuning it up. "I'm fine now, it was just… a shock." She says quietly.

I'm getting concerned now. "Jeani, are you ok?"

She sniffles "I'm fine" and puts her guitar down. I see the tears getting ready to fall, so I get up and hug her, and the tears start streaming down her face.

"Is it about your mother?" I ask.

She looks up at me and nods. "Jeanette…" I start, but can't find the words to say. My sister just found out her mom died after giving her and her sister up for adoption, and I have no words of comfort to offer, Some brother I am. After a little while, she pulls away from me and dries her eyes.

"Feeling better?" I ask.

"Yeah" she quips. Removing her glasses momentarily to wipe the tears away.

"So how's everyone coping?" I ask.

Jeanette looks up at me "Well, Brittany and Alvin went out, but from what I can tell, she's still a little shocked."

"And Ellie?"

"Eleanor's been staring at the picture of our mother, she swears she looks just like her." Jeanette giggles. Man, It's nice to here her laugh, even at a time like this.

How about Marsha and Mrs. Miller?

"They're still in a state of disbelief." Jeanette says. "They're in the kitchen right now going over the file, but something Marsha said concerned me."

Puzzled, I ask "Well what did she say?"

Jeanette sighs, "She thinks we should have DNA tests done just to make sure."

I lean the guitar against the wall and stand up. "There's no way, Dad's dead, so we don't have his DNA."

"We could use you since you are the father, tschnically." Jeanette quips

"The hell I am." I reply jokingly. (A/N: There's a Maury joke in there if you where paying attention)

Jeanette puts her serious face on. "That's not what I meant Big brother."

I chuckle. "Sorry."

"You don't want the tests done, do you." She asks.

I sigh. "No, I don't. All of the evidence is compelling enough. And besides, no matter what the results are, you guys are still my baby sisters" I say.

Jeanette hugs me. "And you're still our big brother."

"So, wanna play a little "Iron man" with me?"

"Sure."

Me and Jeanette pick up our guitars and headphones, and start playing, me on lead, Jeani on base. We play a couple of songs after that. Around ten, Ellie comes down to check on us down to check on us. Feeling tired, I put my headphones up and put my guitar in its case before heading off to bed.

NEXT MORNING…

My peaceful night's sleep was interrupted around 7 when I feel the weight of someone's head on my chest. When I open my eyes and look, and see Ellie lying there, asleep. She must have had a bad dream… again; because that's the only time she uses my chest as a pillow. I gently nudge her, and she groans before looking up at me.

"Good morning." She says sleepily.

"Good morning to you too, how long have you been there?"

"Two hours" She says, handing me my glasses.

"Thanks." I put my glasses on and Ellie lays her head on the pillow on my left side as I sit up. "So did you have a bad dream again?"

She shakes her head no. "I just felt like using my big brother as a pillow."

I laugh. "That's the oddest answer you've ever given me."

She yawns. "Well it's true."

"Ok. Hey, you wanna go to the Dodgers game on Tuesday?" I ask.

"Sure!" She says, perking up.

I snicker. "I see that woke you up."

"Shut up." She says playfully.

"Well I'm going back to sleep, night sis."

"Night big brother, see you later." She says, getting off the bed and exiting the room. I take my glasses off and roll over, falling back to sleep.

When I get up for good, I hear sniffling from the girl's room, there I find Brittany looking over the picture of her mother. Bye the looks of it, she's been here for a while now. I gently knock on the door, and she turns around to look at me.

"You ok sis?" I ask.

She says nothing, but gets up of the bed and hugs me.

"You really miss your mom, don't you?" I ask, hugging her back.

She nods her head. "Big brother, promise me you'll never leave us."

"I'll always be here for you guys, remember what I said?"

" No matter what, I'll always protect you."

"Because we are family, and nothing will ever change that." I finish. I know I won't be able to keep that promise, we all have to die you know, but as long as I'm living, I'll always be in these girl's lives. They've been through too much, and I care too much about them not to be. We stay in this position until she calms down and we sit on the bed, her head resting in my lap.

"What do you think she was doing?" Brittany asks.

I look down. "What was who doing?"

"My mother, what do you think she was doing the day she died?"

I sigh. "She was probably thinking how her three little girls where going to fair in a new land without her. She was probably thinking how you where going to keep your sisters spirits high when everything seemed so bad. She thought how Jeanette might use her intelligence, and how Ellie would care for animals and what sport she'd like the most. But I think, out off all of that she thought, "What will they do while I'm gone?"

"You think their proud of us big brother?" She asks, now looking up at me.

"I think their both jamming to your music in heaven right now." I say. Brittany chuckles in response.

"Max?"

"Yea sis?"

"I love you big brother."

"I love you too." Brittany hugs me and almost immediately falls asleep. I lay her on her bed and sit there for a while, watching her sleep. Wondering what she must be dreaming about, when Marsha joins me.

"I don't know how you did it, but you managed to calm her down. She's been cryin all morning." Marsha whispers.

"I guess all she needed was some comfort from her "big brother."" I reply.

"You're good at comforting people." Marsha says. "You know there are a lot of people that want to know the story behind the girl's origins."

"I know." I sigh. "And I have a right to tell them, but not yet, we need to let it sink in first."

"Well, you do have that interview tomorrow morning." She hints.

"Argh, Don't remind me.I have to get up at 4 in the morning for that thing." I cry.

"You've gotten up earlier." Marsha quips.

"And I have an attitude til noon when I don't get my sleepMarsh." I reply.

"Don't call me Marsh." She grumbles

"You're the only one that doesn't like their nickname."

"Well no one else's nickname that another word for a swampy area of land." She says.

"You mean a swamp?" I say.

"Shut up Max."

END CHAPTER 10

(A/N: Well, there it is. My first chapter off my break, unfortunately it'll be the only one until the week after next because I'm going on my Senior trip. R&R, and I'll try and work on the chapter while I'm in Florida if I can find a computer or a PSP-friendly word program (lol). Duces)