Boxter sat parked at the side of the highway, the rush of traffic passing by background noise to his thoughts. He hadn't driven far. With each mile the gravity of what he'd done sunk upon him until he felt if he drove a single mile more it would crush him. But neither could he find the strength to go back.

All he could think of was the look on his daughter's face… Boxter drew in a breath and shuddered. He gripped the steering wheel tight and let his head rest against the leather binding it. Tears stung his eyes. What was wrong with him?

Droosha had been right; he'd been thinking of no one but himself. He'd hurt his family more than she had, even though she'd been the one to reveal Guy's identity. And now here he was alone.

"Just me and a Mustang," he said, his voice hoarse. He opened his eyes to the brightly glowing dash. "Every man's dream…" he choked off. "I hate this bloody car."

There was a tap on the window. Boxter started. If it was a cop… the last thing he needed was one of his buddies to see him here like this. But the passenger door clicked open and the last person he expected to see stood there.

"Droosha?"

She slipped into the passenger seat, slamming the door behind her. "You can't just bail like that, sweetheart. Even if you didn't mean it."

"How'd you know where to…" Boxter stammered. Then his shoulders slumped. Of course she was right. But it was the fact she knew he'd made a mistake, that he couldn't really leave, that hit him the most. He winced. "I know. I'm sorry."

Droosha grasped his arm. "But I understand why you did. I've been horrible to you. I'm sorry. I should have told you about Guy first. Instead of telling the whole town, and then pushing you around when I knew I'd hurt you and I should have been apologising."

Boxter closed his eyes briefly.

"Sweetheart?"

"Thank you." Boxter turned and drew her into her arms, squeezing her tight.

Droosha squeezed him back, then: "Boxter…"

"I just… give me a minute…" A hug sure felt a lot better than all the fighting.

"Okay," said Droosha, "but just so you know I think I'm sitting on the stick."

Despite everything, Boxter felt a smile tug at his lips. "Sure it's the stick? Maybe I'm just happy to see you…"

Droosha snorted and slipped off him, back into the passenger seat. "If you expect comments like that to get you anywhere, you should've got a sports car with bench seats."

The brief moment of banter was enough to relax him. Despite everything, the things he'd said, they were still okay. They were in a pretty rough patch but it wasn't the end of everything.

"So…" Droosha was watching him carefully, searching his eyes. "You forgive me?"

Boxter shrugged and smiled faintly. "Yeah, guess I have to."

"You don't have to do anything, sweetheart. I've been horrible to you."

"You came to get me even though I was being an idiot. You didn't have to do that. Even if you hurt me, it was my stupid choice to leave."

Droosha just shrugged. "Well one of us had to make the first move."

Oh, man. How had he ended up with someone like her? "Droosha, you have no idea how much I needed you to come and get me right now…" Boxter reached over and squeezed her hand. "And it's not like you're the only one who's been behaving like a jerk."

"You could do worse things than buy a Mustang. You can return it, right?"

"Yeah, I can. I only paid for a month on the lease and they'll make me take it back after that." He sighed. "I'm not stupid. I know we can't afford a sports car. But that's not what I meant. I…" he trailed of and squeezed his eyes shut. But it did nothing to vanquish the image that had sprung to his mind's eye.

"What, Boxter?"

"You know, I was so mad at you for what you dragged Guy into. I didn't understand how you could do something like that. But I've hurt the kids even worse. At least when you threw that party you were doing what you thought was best for Guy. You know what I did? Kelly didn't want to go to the moon, so I asked her I… I asked Kelly to come with me. Right before I left. What kind of father would do that? I wasn't doing that for her. I just didn't want to be by myself. And I was supposed to be there for Guy at the station. All I did was tell him everything was his fault." He squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the steering wheel tight. "And then I got in this car and left. I know that was stupid now. But for one moment there I'd actually decided I was leaving."

"Boxter, you got three miles up the road. I don't think you would've left. We get stupid, we say stupid things, but we sort ourselves out in the end, right?"

Boxter shrugged. "Or we sort each other out."

"Yeah, that too." Droosha was quiet for a long moment. "Guess we've both been pretty lousy parents, huh?"

"Yeah." Boxter leaned back in the seat and sighed. "I'm still a bit mad at you though. You took everything I could've done to stop this happening away before I had the chance to do anything."

"I know. And I'm still mad about how you've been treating Guy. There's nothing wrong with what he does, even if it does lack a little tact."

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I've got to work on that."

"But I'm guessing you're thinking that, despite all that, we need to suck it up and do whatever we can to sort this out for the kids."

Boxter smiled faintly. It didn't take much for them to get back on the same wavelength. "Well we do a pretty awful job when we go it it alone, don't we?"

"This is a mess, Boxter. That's not entirely our fault either. But it's still our job to fix it."

"You ready to talk then? I mean, talk like we both get some say in all this?"

Droosha reached up and cupped his cheek in one hand. "Yeah. I'm sorry, sweetheart. You know even when I get it wrong I still love you, right?"

Boxter smiled back. "Love you too."

Kelly woke and made her way downstairs in a daze. What she would have liked was to stay in bed all day. But she could smell coffee. Mom must've been cooking something, and she was hungry. But when she got downstairs, there was no breakfast cooked in an effort to forget a husband leaving. What there was was freshly brewed coffee on the kitchen table, as well as a half dozen half empty coffee cups. And her mother and father, sitting together at the kitchen table, talking. She froze like a deer in the headlights.

It only took a second for them to spot her. Her father got straight to his feet. "Kelly…" He came over and got right down on his knees in front of her, like he used to when she was little. Only now she was tall enough to be a good head above him. He reached up and grasped her shoulder. "I'm so sorry about last night. I had no right to spring a question like that on you. I've been talking to Mom and… look, I'm not going anywhere, alright? Not now, not ever. You don't have to worry about anything like that, we're going to work it out. I'm so sorry, sweetie…"

Kelly threw her arms around his neck. "Dad, it's okay." She swallowed and buried her face in his shoulder.

Boxter held onto her tight. He didn't let go until she pulled away, wiping at her eyes. She'd been so sure he was going and he'd just blasted away any fear of that with just a few words.

He stood back to his feet. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Kelly sniffed, suddenly feeling embarrassed. "So you're…" She looked between the both of them. "What happened?"

"We figured we're a lot stronger when we're fighting together, instead of against each other." Droosha came and stood next to Boxter, brushing against his arm. Though not quite as close as they usually stood.

"Look, we're your Mom and Dad," said Boxter. "We're responsible for making sure nothing breaks up this family. Not you two. But we are in way over our heads with this whole superhero business, so we really need you guys to help too."

"We need to sit down and figure out how we're going to beat this," said Droosha. "Do you know if Guy's up yet?"

Kelly still couldn't quite get her head around what had happened. But it could only be good. "Um… I don't think so. His door's still closed."

"I'll go wake him up," said Droosha. She headed upstairs.

Boxter smiled sheepishly at Kelly. "We're okay, huh, Kelly?"

She was finally finding herself catching on. Things were going to be okay. "Yeah, Dad. We're okay."

"Boxter!" Mom's voice rang out from upstairs.

The smile fell from Dad's face. He gave Kelly a look and then ran upstairs. "What's wrong?"

Kelly followed him. What had Guy done now? Her irritation was having a hard time winning out though. Something in her mother's voice…

She came into Guy's bedroom last. Guy wasn't there. Just Mom and Dad. Mom holding a piece of paper, one hand to her mouth. She started to cry.

Boxter took the paper from her and his eyes roved over it as he silently took in its contents.

"What is it?" Kelly asked. "Where's Guy?"

Dad looked up, and though his face appeared expressionless he couldn't seem to say anything.

It was Mom who replied, even through her tears. "Kelly, your brother's run away."

A/n: Congrats on getting your sh*t together Boxter and Droosha, but it would've helped if you'd done it, like, six hours ago. XD Dammit, they're still adorable...