Shortly after he hung up from Catherine's call his cell phone rang again. He rolled his eyes at the increasingly annoying ring tone Kimiko had put on it and looked at the number. It was Kimiko. He thought it was awful early for Kimiko to be calling him, especially since she'd stayed up all night talkin' to him.

"Hello?"

"Hey man," A husky and tired voice said on the other end.

"Oh, hey Rai,"

"What's goin' on?"

"Ah, you know, same ol' same."

There was a brief moment of silence. Why was it so difficult to have a conversation with Raimundo all of a sudden?

"What's goin' on in that world?" Clay asked.

"Well, me and Kim both got late night visitors." Raimundo started

"Really?"

"Yeah Shawn showed up," Raimundo said in a tone that said in an annoyed tone that also meant he was also rolling his eyes.

"He give Kim any trouble?"

"You know I'd beat his face in if he did." He said jokingly, sort of.

"Who's the other one?"

"Oh, Rosa, she's a friend of mine."

"Rosa. She's a girl."

"Well I would hope so. Or I'd of gone all these years believing a really horrid lie."

"She's a girl Raimundo." He said stretching out the word 'girl'.

"Oh, shut-up. I've known her for years. Like since the infant years!" Raimundo said, slightly freaking out a little.

"How come she's never been up before?" Clay teased. His inner child found a way out around Raimundo, it always had.

"She's been in jail." Raimundo said slowly and almost like a question.

" Yep, she's your company." He said in a joking tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raimundo said not catching the joke.

"It means you hang out with the bad guys, how long Shawn stayin'?"

"I dunno, but I'm startin' to get the feelin' Kim's gonna kick him out. They're not all touchy- feely anymore."

"Really? I wonder why,"

" I think he's all tense about her livin' here with all guys and takin' care of Aiden like she's his mom." He said treading his words, making sure there wasn't anything Clay would get horribly torn up over.

" Kim's my best friend. She's doing what I'da done for her if roles were switched." He said like everyone in the world should know the story. It wasn't a lie, if Kimiko were in his shoes, he'd do the same thing for a her in short of a heartbeat.

" I know that, and Kim knows that. I'm pretty sure Shawn knows that, just not willing to accept it."

"He gets any more paranoid, Kim' gonna hang him out to dry. She doesn't play with that kind of stuff."

"Yeah I know it. It's what I'm waitin' on."

"Rai, don't cause any more problems for her. I already feel bad enough that she's going through all of this for me."

"Not like that. I'm waitin' on her to blow up on him, duh."

Another momentary silence.

"Rai, can I ask you a question?"

"What?"

"What did you mean when you said she's taking care of Aiden like she's his mom?"

"I don't know man, it's hard to explain. If you walked by them in the street you would think that he was hers." He stated, not in a elaboration mood, it was close to noon there and that was early for Raimundo. He'd never out grown being a crack of noon type of guy and he had seen no reason to start.

Clay felt his chest start to burn with pain and regret. His son was growing up without him, he probably thought Raimundo and Kimiko were his parents, he probably had little memory of Clay. His son hadn't seen his father in five months. Five months, he let go by-five months he'd put Kimiko through hell and put a strain on her romantic relationship to the point where she considered calling it off with him. He could feel the tears beginning to gather in his eyes and his respiration start to lose it's rhythm. He was losing his composure and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it.

"Clay, are you alright? You're breathin' sounds funny." He said letting out a yawn.

After a few minutes Raimundo realized Clay was crying. He didn't know why, but he was pretty sure something he said had caused Clay's sudden loss of emotional control.

"Clay, what's goin' on man? Talk to me." He said trying to get Clay to calm down.

"Ai-Aiden." Clay choked out.

The name of his little boy made his heart ache more. What kind of father was he? He ran away. He tried to run from his problems, he tried to run from his home. He abandoned them. He abandoned him. It may of started out as an attempt to rescue his sanity from the pressure of saving the world, but he did that. He had it together, or as together as he was going to get without Calleigh and he didn't go back. He didn't make it right and that made him just as bad as a man who left completely. Jessie was right, he was a prick, he was arrogant, he was a loser, he was all of those things.

"What Clay? What about Aiden?" Raimundo asked trying to make sense of his friend's words.

"Ai-Aiden."

"Clay, you're going to have to elaborate here cowboy!" Raimundo shouted at his friend, running his hands through his thick hair nervously.

He heard Kimiko's muffled voice in the background and Raimundo's panic as he tried to explain the situation to her. Not a second short of Raimundo's last sentence did she snatch the phone from him.

"Clay?" She asked, trying to keep a calm and even tone.

"Kim," He gasped, trying to catch his breath.

"Clay are you okay?"

"Ai-Aiden."

"He's fine Clay, I promise."

"I'm-I'm sorry."

"Don't worry-

"No! It was wrong Kim, I was wrong I'm sorry you were just tryin' to help back at the hospital you were jus' watchin' out fer us. I'm so sorry Kimi." He choked out into one big sentence.

"Clay it's okay." She tried to reassure him, her own heart breaking at the sound of agony in Clay's voice.

The sound of pity in Kimiko's voice wasn't helping him for anything. All he could think about was all the problems he'd of caused for her and never did anything to repay. He never paid back the money she'd given him for Aiden's crib and things like that. He didn't even come and give her a break. He just hid. He didn't even say 'thank you' to her. Not once. The more he upset he got the more he started gasping for air and it caused him to erupt into a terrible coughing fit.

"Clay, breathe honey," She inhaled and exhaled slowly in demonstration. "It's gonna be okay Clay,"

She sat there for a second trying to think of what to say that would make any of this any better. Any thing at all, but she drew a blank. There was nothing she could do for him at this point, except just try and be reassuring, which wasn't working for shit at this point in the conversation. Damn it Rai.

"I'm so- I'm so sorry Kimi."

"I forgive you honey,"

"You're not jus' sayin' that 'cause I'm the big-gest prick in the world-right?" He managed to get out.

"Of course not. You're not a prick Clay,"

"Really-cause all the shit I done- done sounds like a prick- to me."

"Clay, honey sit down and take a deep breath."

He hit his knees right there in the middle of the tack room floor and tried to dry his eyes with his free hand, only for them to be replaced with fresh tears. He tried to inhale, but it didn't work. He couldn't draw any clean breath.

"Can-Can I see 'im?"

"See who Clay?"

"Ai-Aiden."

"Yeah of course, just hold on a second."

She flipped the phone into camera and took a quick snap shot of Aiden sleeping in the bed since he'd hadn't woken up yet. Which Kimiko was all too thankful for, it'd be really hard to take care of two people crying like babies.

She pushed send on the phone and then put it back to her ear.

"Clay, I want you to be careful with this, he's changed a lot in the past five months. Don't lose your mind on me now okay?" She asked of him, dreading the results of him seeing this picture.

Clay heard the message alarm go off and he flipped through the menu and got to the picture. His heart sunk in his chest as his eyes drank in the picture of his baby. He'd aged, but Clay knew that it was Aiden. He'd of known it even if Kimiko hadn't of told him.

The baby was asleep with his back against the blue sheets with his little fist curled up next to his head. His dark blonde head rested intently on the pillows that felt like laying on clouds if you were tired enough. Clay noticed his once porcelain white skin had turned a shade of honey color. The tone that Calleigh always held in her face. He bet he still had those dark brown bay colored eyes that once belonged to his mother. It was the best thing Clay'd ever seen in his life. His baby boy.

It was hard to put into words what he was feeling at that moment as he gazed at the picture. He was subconsciously stroking it with his thumb as he silently wished he could touch the real thing. Look at his son's eyes as they studied the world around him, but he'd fucked all of that up now.

"Clay are you still there?" She asked, starting to get worried when she didn't hear anything from him after a few moments.

"Yeah, yeah Kim, I'm still here." He said with a stifled voice. He just wanted to keep on crying but he knew he didn't need to with Kimiko on the other side of the line. She had enough to deal with already.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

"He's doing good Clay, he really is. I told you I would take care of him." She said desperately wanting to being some type of comfort to her friend.

"I never doubted you Kim."

"I know."

There was a few minutes of silence as Clay slowly gained about a quarter if his composure.

"Kim,"

"Yeah?"

"Have ya'll made Thanksgiving plans yet?"

"No, Clay it's still October."

"I know, but if you don't mind will you bring Aiden and the rest of them down to Texas for Thanksgiving?"

"Clay, I'm not sure. Rai's always gone for Thanksgiving-

"Just ask him Kim, I'm not expecting any thing."

"Okay,"

"Please come Kim, I need ya'll." He asked-begged her.

"I'll try Clay,"

"That's all I can ask for.-

He was cut off when he heard Aiden crying in the background. He was surprised that the tone of the cry had changed, it wasn't so much as a cry for help as a cry for attention. He guessed it was another normal part of development that he was missing.

"I've got to go Clay, I'll call you back when I get him settled."

"Take your time."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye,"

He heard the gentle click of the phone and hung it up. He exhaled slowly and took a minute to get his bearing back under him. He still had a lot to do on the farm and he knew he should get to work, but he just couldn't bring himself to stand back up. He knew all he needed was another minute, and then he'd be fine. At least fine enough to stand back up.

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Raimundo went back to his old bedroom that he'd moved into. He looked around and took in its' hominess. Well as homey as three spare soccer posters and two cots got. He'd put it together last night when Shawn and Rosa got in so they would have some place to sleep. Besides, he really didn't want Mr. Paranoid to know he was sleeping in the same bed with Kimiko. They weren't doing anything, but he knew that Shawn wouldn't believe that. Or listen to reason, like the fact that there was a ten month old between them all the time.

Thinking about Aiden make Raimundo think about Clay. He had problems feeling sorry for Clay. He knew he should feel bad for him, but he didn't. Clay'd done it to himself. It was on Clay's own accord that he was in Texas and had chosen to stay there. Raimundo had fought for Clay. No one could say that he hadn't. He had fought for Clay's sanity and Clay's right to be called a Xiaolin Warrior.

He couldn't do it anymore.

Clay had to do that for himself now.