The characters belong to Kitsis and Horowitz and I just take them out to play.
"Oh, man. Can we stay a little bit longer? I mean, not move here or anything but I don't have to be back at school for a week and there's so much stuff we haven't done yet. We haven't even gone to the Ghostbuster's library!"
It was almost the end of their week long vacation in New York and Emma was ready to get back to Storybrooke. While Henry was eager to stay she had been sleeping in hotel rooms for almost a week and a half and she just wanted to sleep in her own bed. It wasn't that she wasn't having fun, or enjoying the time off from work, but for the first time ever she was homesick and it was a heady feeling.
The tattoo expo in Kingston had been almost as successful as the one in Portland. It was a smaller show but they had been booked from the outset and Sydney had even found time to squeeze in extra appointments throughout the weekend. Almost all of their merchandise had sold as well and she had sent the guys back to the shop with nothing more than their equipment and a large bag filled with only a few unsold sweatshirts.
With the end of the expo came the beginning of her vacation. A family vacation of sorts because David and Mary Margaret had driven down with Henry in tow and met her in New York. They had spent the better part of the week doing all the touristy things that the native city dwellers cringed at. Times Square, the Central Park Zoo, a ferry ride out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, a Broadway show, and even a trip to FAO Schwarz. Henry had complained he was too old for baby toys but quickly changed his tune when he saw the giant floor piano from Big.
David and Mary Margaret had only joined them for a few days. Mary Margaret had to get ready for the first day of school and David was needed back at the station for the last push of visiting tourists. It had been only Henry and herself roaming the city for the last leg of their trip and Emma was infinitely glad for it. Her son was growing up too fast for her liking.
"You want to voluntarily go to a library on your vacation?" Emma placed the back of her hand on Henry's forehead. "Are you feeling okay? This is weird even for you."
"It's not just any old library, Mom. It's the one where they find their first ghost! Can we at least take pictures with the lions outside?"
"Fine, but we're taking the subway. I don't think we need to take any more cab rides for a while."
"Cool, Aunt Mary Margaret isn't here anyways. She won't get us lost this time."
Henry had been having the time of his life on the trip. He had almost filled up the memory card for his camera and Emma had had to buy another one three days into the trip to encourage him to take as many photos as he wanted. It had been the only time she regretted not bringing her laptop on the trip.
Their ride to the library was filled with Henry reciting lines from the movie and wondering if the actors had left behind some kind of secret note for someone to find. As they emerged out into the sunlight Henry practically sprinted to the front of the building. Emma gave up trying to rein him in and just hoped he wasn't bothering anyone with his antics.
"Hurry up, Mom! My arms aren't long enough to get everything in the shot!" Henry yelled at her impatiently
"Cool it, kid, the lions aren't going to get up and walk away on you," Emma said as she ambled up the steps, intent on making him squirm.
"That would be awesome if they did though! Then my what I did over summer vacation story would blow everyone else's out of the water," Henry chattered as he bounced down the steps to hand her his camera. "Not that it won't already, this summer has been super fun."
"Don't forget you're going camping the weekend after next. How you ended up with a three day weekend after your first week of school I'll never know," Emma murmured as she focused the camera on Henry and the stone lion.
"Labor day is a national holiday that falls on the first Monday in September. I think it's kind of cool we get a holiday right after we start," he stated happily as he made faces at her. "Killian said that they don't have Labor Day but something called a Bank Holiday in England."
"Well I'll make sure to remind him that he lives in America now."
"It's still a day off, though," Henry said as he skipped down the steps towards her. "He's still coming camping with us, right?"
"As far as I know. Robin is the one planning the whole thing and he's friends with Killian so I don't see why not," Emma tried to pass off that she wasn't entirely too invested in who was going on the trip. She didn't want to give Henry any kind of ideas that she couldn't monitor while he was away with the boys.
"Cool. Can we go to that museum on the pier tomorrow? I promised him I'd get some pictures from the deck of the big ship they have there."
"It's an aircraft carrier and we'll have to make a day of it if we go and we only have two days left, you know."
"I know but I promised."
Emma looked at Henry, who was standing only two steps above her but was able to look her straight in the eye. She felt a pang as she realized that soon he wouldn't need the extra height to stand eye to eye with her. The pleading look on his face was at odds with the young man she could see starting to emerge from his formerly round cheeks.
"Fine, but I don't want to hear any complaining when we get down there that you want to do something else that's on the other side of the city."
"I won't, Killian said that it's really neat and he was jealous that we were going to see it without him."
Emma was rooted to the spot in surprise. She barely noticed when Henry pulled his camera back out of her hands and started taking multiple shots of the facade of the library.
It had been a few weeks since her non-date with Killian. The whole thing had been a rollercoaster since the moment she mentioned to Ruby that she needed outfit advice. Emma had had to shoot down at least six of Ruby's inappropriate outfits before the woman had pulled a periwinkle sundress out from the dark recesses of her closet. Emma immediately knew it was perfect the moment she saw it, even with Ruby swearing up and down she didn't remember buying it.
The day of the un-date had consisted mostly of her lounging in the Nolan's pool with Henry and David while Mary Margaret was busy at the school. Henry had been asked to stay at a friend's house that night, which was why Emma had asked Killian to meet her for drinks in the first place. It wasn't often that her son wasn't with her or her close friends and she wanted to make the most of the freedom, which turned out to be her downfall.
Since none of her friends were on Henry duty it left them free to spy on her quasi-date with Killian. Luckily for her Mary Margaret had tipped her off with just enough time to pay off the bartender to get her hastily written note to Killian and sneak out the back before anyone she knew showed up. Her entire walk to Granny's was spent trying to both calm her nerves and curse the fact that she still didn't have any way of contacting Killian apart from calling Anton's.
When he finally showed up she had already downed a beer and a half to keep herself from fidgeting while she waited. She hadn't been prepared for the sight he presented when he stepped through the door. His dark hair, which she had thought was straight black, had strangely seemed to pick up dark brown highlights in the usually unforgiving glow of Granny's florescent lights. It had flopped gently across his forehead, not swept back and held in place by any of the product he usually used. Not that she had taken note of things like that. He had been wearing jeans and a maroon shirt with the sleeves rolled up, an interesting choice considering it had been almost unbearably hot that day but Emma wasn't complaining. Killian looked good in shades of red.
She thought she might have been in trouble when he ordered the rum. She had known she was when she told him about her tattoo and its origin. Not even Mary Margaret knew the full story. All Emma had told her was the meaning behind it, not the full story of the man who had done the rough sketch for the design on her bare back with a ballpoint pen in a motel room they had snuck into for the night. Mary Margaret knew enough about the guy to not care about the small details. Emma wished she could do the same.
Killian, she learned that night, was far more than the flirtatious and cocksure persona she had first encountered at the Portland Expo. Every time she had a conversation that lasted longer than a minute with the guy another facet of his true self was revealed. It was almost as though she had thought she was unearthing a piece of quartz, pretty but not worth much in the long run, and discovering it was a ridiculously well disguised diamond.
Emma hadn't meant to get as drunk as she had but the rum had been good and the conversation had been better. He was funny, something she wouldn't have picked up on if she hadn't been paying attention. His wit was a dry one, laced with innuendoes at times but she had come to realize that he didn't use them to try and get in her pants. That's not to say he didn't want to, she had caught him staring at her once or twice, but it was like he knew his tricks wouldn't work on her and he was right. Partially.
Her downfall had been a moment so innocuous that she had had trouble pinpointing it down later that night. They had been laughing over some story she'd told about Henry, she couldn't even pretend to remember what she had shared, when he randomly grabbed her phone. Before she could blink he had snapped a selfie and added himself to her contacts, telling her that she could keep her bribes to herself. That was the moment she knew she had been lying to herself, it was totally a date.
Emma had intended to walk home alone, let the light breeze blow some sense back into her head but her mouth spoke before her brain could catch up. Killian had walked her home and, to her surprise, had been a complete gentleman about it. He hadn't tried to grab her hand or drape his arm over her shoulders or even the not so subtle hand above her ass to guide her, which spoke more about the few men she had gone out with more than it did Killian's character.
They had made it to her door without incident, their light banter made the walk go by much faster than she had wanted it to. Killian had been teasing her, making comments about what he would have done if he had known it was a date. She had teased right back but she wanted him to make good on his promises, to seriously ask her if she enjoyed herself, to ask her out for a second date, and to stop asking questions and just kiss her already.
He had had such a serious look in his eyes when he had stepped into her space, despite the easy grin on his lips. It was that look, the trepidation she saw there, that spurred her into action. She had been purely seeking the physical contact, the release she craved since she had first laid eyes on his absurdly handsome face.
Emma hadn't been disappointed, far from it. Her last rational thought had been wondering if she was the one who possibly couldn't handle it and then her thoughts had blown away into the night when his hand had cradled the back of her head.
She hadn't been kissed that well or that thoroughly in what felt like forever. Emma didn't want to dwell on the fact that she may have never been kissed like that, ever. When they had finally broke apart her mind flew into overdrive and she'd had to escape. Something she'd had locked away had broken free and she had needed to do what she'd always done best, run. Not far, they were already at her apartment but emotionally she'd pulled back all the way to the Himalayas.
After the door to her building closed behind her she had sat on the stairs in the dark trying to will away the feel of his lips on hers, which tingled only slightly more than the last touch of his hand on her wrist. She'd felt horrible, she had treated Killian horribly, and she didn't know what the hell was wrong with her. He had done nothing wrong, absolutely nothing, and she had treated him like he was every other man who had tried to get to know her. And that was the problem, he already knew her, more than anyone had a right to know and she was the one choosing not to trust him.
So Emma had pulled out her phone, still sitting alone in the dark and sent Killian a text. It had been a simple message, not very long, but full of promise. She was surprised when she heard a light chuckle outside the door and the clicking of bootheels as he walked away. The pressure on her chest disappeared when she had heard it and that feeling was what she had held on to.
They hadn't gone on that second date, yet. The sudden obligation of the Kingston Expo had her working later hours and even a few weekend days. She'd also been roped into helping Mary Margaret set up her classroom for the new school year and with Henry's summer program over her free time had dropped down to nothing.
Killian took it in stride, knowing without her telling him that she wasn't pushing him away. He still sent her regular bouquet order but he had taken to leaving random flowers on her car, or slid into her mailbox, and once sitting on the table of the booth she had secretly started calling theirs when her and Henry had shown up for their usual Sunday breakfast. Ruby hadn't stopped pestering her for information when she had seen the bloom sitting in her glass of water.
In fact most of her so called friends, the ones who had gate crashed the Rabbit Hole, had been not so subtly digging for information. As far as they knew she had bailed on Killian, which made her look like an asshole and it hadn't helped when Henry had gone on at length about how much fun he'd had at his sleepover. Emma had only told Mary Margaret what had really happened when she couldn't stop randomly smiling to herself and Mary Margaret wouldn't stop pointing it out.
Emma found herself smiling more often than not. While they hadn't been on an official second date she had met up with Killian at Granny's for lunch on more than one occasion. Killian would send her a picture of the time clock at the nursery and ten minutes later she would walk into Granny's to find him sitting in their booth chatting with either Granny herself or the poor waiter Killian had manipulated. Some days it was a quick meal, a shared lunch hour on a busy day, on others it was something languid and relaxed, time spent becoming comfortable in each other's lives.
They had met for a final lunch before she went out of town. He had sent the picture and she had shown up with Henry at her side. She had been reluctant to bring him along but she had been leaving the next day and wanted to spend as much time with him before then. There was also the fact that her and Killian were becoming something more and her son would inevitably be a part of that. Henry was already texting him more than she was, the lunch was just another small step. Killian hadn't even batted an eye and immediately asked Henry whether or not Robin had decided on where they would be camping. Emma would have been lying if she said she hadn't felt a little left out of the boys' lunchtime conversation about camping and going on adventures.
When they were leaving the diner Killian had stopped her by gently grabbing her wrist. He had lightly rubbed his thumb over her buttercup tattoo and wished her luck for the expo. She had wanted to kiss him in that moment, right there in the middle of the diner during the lunch rush. Instead she had slipped her hand into his and told him thanks with a quick squeeze of her fingers.
"Mom, you're doing it again," Henry said in a bored voice.
"Doing what?" Emma fought against the blood rushing towards her face.
"That goofy smile that Aunt Mary Margaret kept asking you about."
"I don't have a goofy smile," she pouted, trying to school her expression into one that didn't make her look like a grinning fool.
"Yeah, you do. It's the same one Ruby gets when she starts talking about Graham," Henry looked at her carefully. "You're not thinking about Graham are you?"
"Absolutely not! Geeze, kid, do you really think I'm interested in Graham?" Emma said, a little put out.
"Not now but it's still the same look. Must be a different guy," he winked at her and Emma's jaw dropped open in shock. "I'm going inside now, maybe they'll let me go in the basement part."
Before Emma could so much as take a breath he was running up the steps, leaving her behind. She loved her son, she really did, but sometimes he was a pain in her ass.
Shaking her head she slowly followed Henry up the stairs to the entrance of the library. Distracted by what what he might have figured out on his own and what Ruby had been telling him behind her back Emma didn't notice the man walking down the steps until she was colliding into him head on.
"Ah, I'm so sorry. I wasn't paying attention," she apologized quickly as she dropped down a few steps from the force of the impact.
"Nah, my fault too. I was paying even less attention."
Emma looked up at the man, a smile on her face, ready to apologize once more and continue up the steps. Her smile faltered then disappeared altogether when she recognized the man staring down at her. He had flecks of grey sprinkled throughout his hair and he was stockier than she remembered but his grin and brown eyes dancing in mirth were still the same.
"Neal?" Emma breathed out.
"Emma?" Neal sounded as though he was genuinely happy to see her. "What are you doing here?"
She couldn't process what was happening. Neal was talking to her like they hadn't seen each other in a week not in over twelve years. He was smiling at her, hands in the pockets of his jeans, a few more tattoos on his arms and neck, and he looked good. Which pissed her off, he had no right to stand there looking no worse for wear when he deserved to be a broken man.
"It's a free country I can go wherever I want."
Emma moved to walk around him but he stepped in front of her, impeding her progress.
"Don't be like that. It's been a long time, we should grab a drink."
"Grab a drink?" Emma was incredulous. She had to remind herself she was in public to keep from yelling her head off. "I'm not drinking with you. I have to go."
She made it up three steps before he called after her.
"Emma, stop! Look I know we didn't leave things that great before but we should talk."
"Talk?" She spun around and stalked back down the steps. "What's there to talk about, Neal? How you disappeared? How I had to take the fall for those fucking watches? How I was shipped to a prison in Arizona and the one person I thought I could count on was just another asshole in a parade of assholes? I have nothing to say to you."
"Emma."
"I loved you and you sent me to jail!" Emma was horrified by the shaking in her voice and the tears that were gathering in her eyes.
She had spent years figuring out what she was going to say to him if she ever had the misfortune of running into him again. Seeing him, physically being near him, had caused it all to disappear and that pissed her off. The fact that she couldn't get a grip on her emotions pissed her off even more.
"I was trying to help you," he ducked his head, a look of remorse finally coloring his features.
"With a prison sentence? That's fucked up, even for you Neal."
"You didn't deserve to live the way we were. Running cons, stealing, always looking over our shoulders. You were young and it was your first offence, they would have been easier on you alone than if we had both been caught."
Emma tried to follow his twisted logic. He stood there in front of her, fully believing that he had protected and done right by her. She felt nauseous at that thought.
"Let me get this straight. You thought that by sending me to prison and saddling me with a record that follows me to this day you were doing me a favor? Guess what, you didn't."
"I didn't say it was a smart plan but it worked out didn't it? Can you honestly tell me that nothing good came out of us being together?"
Her thoughts immediately jumped to Henry. Her smart, vivacious son that had made her life so much more than she thought she deserved. The one thing she was the proudest and most protective of, who was bound to go looking for her soon.
"No, not that I can think of," she spoke in a tone of finality, desperate to finally leave the conversation. "I just went to jail, that's it. Doesn't matter now I'm over it."
It was five steps before his voice floated up to her.
"You got the tattoo."
She hesitated, wishing it was winter and she was wrapped in so many layers he wouldn't have seen the swan on her shoulder. He had to have immediately known what it was, they had spent three months sketching out various designs and she hadn't changed a thing when she had finally got it done.
Emma turned around and said unflinchingly, "I got it to remind me not to stay broken when I've been kicked to the ground."
Neal looked as though he didn't believe her but she was beyond caring. She wanted to get the hell out of there before Henry came back and things got messy. Without so much as a goodbye she climbed back up the steps and made it to through the doors before a familiar, but welcome, voice called out to her.
"Mom, what's taking so long? The inside is almost better than the outside!"
Emma winced internally but put on a smile as she walked up to him. She couldn't be sure that Neal was still around and she didn't want to take the chance that he was.
"Come on, kid, it's time to go."
"What? Why, we just got here!"
"I know and I'm sorry but I'm not feeling good." It wasn't a lie she could feel the beginnings of a headache forming at the base of her skull. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."
"Okay," Henry said sullenly, letting her steer him out the doors and back down the steps. "Can we get pizza again tonight? I'm still not convinced that we've found the best in New York yet."
Emma let out a tight laugh, scanning the crowds as they walked past. Neal was nowhere in sight.
Their ride back to the hotel was quiet. Emma had chosen to take a taxi, lessen the chances that they'd run into her ex. She knew Henry could tell that something was off but kept his questions to himself. When they reached the hotel he gamely returned to the room with her and used her phone to try and choose a worthy pizza joint.
For her part Emma tried to not dwell on what had happened. Unfortunately her thoughts turned instead to the last time she had seen Neal. When she had been younger, more naive, and a hell of a lot more trusting.
They had just been kicked out from squatting at yet another acquaintance's house. It had been the beginning of December and they had no choice but either leave Portland for somewhere with a more temperate climate or come up with a sizeable chunk of money to keep them off the streets. After agreeing to canvass the city for prospects they had split up, promising to meet at a park later.
Emma had arrived first and Neal had shown up minutes later, his head hanging low and shoulders bowed by an unseen burden. That was when he had told her about the watches. He had lifted them from a store in Phoenix but hadn't had the chance to fence them. They were sitting in a locker in a bus station waiting for him to get them. During his scoping of the city he had come across a wanted poster with his face on it, along with a picture of the stolen watches.
He had tried to convince her that it was best for him to turn tail and run for the border. She had tried to convince him that she would go with. Then she'd had the brilliant idea of getting the watches herself. Her face wasn't plastered on wanted posters and she'd always been good at faking her way through a tough situation. He'd agreed, she used to think with some reluctance but over time she had begun to rethink that.
The truly last time she'd laid eyes on him was when he was walking away from her to meet up with the guy who would fence the watches for them. Neal had given her one of the watches, she wasn't so sure now if it was part of his twisted plan from the start. He had left her with the promise of a home and two hours later the promise was broken, and so was she, when the cuffs closed around her wrists.
"The pizza's on it's way," Henry chirped from next to her head.
Emma had lain down on the bed the moment they had gotten back to the room and thrown a pillow over her face to keep Henry from seeing the maelstrom of emotions play across her face. When she removed the pillow she was slightly surprised to see that the sun was setting and it was getting harder to make out the details of their hotel room.
"You couldn't turn on a light or something?" She grumbled as she sat up and flicked on the lamp that was bolted to the nightstand.
"No. I thought you wanted it to stay dark because of the pillow," he said as he sat down next to her on the bed.
"Nah, the pillow was to make sure I didn't spoil the surprise of where our pizza is coming from," she teased lightly, nudging him with her shoulder. "Sorry about earlier."
"Eh, it's okay. You did look like you'd seen a ghost," Henry suddenly looked at her in awe. "Did you see a ghost? You have to tell me if you did!"
Emma laughed, finally feeling things settling back to normal.
"No I didn't see a ghost. I think the week's just caught up with me. I'll be right as rain for tomorrow."
"Good. Can I order a movie?"
"Sure, you know the rules."
"Nothing rated 'R' and if you tell me to turn it off I turn it off…"
"No cuts, no buts, no coconuts," they said it together, Henry grinning widely and Emma doing the same.
"I'm going to go call Mary Margaret, you gonna be okay for a bit?" She asked grabbing her phone from the end of the bed.
"Nope, by the time you get back I'll have flooded the room and taking candy from strangers," he answered paying more attention to the menu on the tv than to her.
"Make sure it's king sized, none of that fun sized garbage," Emma pocketed her key, "There's cash in my wallet for the pizza, which you can take from a stranger. Don't tip the guy too much, we still have to get around tomorrow."
"'Kay."
Emma stepped into the hallway and paused after hearing the door click shut behind her. She didn't want to stray far from the room but she needed somewhere private to make her call. The chair at the end of the hall was an option but it wasn't guaranteed that she would be alone for long. Suddenly her eye caught the exit sign over a door and realized it opened to a stairwell. One that no one in their right mind would think to use from the tenth floor.
After placing her tennis shoe in between the heavy metal door and the doorjamb, not wanting to get locked in the stairwell, she climbed to the landing between the tenth and eleventh floors. Sitting down she stared ruefully at her socked foot before taking a deep breath and calling Mary Margaret.
"Hey, Emma, what's up?"
"He's here," she blurted out without preamble.
"Who's there? What's going on? Is Henry alright?" Mary Margaret's voice rose in panic and it oddly calmed Emma down enough to talk somewhat calmly.
"Henry's fine, he's watching a movie in the room."
"In the room? I thought you were going to surprise him by taking him to a Yankee's game tonight," Emma heard the scrape of a chair followed shortly by the sound of a door opening and then closing. "I'm in the backyard. David's watching the game hoping to get a glimpse of you two and you know how much he hates the Yankee's. So why are you in your room and not at the stadium?"
"I'm not actually in the room," Emma winced hoping Mary Margaret couldn't hear the echoing of the stairwell.
"What? Why? Emma what the hell is going on?"
"You just said 'hell'," she was stalling and she knew it.
"Emma Swan, if you don't tell me what's wrong I'm going to say something a lot worse than 'hell'. Now spill," Mary Margaret commanded in her no-nonsense teaching voice.
"Neal, he's here. In New York," Emma whispered it into the phone, somehow afraid that by saying it any louder he would suddenly appear next to her.
"Neal? As in Henry's father? That Neal?" Mary Margaret was whispering as well.
"No, Neil Diamond," Emma felt a bubble of hysterical laughter rise in her chest. "Yes, Henry's dad, that Neal."
"Emma," Mary Margaret breathed out her name. "Was Henry there?"
"No, we were at the library. He had gone in without me. God, I don't know what I would have done if he was there. Henry was coming back out to find me but Neal was gone already. I had to leave, I couldn't stay. I feel so bad, we were having a good time and he had to ruin it," Emma was almost unable to stop herself from babbling on and on into nonsense.
"Wait, how in the world did you run into him at a library in one of the busiest cities in the world?"
"I know, I know, and the millions of questions you have I have too but the problem is it doesn't matter right now because I don't know what to do," Emma could feel herself hyperventilating.
"Please tell me you're not calling to ask me to help you figure out how to keep this from Henry," Mary Margaret was pleading with her.
"Just for now, just for right now. I don't want to ruin the end of our vacation with this and he's starting junior high, he doesn't need this dumped on him."
"No matter what Neal did to you Henry has a right to know that he's around, even if it comes to nothing. The truth about his dad, Emma you of all people should know how important that is," Mary Margaret implored her.
"I don't want Henry to get hurt," Emma's voice cracked and wavered as she pulled her knees into her chest. She pulled in a shaky breath, "I just want to protect him."
"Are you sure this is about protecting Henry," Mary Margaret's voice said soothingly through the phone, "and not yourself?"
Emma closed her eyes and dropped her head back onto the wall behind her. She barely heard Mary Margaret telling her that everything would be okay before saying goodbye and Emma's mumbled response was lost in the ether. The tears that had threatened all afternoon were back but she refused to let them fall. It would tip Henry off that something was seriously wrong if she went back to the room with bloodshot, puffy eyes.
After a several minutes of taking deep breaths Emma stood up, ready to head back. She unlocked her phone and opened her contacts list. She didn't have to scroll far, Killian had entered himself in her phone as 'Blue Eyes' securing his place at the top of her contacts. Her thumb hovered over the ridiculous selfie he'd taken the night of their one and only date. Instead of touching down on his name she hit the home button.
On her way back to the room, shoe back on her foot, she wondered if the mini bar prices were as ridiculous as she was led to believe. As she slid her key card into the reader she realized she didn't really care. She would need something extra to help her sleep through the night.
A.N.: Man, having to watch the Neal/Emma reunion bar scene and the Emma/Mary Margaret phone call from Manhattan over and over again broke my heart that much more for what Emma's been through. I may have to watch the season 3 finale to bring my spirits back up.
In other news I have the next six chapters outlined (and that's still a ways away from the end) and it's going to be a wild ride for our lad and lady. Stay tuned next week for a boy's trip and perhaps a little Captain Cobra...
