Esha Napoleon: Thank you! NeroAnne: Oh Phil…there's many many things that can be said but that'll just take too much time. And there will be much more flipping out by many people before this story is done, I can promise you that.

…

After the "swimming" lessons were over, James and Mindy went upstairs to their bedroom so they could continue with their lovemaking. Elizabeth was resting in her bassinet, sleeping away while James traced his fingers over Mindy's face, falling more and more in love with her just like he did with every day that went by. "I still can't believe you kicked out Princess Straightedge," he said with a shake of his head. "So much for best friends forever huh?"

Mindy shook her head and nipped at his fingertips, making him chuckle lowly. "He hurt you," she stated. "I don't care if he's my best friend. Nobody hurts you."

James sighed and buried his face in the crook of her neck, loving being there because it made him feel safe. When he was there, all was right in the world and absolutely nothing could go wrong. "He's lucky I fucking didn't kill him. He really is. He's so fucking…ugh. How fucking dare he even fucking start that shit with me. He fucking doesn't know shit about me and he fucking bad talks me in front my children? He fucking tells them he wants me to die so he can have you all to himself-"

Mindy's eyes widened and she moved back so she could look at James's face. "Whoa whoa whoa! He said that?"

"That's what Connor told me," James confirmed. "That's why I went and confronted him in the first place. Mother fucker can hate me all he wants but I'll be damned if he fucking goes there with my babies. They're my babies…"

"They are," Mindy confirmed, snuggling back up to him and letting him rebury his face in the crook of her neck. "They're yours. They've always been yours, remember?"

He nodded, readily accepting that because he wanted and needed to believe that. He knew she repressed Kane and to be honest, he was doing his best to repress not only him, but Mark as well. He was trying to force himself to believe that after Annabelle died, he found Mindy and they had been perfect ever since. He wished that was how it would have went and it was easy to pretend most of the time because Mindy and the kids were more than willing to believe it. Mindy wanted to forget all about Glen and Amber was the only one of the babies who was even going to really remember him at all and she was also willing to pretend. James was Daddy and that was the way it had always been. James liked that and fucking hated that Phil had dared to throw the truth back in his face.

"Phil likes to be a butthead," Mindy went on as she played with James's hair. "And he says stupid things but you cannot let him get to you Jamie because he doesn't know SHIT! He doesn't Jamie. He doesn't know anything about you or our relationship. He likes to think he does but he doesn't. He wouldn't know it even when its smacking him right in the face."

"I'll fucking smack him in the face if I see him again," James grumbled unhappily. "And then I'll cut him up real nice." He was really not fucking around on that. He really really wanted Phil dead and his feelings were not about to change any time soon. Phil had no idea just how angry he had truly made James. "I fucking mean it Baby Doll. That son of a bitch is so fucking lucky I had Lizzie Bear with me when I confronted him earlier. If I hadn't I would have fucking got him right on the spot."

Mindy sighed heavily and hugged him as tightly as she could. "I should have smashed his cupcakes in his face," she said with a shake of her head. "And then knocked him down some stairs. He would have deserved it."

James frowned and pulled himself back so he could stare at Mindy in confusion. "His cupcakes?"

"Yeah," she said, now confused as to why he was confused. "He gave me cupcakes when I first got home and told me he made them-"

"That son of a bitch!" James growled, now REALLY fucking offended. This was just the fucking icing on his shitastic cake.

"What?" Mindy said, clearly concerned by James's tone. "What's the matter Jamie? What's wrong?"

"I made those cupcakes," he informed her. "I fucking made them for you as a fucking surprise and he fucking stole my thunder!"

Her eyes widened. "You made them?"

"Yes! I made them. They were for you Baby Doll-" She cut him off with a kiss and he eagerly kissed her back, making out with her until they were both completely out of breath.

"They were delicious Jamie," Mindy told him as she panted for breath. "They were so delicious I should have known Meatball was lying! He couldn't ever make something that good." She cupped his face in her hands and began kissing him frantically. "Jamie I'm sorry. I'm sorry-" Now it was his turn to cut her off with a kiss.

"You have NOTHING to be sorry for," he informed her. "Why are you saying that? Don't say that Baby Doll you did nothing wrong."

"But I should have realized they were your cupcakes and not-"

"Nonsense. You had no way to know. Now stop apologizing okay? There's no need for that." He kissed her again, wiping away any more objections she had to that. He just wanted to forget about the majority of this day. Fuck it, he couldn't let Phil fucking get to him like this. This is what the bastard wanted. The more he dwelled on it, the more Phil won. He had to fucking knock it off and he had to knock it off now.

"You're just scaring me to feel better about yourself because deep down inside you know just what a failure at life you've become…who could ever realistically love a mass murdering self centered obnoxious freak not even a mother-"

"Who the FUCK fails fucking English?" Caroline screamed at James, who had made the mistake of just walking through the front door. She had grabbed him by the hair on sight and had dragged him into the living room because she had somehow found out about his failings in school and was using them as an excuse to go after him (not like she needed them-she went after him for absolutely no reason at all most of the time). "HUH? Don't you fucking speak it you little bastard?"

"Mom-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence. She backhanded him as hard as she could, just about taking his head off with that one blow. His head rocked to the side and he immediately put his hands up and trembled in fear. He fucking hated it when she got like this. She was fucking terrifying. "Mom please-" This time he got a punch to the face for daring to speak out of turn and he almost blacked out until she grabbed him by the hair and yanked him back violently.

"Don't you fucking pass out on me boy," she growled, getting right in his face so he could smell the booze in her breath. "You hear me? You'll be in a world of fucking hurt if you pass out now."

He knew she wasn't fucking around with him so he struggled to keep consciousness because the moment of oblivion wouldn't be worth the pain he would get afterwards. Once she was satisfied he wasn't going to fade away, she let him go so she could grab her glass of scotch and down the rest of it with one giant gulp. "Stupid bastard," she growled. "You're so fucking stupid."

"No I'm not Momma," he objected sullenly. He needed to just stay quiet because he was just asking for trouble now, but he couldn't. He didn't like that she thought he was an idiot. "I'm not really. I just don't like doing the work, that's-"

She didn't give a flying fuck about his reasons. She took her empty glass and smashed it against the side of his head, making him cry out in pain. The blow severely dazed him and while he was trying to recover from it, she took off her belt and whacked him with it a couple of times before wrapping it around his neck and choking him with it. "You listen to me and you listen to me to good you fucking idiot," she hissed. "We both know you're a fucking retard but you better find a way into making those teachers believe you're not, you hear me? Because if you don't, I'll fucking make you wish you were never fucking born, you understand?"

"Jamie!"

James blinked, taking several minutes to realize that he was not having the life choked out of him by his own mother and powerless to stop it. He was safe in his bed with Mindy, curled up in the fetal position and clinging to her for dear life and scaring the fuck out of her. "I'm okay," he lied, trying to get a hold of himself. "I'm okay."

"No you're not you're lying," Mindy stated, planting his face with kisses and shaking her head frantically. "Jamie you're shaking! Baby what's the matter? What's wrong?"

"Just something came back that I wanted to forget…" That didn't really narrow anything down because there was a lot of the first seventeen years of his life that he still tried to forget to this day. He wanted it gone from his mind so he tried to repress as much of it as possible. But Phil's words about him being a failure opened up a lot of floodgates for him because Caroline had always called him a failure. She had went out of her way to make him feel like that every day of his life and some of those deep rooted insecurities still lingered on in the darkest places of his mind.

Mindy shook her head and kissed him firmly. "She's gone baby." She didn't need to ask who he was thinking about. She just knew. She always knew. "She's gone and she was wrong. You're not those things she said you were. You're perfect and I love you and she's wrong and gone and can never ever hurt you again."

He nodded and kissed her, running his hands all over her body before climbing on top of her. He just wanted to forget. Forget about Phil, forget about Caroline, forget about his feelings of inadequacy. He wanted to fuck them away and keep them away because he wanted to believe Mindy's words about him being perfect. He didn't really feel that way and he knew it wasn't true but it was nice to be thought of that way by someone. It made for a nice change of pace, that was for sure.

…

Cooper hadn't realized he had passed out until he opened his eyes and found himself slumped back against the wall on the bathroom floor. He groaned and rubbed his eyes furiously, wincing at the pain in his arms. "Oh fuck," he groaned, looking down to realize he had slashed himself up real nice. "Oh fuck oh fuck…" He coughed and sniffled, remembering why he had slashed himself up in the first place. "Momma…" He hugged himself tightly and tried to get a hold of himself. That was easier said than done though. His mind was telling him once again what a fucking piece of shit he was. Mindy didn't love him. She thought he was pathetic and that was why she left. She was better off being gone anyway because all he ever brought people was pain and death. Annabelle, Joie, Mindy, Jeff…they had all died or gotten hurt because of him. It was his fault for their suffering. Not all of that was rational of course but he didn't care about rational. He was beyond any kind of rational thought. He was drowning, simply drowning in his misery and anything that propelled it more was welcomed.

He grabbed the razor again and once again started cutting his arms, crying pathetically because it hurt so much. He needed to dress his wounds before they got infected but he didn't care to do so. He wanted them to get infected so he could just die already. He couldn't stand going on like this anymore. It was too much. It was all just too much.

The pain was horrendous and the blood began to run down quite freely on his arm but he didn't care. The blood at least gave him some company. He didn't have anyone else. No Mindy, no Connor, no Jeff…he was alone. Utterly and completely alone and he hated it. He wanted to scream and beg someone to help him but he knew nobody would. He didn't deserve it. If he wanted it, he didn't deserve it. It was as simple as that.

Sobbing quietly, he found himself getting up to his feet and stumbling out of the room. His legs felt really weak and wobbly but he didn't care. He was just going…going…well he didn't know where he was going. He just stumbled out the front door and kept going, falling down and scraping up his hands before forcing himself back up and walking again. He had to get away. He didn't care where he went; as long as he got away, that was all that mattered to him.