And Part two...I know I coulda put these together, but the feel of this chapter and the last didn't feel right as a huge one chap.

And I had been spelling Leia's name all wrong the last few chapters...ya'll shoulda told me...lol...back to getting it right.

Enjoy!

Dean counted to twenty only stopping to stutter once over fifteen and opened his eyes trying to find a clue to where his two friends were hiding. Over the past few months of working with Maxwell he'd gotten a lot of his stuttering under control. His Mom didn't understand how Max had managed to succeed where specialists had not, but she was thankful. He was thankful as well, Max just made things easier for him to understand somehow, except when he sometimes used the biggest words, but his Mom said that was something he got from Aunt Rae like how he'd gotten his Mom's eyes or his Dad's smile.

He hated thinking about his...Felix it made him sad and his Mom angry. He had only called him once since school ended and he'd almost not noticed because he was having so much fun with Leia and Max. And Aunt Rachel, when she was sad she was so much fun and she was small so it was like playing with a kid-sized adult, but sometimes she would talk and talk and talk and then he'd have to ask his Mom to repeat but with less words.

He wandered across Leia's backyard looking behind the two trees that they often climbed and between the bushes and the wooden fence, they weren't in either place. He wanted to call out to them, but he knew they wouldn't answer, those were the rules of Hide and Seek.

He thought he saw Leia under the deck, but it turned out to be their dumb fat cat, Duke Tubbington the Fourth. The overweigh cat stumbled out of the way and Dean felt himself losing focus. Sometimes it was hard for him to keep doing things, especially when the end didn't come as soon as he liked. His Mom said that it was because he was special, that he just saw the world differently, but sometimes he wanted to be like everyone else. She didn't think he understood, but he understood enough, he was weird. That's why Felix didn't want him around and why Anthony picked on him. Max said that his Mommy was weird too and when she little the kids made fun of her cuz she was short and loud, but now she was famous and people loved her.

Aunt Rae being odd was one of the reasons she was his favoritest aunt. She never got annoyed when he stuttered, which he totally didn't do as much, but sometimes he did stumble and she just waited and she always listened and answered his questions. Plus, Aunt Rae knew all sorts of cool things about music and movies and animals and if he wasn't playing with Max and Leia then he was with her.

Leia said that sooner or later Aunt Rae and Max would go back to New York, but he didn't like to think about them leaving. He didn't know how far away New York was, but the way Leia said it made him feel like it was another planet. He wished that they could just stay in Lima, he and his Mom had moved from Chicago and they had stayed, so they could too. And if Mr. and Mr. Berry didn't want them to stay with them then they could stay with him and his Mom. Then Max could really be like his big brother and maybe Aunt Rae and his Mom could be their two mommies like Aunt Santi and Aunt Britt were Leia's two mommies.

Two mommies had to be better than only having one Mommy and Felix. Plus, his Mom said that soon Aunt Rae would have a baby and if she was his other Mommy than he'd get to be a big brother too.

"Dean! You were suppose to come find us!" Leia frowned from on top of the deck her hands on her hip.

"What are you doing?" Max asked from where he stood behind her.

"Nothing...let's go color." He smiled to himself then raced past the pair and into the house.

Beth scratched the back of her neck and then leaned across the table. She'd been allowing her mind to play with an idea that had struck her briefly back in New York and she finally felt comfortable sharing it with someone. It just so happened that the someone she chose was Noah.

"What do you think about Rae and Quinn?" She whispered conspiratorially.

"What are you getting at, Beth?" He asked taking a crunchy bite of hie hard shell taco.

"I mean, ok, so I know that Rae is still like in mourning and I know that Quinn's not like a lesbian or like she's like never had like a girlfriend that I know, but wouldn't it be cool if they got together? I mean Quinn's been like Rae's bff since we got here from home aaaaaaannnd I think she kinda sorta likes her."

"It's called being a friend."

She crossed her arms stubbornly expecting more of an agreement. "Well, duh I get that they're friends, but I mean they could be more, right? There's like nothing stopping that, right?"

"'cept the ghost of JewBabe's wife." He mumbled. He didn't mean to be antagonistic, the truth was he'd thought about his baby mama and his Jewbabe being together too, but he was realisitc enough to know that moving past Dawn was putting a definite halt to any possibility of them.

"Rae's not suppose to be alone forever. Dawn told her not to close her heart, I remember. She said that Rae had so much love to share and just cuz she wasn't here didn't mean that she was suppose to be alone. And Quinn loves Rae," She adjusted her statement seeing his eyes bulge slightly, "I mean she may not like love, love her , not like big love, but definite little love, loves Rae, you know what I mean."

"And in your head it would just be perfect if they got together?"

She nodded taking a quick sip of her cola and gazing quickly out the window in order to allow herself to organize her thoughts. "Yes. Cuz , Quinn deserves someone awesome and Rae is the awesomest and Rae needs someone to take care of her and Quinn already does that. Plus, I know for a fact Dean wants Maxie to be his bro and they're already best friends. Aaaaaand, if Quinn and Rae got together we could be like this totally circular family that doesn't make sense to other people, but makes perfect sense to us..."

"Aren't we already that?" He asked arching a bushy brow.

"I'm serious, Noah." She stamped her foot popping a tortilla chip in her mouth.

"I know you are, but you can't force these things, ok? It's sweet that you want what's best for them, but it's like Quinn and Rachel's lives and they have to like live them for themselves or whatever..." He tried to repeat what Artie had told him when he'd talked to him about the very same subject.

"Yeah I know..." She frowned slightly then smiled brightly at him, "but they would be awesome right?"

"The awesomest..." His smiled mirrored hers.

So thoughts, concerns, general mayhem?

I figured Lord Tubbington's successor would share the name, but maybe not the title...lol

Ink