Five Years…

Kali crossed her arms over her chest and began sulking from where she was sitting on the couch. She looked up at Stan and Kyle with begging puppy eyes. "I don't wanna go to school…! I wanna stay here with you…!"

As Stan made a face, Kyle smiled just slightly and knelt down in front of their daughter. "You'll love it Kali, I promise. Plus Siobhan, Keira, Nicolai, and Thane will be there too." His smile became extremely soft. "They'll probably be on the bus with you too."

She made a face and shook her head. "I wanna stay here!"

Stan sighed. He never remembered being this difficult with his parents, mostly because his father was the one who didn't want him to go, plus Shelly threatened to beat him up if he didn't get on the damn bus. "It's not that bad Kali. How about we walk you to the bus stop, huh?"

Kyle smiled up at Stan and nodded. "That's a great idea!" He looked back at her. "Would you like that?"

Kali's face softened and she nodded. Anymore time she got with her parents was better than having to go to school alone. "Yeah."

"Okay," Kyle stood up, "let's go." He held out his hand for his daughter to take.

She took her mother's hand and jumped off of the couch, ruffling her red-orange sundress just slightly. She slipped on a pair of matching ballet flats and grabbed the small bright red messenger bag next to the door. She grabbed onto Kyle's hand and then Stan's as they walked out of the apartment door and towards the bus stop the two used to stand at as kids. It wasn't that far away, and Stan and Kyle found they could find their way back easily regardless of it having been nearly eight years since they rode the bus last.

When the three approached and saw Kenny and Butters standing there with Thane, whose hair was now dyed blonde so he could more resemble his parents; Butters held Thane in a tight hug, refusing to let go - they managed to get Thane back from his biological parents a month ago, far past when they had expected him back, but they had just been happy that the courts ruled in their favor. Kyle laughed, grabbing the attention of the three blondes. "And here I thought we'd be the only ones bringing their child to the bus stop."

Kenny chuckled. "Butters wouldn't let Thane come alone, though he said he wanted to."

Stan shrugged. "Well, it's probably a good thing. It's easier on everyone that way, I guess."

"Yeah."

"Hey there," Craig said as him and Tweek walked up with Siobhan and Keira in matching dark blue dresses holding hands.

"Hey Craig, hey Tweek." Kyle smiled. He released Kali's hand when she began tugging away to move over to Thane, finally released, Siobhan, and Keira. "How've you guys been lately?"

"I-It's been hectic f-f-for the past week!" Tweek exclaimed. "I d-didn't think anything could get w-w-worse than when we a-adopted Siobhan and Keira!"

Craig sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Can't argue with that. Getting the girls ready for their first day of school has been…wow…"

"Yeah, it's been the same getting Kali ready," Kyle chuckled.

The group talked a bit more as the four children played around them waiting for the bus. It seemed like Kali was settling down from the nervousness she had been displaying earlier just being around most of her friends. Shortly before the bus was due to arrive, Damien - his black hair was back in a high ponytail, the end of which just barely reached past his shoulders, and there was the beginnings of a moustache and beard appearing on his face - and Pip - his blonde hair cut short - walked up with a little girl with long wavy blonde hair and bright blue eyes clutching to Pip's leg.

Everyone just stared at them, not sure what to say. They never thought Damien and Pip would ever even be seen with a child, let alone walking one to the bus stop for school. Since no one else said anything, Kyle finally spoke up: "Hey, uh…where've you guys been the past few weeks?"

"It's a long story," Pip chuckled as he scratched the back of his head.

"Okay, but," Kyle knelt down and smiled at the girl half-hiding behind Pip, "who's this?"

Pip's smile got wider and he gently pushed the five-year-old wearing a plain red t-shirt and a pair of black jean capris. She hung her head, hiding behind her hair. "This is Piper, our daughter."

"Piper, huh?" Kyle chuckled and stood. "What were the chances of finding a girl to adopt with a name that close to your own, Pip?"

"Well, actually…" He looked over at Damien.

The black haired man smiled just slightly and patted Piper on the head. "We'll explain later, after they go to school." (He would later tell them how he gave up the remainder of his powers to his father in order to revive the five-year-old from her prison in hell after meeting her.)

Kyle nodded and looked at Stan, who finally found his own voice: "Well, this is, uh, unexpected." He smiled down at the shy girl. "She's adorable though."

"I know." Pip smiled. "I couldn't leave her alone, I'm so glad Damien agreed with me."

Damien nodded. "I can't argue with you," he kissed Pip's forehead, "my Pip."

Stan smiled and looked over at where Kali was laughing with Keira at something Thane and Siobhan were doing. "Kali, could you come here?"

Kali looked over at her parents and ran over to them. "What is it daddy?"

"Kali," he gestured to Piper, "this is Piper. She's Uncle Damien and Uncle Pip's daughter. She's new, so be very nice to her."

Kali smiled and then walked up to Piper, turning her head so that she could try to get a look at the new girl's face. "Hi there! I'm Kali!" She said enthusiastically.

Piper glanced up at Kali from between a part in her hair. "I'm Piper," she muttered.

"Come on," Kali grabbed onto the blonde girl's hand, "you need to meet everyone! They'll love you!"

"I-I don't know Kali…" Regardless, Piper followed Kali over to where everyone was still playing around to be unwillingly introduced.

Kenny chuckled. "Kali's more than a little enthusiastic about meeting new people."

"And she didn't want to go to school?" Stan raised an eyebrow.

Kyle chuckled. "She's like you that way." He pecked his husband on the cheek.

Stan nodded a bit. "That's true."

Butters looked down the street when we heard something and then saw the Twinkie-yellow bus driving down the street. "H-Hopefully school goes well for them."

Kenny rested one hand on Butters' shoulder. "It will babe."

Kyle nodded once and turned his attention to where their children were still playing - Piper was sitting on the grass with her knees pulled up to her chest, Kali was sitting next to her trying to get her to play with the others. "Guys, the bus is coming!"

The group of five-year-olds looked over at the bus as it approached and groaned. They didn't want to go to school, they just wanted to stay home and play. Regardless, they skulked over to their parents and grabbed their backpacks. As the bus drove up, Kali and Piper both began begging to stay home, Butters asked Thane if he really wanted to go, and Siobhan and Keira just got on the bus. Stan and Damien pushed their daughters gently onto the bus just before Thane wriggled away from Butters to leap into the bus.

"SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!" Everyone looked up at the bus driver when they heard that familiar line and just stared. It was Miss Crabtree.

"Dude," Stan muttered to Kyle as the bus door closed, "I thought she died years ago."

"I did too," Kyle said back.

Kenny scratched his head and sighed deeply. "I think my brain just ate itself."

"Mine too," Butters agreed.

Damien shrugged, he didn't quite understand why his friends and husband were confused. Weird shit still happened around South Park, it just didn't happen as often. "Let's go get breakfast guys." He grabbed onto Pip's hand. "We have the time now."

Stan nodded. "Yeah. Breakfast does sound good."

"Let's go then." Craig grabbed Tweek's hand and followed Damien and Pip with everyone else as they moved towards Bob Evan's.

Ten Years…

Kyle wiped his eyes of the tears falling from them and took a breath to calm himself. He tried to get his mind off of the here and now, he hated his suit and dress shoes, he looked too formal, but at least no one was complaining about him wearing his ushanka, it was the only thing that was even remotely comfortable about his outfit. He looked in the mirror of the funeral home's restroom and began toying with a ringlet on his long red hair. He needed a trim.

"Kyle?" Stan walked into the restroom in a black suit that mirrored his husband's. "The service is beginning."

Kyle took a deep breath and walked over to Stan. "Okay."

Stan brushed a tear from the redhead's face and kissed his cheek. "It's alright Kyle. Everything will be okay."

"I know," Kyle muttered. "How's mom?"

"She's in front of Ike's casket, bawling." A week ago, while serving his first tour in Afghanistan after enlisting in the Army, Private Ike Broflovski was involved in a "friendly fire accident" that killed three people. Sergeant First Class Eric Cartman had been found guilty of the "accident," court martialed, and sentenced to death by firing squad. He was scheduled to die in two weeks. (His only defense for the shooting was, "The Jews are plotting with the Chinese to destroy America and take over the world! I did this country a service by taking them out!")

He nodded. "Okay." He grabbed Stan's hand and followed him out to the main room of the funeral home. He stopped when he saw the closed casket and squeezed his husband's hand. He suddenly didn't want to be there, he wanted to leave and just go home. He didn't think that he could really deal with the knowledge that his little brother was dead…willingly attending his funeral would be the ultimate way to accept that fact. He didn't want to.

Stan turned back to face Kyle and cupped his cheek with one hand. "Kyle, come on."

"I can't Stan…" He began shaking. "I just wanna leave."

Stan rested an arm around his husband's shoulders and slowly made him walk forward. "You're fine. I'll be right behind you in the row."

Kyle nodded and dropped down into one of the seats in the front row. He hadn't realized until then just how heavy his legs had been. Behind him, he could hear Kali talking to Piper, having become best friends since meeting five years ago, and Stan shushing them both as the service began. He didn't hear a word as the man up front spoke about Ike so calmly and easily, almost as if he was his closest friend or family member. Kyle didn't like it, mostly because Ike was being referred to in the past-tense. He clamped his hands together in his lap. He hated hearing his little brother talked about like that, though he knew he'd have to get used it. Ike would always be talked about in the past-tense from now on.

While the man was still talking, he felt Stan's hand rest on one of his shoulders and squeeze it comfortingly. Stan knew this was hard on his husband, and Sheila seemed to be avoiding Kyle, Stan, and Kali all day. It wasn't helping Kyle's breaking heart.

The two stayed like that for twenty minutes more, waiting until the man had finished talking before standing. The Paul-Bearers were all soldiers in Ike's unit that he'd become close friends with.

As everyone else walked past Ike's casket, Stan and Kali broke out of line and walked over to Kyle. Stan embraced his husband. "I'm sorry about this Kyle, I really am."

Kyle smiled sadly and wiped the tears from his face. "It's fine. I guess I'm glad that the fat ass is gonna die for this though."

Stan nodded. "Yeah."

Kali pulled on her mother's hand. She was in a formal black dress with Stan's old blue and red poof-ball hat from when he was a kid on her head. "Mom, it's okay." She smiled just slightly. "Uncle Ike wouldn't want you to cry."

Kyle blinked in surprise. He was amazed that Kali had such a good grip on death, he knew death didn't surprise him at her age, but after watching Kenny die all those times, it'd be weird if he didn't. But he supposed that since her best friend had been killed and revived, she'd probably understand it. Kyle smiled just slightly. "You're right baby." He patted her on the head. "He wouldn't want me to."

Once everyone had given the Broflovskis their condolences, the casket was carried out to the black hearse waiting outside. It was a short drive to the cemetery, a national military cemetery as opposed to the one nearest to the only Synagogue in South Park. The burial was equally short, a prayer was accompanied by the firing of rifles. The C.O. of Ike's unit handed both Sheila and Kyle a folded American flag each, saluted to them, offered his best wishes, and turned to rejoin the soldiers holding the rifles.

Kyle walked over to where Stan and Kali were standing next to the Blazer waiting for him, the folded flag held tight to his chest. "Let's go home." He glanced back at his mother, catching her eyes for only a moment before she turned away and dropped into the passenger's seat of her car. He climbed into the passenger's seat of the Blazer and forced himself to look forward as Stan pulled out of the cemetery.

Ike had kept the ice-thin relationship between Kyle and Stan, and Sheila alive. Now that he was dead, Kyle had serious doubts that him and his mother would talk very much, if at all.

Thirteen Years…

Kali laughed as she stepped off of the bus with Piper, Thane, Siobhan, Keira, and Nicolai. She straightened out her dark blue silk blouse and flattened an imaginary wrinkle in her blue jeans - it was Kyle's fault she was worried about it, he was constantly concerned about the way her clothes looked, though he was a little more lax than Stan on what she wore, (Stan was against the low cut blouse she was wearing, but she had just yelled that she was gonna be late for school and ran to the bus stop.)

She looked over at Siobhan, Keira, and Nicolai. "You guys sure you don't wanna come over?"

Siobhan nodded. "We're expected home."

Nicolai nodded too. "As am I. I don't think mom likes me hanging out with you guys too much."

Piper tilted her head to the side innocently. She still held a lot of the cuteness in her that had convinced Pip and Damien to revive her eight years ago. "Why?"

He shrugged and smiled softly at her. "I don't know, but it's not like I listen to her anyway. By the way," he took in the dark red tank top and knee-length skirt combo she was wearing and winked at her, "you're looking exceptionally sexy today my dear."

Piper turned bright red and hid her face behind her still long wavy blonde hair.. "Th-Thank you…?"

Nicolai chuckled and waved as he followed Siobhan and Keira the direction they were walking. As they were walking off, Kali laughed and threw one arm around her best friend's shoulders. "So…?"

"So what?" Piper glanced over at Kali from a small part in her hair.

"Has Nicolai asked you out yet?"

"What?"

"Come on…! Tell me…!"

Thane raised an eyebrow as he adjusted the strap of his light gray backpack on his shoulder. "Why are you suddenly obsessed with this?"

"Come on, it's obvious that Nicolai loves our Piper." Kali's smiled became wide. "You can't say that you haven't noticed."

"Of course I've noticed. You'd have to blind to not see it. But why do you suddenly care?"

"I've always cared." She hugged Piper closer to her. "This involved my best friend, so of course I've always cared."

Thane rolled his eyes to the sky. "You get too involved sometimes."

Kali showed Thane her middle finger. "Screw you dude."

He smirked and glanced over at her from between strands of his faded blonde hair - he needed to re-dye it. "You know you'd like to."

Kali smirked as the trio stopped in front of the door of the apartment and slowly unzipped the fading orange parka that was two sizes too big for his thin frame. "Maybe I do…!"

"Uh, um," Piper looked between her two friends, "can we just get inside?"

Kali stopped and laughed. "Fine." She reached into her the front pocket of her pants and grabbed the key, unlocking the door. She released Piper and dropped her house key onto the end table next to the door. "Mom, I'm home. Hope you don't mind that I brought Thane and Piper home with me."

Silence.

"Mom?" Kali dropped her backpack onto the floor. "You home?"

Still silence.

She shrugged and started towards the kitchen. "You guys want anything to drink?"

Thane nodded. "Yeah, grab me a Mountain Dew."

"Some orange juice would be nice," Piper said with a small smile.

"Okay." Kali went for the fridge, but stopped and looked down when she felt her foot kick something. Her eyes widened when she saw the redhead lying face down on the linoleum. "MOM!"

Thane and Piper ran over to Kali and froze. Kali turned Kyle over to see his passed out, pale face. She shook him. "Mom, mom, wake up!"

Thane knelt down next to Kyle and searched for a pulse. He found one, but it was very shallow. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and quickly dialed 911. "This is Thane McCormick, I need an ambulance to the McMullen apartments, building C, apartment 203. …We found my friend's mother passed out on the kitchen floor, unresponsive, with a very shallow pulse. …Thank you. Please hurry." He flipped his cell phone shut and knelt down next to Kyle again - Piper was next to Kali now trying to calm her down. "An ambulance is on the way."

Kali nodded and bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling. "Thank you." She was terrified, unsure what to do right now. What if Kyle didn't wake up? What was she going to tell Stan when she had to call him and tell him her, Thane, and Piper found Kyle passed out on the floor, dying?

…

I am sorry for two things: 1) That this took so long to post. I got stuck at my friend's house last night when it freakin' snowed and iced, (I hate Indiana). 2) That this ends so abruptly. I promise the next chapter will pick up right where this one ended, but it was getting kinda long.