We are getting near the end of this fic, and that's kinda hard for me to accept. I don't think I've enjoyed writing something this much since Serendipity. It makes me kinda want to slow down the updates to make it last longer, but some of my favorite scenes of the fic are still to come and I really am excited for you guys to read them soooo it's a bit of a Catch 22.

Fellow authors – I know I'm behind on some of y'all's stuff, I know some of you are behind on mine, we're all just trying to cope and we handle that in different ways and please know that I absolutely am going to read everything you publish, if you're also behind on my stuff please know I'm not waiting for you to catch up before I read your stuff or anything, I just gotta be in the right mindset to read, sometimes to read anything, sometimes to read specific genres. It's complicated. I'm sure you all get it.

Less than two weeks after Halloween, Ralph fled again.

Or rather, he asked if he could go with Patty to tour a university in Texas that she was considering for graduate school, and Paige agreed, only noticing after he left that he had packed much more than the three days' worth of clothes. She wanted to call Patty's mother and ask if the girl…woman, damn, Patty is twenty – one…had also overpacked, but she didn't really know Mrs. Logan that well, and, she realized a few moments later, Patty didn't live at home anymore anyway.

Two days later, Paige got a text. Another school planned. Washington State. Be gone a few extra days, love you, keep me posted on the wedding, okay?

Well, he was almost eighteen. And saying no would just make him feel like she was trying to trap him here, which she desperately wished she could do, but that wouldn't be fair. Sometimes, she knew, loving someone meant letting them go.

She just never imagined that Ralph would be someone she would have to let go. Even back before she knew his gifts, before they truly connected and understood things about each other, there was that deep – rooted love that parents and children share that bonded them and kept them close when they had nothing else but each other. When she'd started a relationship with Walter he had been thrilled, and then devasted when they broke up. Their reunion had made him cry, and he'd been almost more excited about their wedding than either of the people actually getting married. His love for the new baby had made her heart soar. This family was everything she ever wanted. And now, if he left, if he turned eighteen and moved away...Paige pressed her lips together. She and Walter and their baby in the condo, with nothing of the family she had before Walter left. She didn't give one shit about Drew. But Ralph was a different story, and having Walter and his baby in the place she and Ralph had once lived together alone, without Ralph there at all, already felt wrong.

"When is he coming back now?" Walter asked.

"How the hell do I know?" she responded tiredly, grunting when one of the baby's feet hit her square in the ribs.

"Sorry."

"No, I'm just in a bad mood."

He leaned over the back of the couch and kissed the top of her head. "If it helps, I also wish we could tether him to the garage."

She smirked in spite of herself. "There's an image."

"I'm serious," he said. "I've missed so much of his life already."

The years before they met. The three months that he was recovering from his car accident and couldn't face any of them. The four months she'd kept the two of them apart because she and Walter were business rivals. Maybe Walter wasn't in Ralph's DNA, but he was still every bit the boy's father as she was his mother. And at least she had had him in her life since the moment he existed. Walter had had to wait nine years for him.

"So, is this tethering going to be as soon as he gets back, or…?"

Walter smiled.

"I'm sorry," the front desk agent said. "We don't have any rooms with two beds at this hotel."

"How do you have a hotel with all singles?" Patty asked, cocking her head in confusion.

"We're oriented toward business travel with our location and negotiated rates with most of the clean technology companies in the area. Plus, rooms with two beds attract families and traveling sports teams, which usually ramps up the noise level. Keeping it all singles makes this location a more peaceful and pleasant stay for our businessmen and women."

Ralph and Patty looked at each other, and Ralph shrugged. "We could go back to the Marriott, I guess." They had been fairly expensive, but they were going to be here for five days, while Patty checked out two schools in the area.

"The highway robbers?" Patty shook her head. "Not on your life. We'll take it," she added, looking back at the agent. "I assume you don't take cash."

"No, we don't."

"That's fine." She slid her Visa across the counter.

"Thank you. Can I see your I.D. as well?"

"Right." Patty fumbled with her wallet.

"I'll just show mine," Ralph offered.

"You're not even eighteen," Patty said.

"You must be twenty – one to check in," the agent said, looking curiously at them as if suddenly doubting either of their legality.

"I'm twenty – one," Patty assured her, finally locating her drivers license and handing it over.

"Do you have a floor preference?"

They glanced at each other. "Not really," Ralph said.

"No," Patty replied at the same time. "Just not near any ice machines, please."

"No worries about that," she replied. "All the rooms have ice makers in them, so we actually don't have any actual ice machines."

"Nifty," Patty said. "I mean, you know, cool."

Ralph raised his eyebrows at her.

"Alright," the woman said, handing the I.D. and credit card back to Patty and firing up the key machine. "Breakfast is six – thirty to nine – thirty Monday through Friday and seven – thirty to eleven on weekends. Housekeeping is every other day unless otherwise requested, and there are vending machines next to the elevators on each floor. Any questions or concerns, I'm here twenty – four seven. Or rather," she stopped, clearing her throat and blushing slightly, "I'm here from three to eleven each day, but someone is here twenty – four seven. We are staffed twenty – four seven."

"We got it," Ralph said as Patty giggled. "Thank you."

"Of course. Please come down anytime."

"She was pretty nice," Patty said as they headed toward the elevator.

"Pretty nice, or pretty pretty?" Ralph asked.

"I suppose she was pretty, too."

"You suppose. Okay." He pressed the button on the wall and the elevator doors opened instantly.

Patty looked at him oddly, but didn't say anything, just selected the button for the fourth floor.

The room wasn't bad. The bed was a king, so at least they wouldn't be awkwardly close together as they slept. Not that Ralph had any feelings for her anymore, but he wasn't as accustomed to platonically sharing a bed with someone as people who grew up playing sports or going to family reunions.

Of course, he wasn't a fan of sleeping next to someone he was romantically involved with either. Bri had been a cuddler to the extent of him not being able to sleep at all when it was warm in the room.

Patty threw her stuff down and gestured toward the bed. "You have a side?"

"Yeah, whatever is closest to the wall."

"Interesting. I'll have to have Toby psycho – analyze that when we get back to L.A."

"Nothing deep about it. I just want to be by the outlet."

She blinked. "Wait, so you literally do not have a side of the bed."

"Nope."

She held her hands up. "Damn, I'm suddenly terrified of you."

"I have a hard time believing Patty Logan is terrified of anyone."

"Assholes at school I can handle. But not having a side of the bed?" She shook her head. "That's a little much for me, Dineen."

Ralph chuckled, but the smile faded from his face when his phone buzzed and he saw who was calling. Sighing, he hit accept. "What do you want, Brianna?"

"Just checking up on you. I heard you were traveling a lot and wanted to check in."

"Uh huh. It's fine." He cleared his throat. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm great. The baby is great, too. Not too long now."

"Yep."

"Are you going to be there when I give birth?"

Ralph rolled his eyes. "No, Bri. We've been over this."

"I know, but, like…"

"'I know but like' nothing. Your mom will be there."

"No. She and my dad are spending the next six months in London for his stupid business trip. It's going to be me and Mira, if you aren't going to make it."

It wasn't a question of making it. "Well good," he said, "you have Mira." He vaguely remembered who Mira was. She and Brianna had only started to get close around the time he had ended the relationship. "You won't be by yourself."

"You're really not going to be there? It is your baby, you know."

"You know, that's a great story, Bri. You should tell it again. To someone else. I am busy. Goodbye." He hung up and tossed the phone on the mattress. It bounced lightly on impact.

"Bri?" Patty asked, her voice sympathetic.

"What was your first clue?"

"I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "It's whatever."

"You know, I was texting Sly earlier, while you were taking your turn driving. He feels really good about the case he's building for you. You know, the one about not having to pay child support or do the visitation thing."

"Ah yes, that one," he said sarcastically, the corner of his mouth turning up to let Patty know he wasn't annoyed at her.

They both jumped when the desk phone rang. Patty frowned, crossing the room and lifting the receiver. "Hell…o?" She furrowed her brow. "Leah who? Oh. Duh. I didn't see a name tag when we checked in." She sank onto the bed. "Yeah, yeah the room is great. No, I can't think of anything." She smiled, kicking her feet out lazily as they hung in the air. "I sure appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, you too. Bye." She looked at Ralph. "That was the desk girl. She wanted to make sure everything was okay with the room." Ralph raised his eyebrows, and Patty frowned again. "What?"

"Just…calling…to make sure the room we just checked into is okay?"

Patty shrugged. "Some places do that."

"Places like this?"

"She's just doing her job. It's a good job. I like…when people are thorough. Take pride in their work. You know."

Ralph climbed up on the bed and knelt next to her. "Patty, we're close friends, right?"

"Well," she said, "we're sleeping together tonight, so I would say so."

"So, uh, can I ask you a personal question?" He could see her defenses go up with a subtle change in her eyes. "Never mind," he said. "It's not important."

"No," she said. "No, go ahead. What?"

He tipped his head to the side, his tongue running along his lips. "Do you…like girls? As in…like them like them?" He hated that juvenile phrasing, but he couldn't think of another way to finish that sentence."

Patty looked fairly surprised. "What? No! I mean…I mean no. Shut up." Her cheeks and ears were turning pink. "Leah was not flirting."

"I didn't say she was flirting."

"I…you…" she pulled her knees up and rolled on her side away from Ralph, tucked into a ball. "I don't know."

"I mean, I don't either, but I'm pretty sure at least that she was flirting."

"Huh? No. I mean, I know she was." Patty was silent a moment, then peered back over her shoulder at Ralph. "I mean the question. Yours. The question you asked me. That's the answer. I don't know."

"Okay." He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm here if you want to talk. I mean, I know I'm here…now, but I mean whenever. Any time."

"Thanks." Her voice was quiet. "I just don't know what…I don't know how to talk about something I'm not sure of."

Ralph laid down facing her back, both of them diagonally sideways on the bed, heads pointing to a corner away from the pillows. "Well, this isn't a presentation," he said. "This isn't an essay or an oral report. This is me. I read your rough drafts, remember."

She rolled over to face him. "I just don't…everyone, everything in society just assumes girls will grow up to like boys and boys will grow up to like girls and any deviation from that is weird or it's forced or it's unexpected because so many people can't fathom that straight is only the default in their minds. Most of these people get that there are options other than straight but they dig their heels in when it's someone they know, like it's something bad, like sure some people are like that but why does it have to be anyone in my life, ya yadda ya." She sighed. "I know I like guys. I don't know if I like girls, too. And I don't know how to know." She made a figure eight shape on the comforter with her nail.

"Well," Ralph said, "as a straight guy…" he felt a bit weird saying that since he had made out with Will pretty extensively at the baby shower, but Will also identified as straight ("you can goof off with one person without it defining you, Ralph; identity is what you are, not what you do") and it wasn't like he'd ever thought about any other guy that way…maybe he was still figuring stuff out too. "As someone who is pretty sure he's straight, but who definitely likes girls," he said, starting again, "Leah is really pretty. If you think so too, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. You can appreciate someone's aesthetic value without being attracted to them."

"Yeah. I know." The only light came from the window and the sun had gone behind a cloud, dimming the room, but Ralph thought Patty was blushing, just slightly. "She is pretty, that I know for sure."