Debwood-1999: It came out to Mindy already without really needing to be said. She knew as soon as James came home what had happened. He'll never go into details about how he did it but yeah, she knows. And she's not asking for apologies or gifts because she's justifying it all in her head. Trish upset James so James killed her to protect himself. It's as simple as that in her mind. DarkMage6: James definitely wants to do away with Kane…he'll get his chance sooner than he thinks. And a girl Kane can't control? Oooh boy, that could end bloody. Nooks: Yeah James is a romantic serial killer…it's kind of an oxymoron isn't it? Connor: *waves* Hi Nooksy! Give me cookies and me love you long time! NeroAnne: Ew, I hate essays *hugs* Their relationship is definitely out of the ordinary but it's hard to deny their sweetness (usually anyway). EternalxInsanity: She's definitely not mad at James. The mind fuck Trish pulled on her is just making her really paranoid and insecure. James is hell bent on pulling her through it though. slashdite: There won't be long to wait for Mark because…well here he is! *points to this chapter*

After waking up early to dope Mindy up with her drug filled strawberry milkshake and watching her go off downstairs to start the wedding planning with Amber, James went back to sleep until his cell phone began to ring. "Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me," he muttered. To say he was not a morning person would be an understatement. He reluctantly opened his eyes and groaned loudly, taking a moment to mutter a slew of obscenities before grabbing it and answering it. "Hello?" he said sleepily.

"Who the fuck got such a high score on your pinball game?" Mark asked angrily. "I've been playing this fucking thing for an hour now and I still can't beat the bastard score. It's fucking mocking me and I'm about to toss this entire thing out into the garbage. It's pissing me the hell off."

James blinked several times, taken aback by what Mark had just said. "Uh…where are you Marky?"

"In your house in LA stupid! I just got here not that long ago. I was going to call you sooner but this evil pinball game from the Twilight Zone distracted me."

James barely repressed a chuckle. Mark sounded like he was actually pouting, which was just too funny. "I don't even remember buying a pinball machine," he said as he sat up and began hunting for his clothes. "Cooper probably got it and jacked the high score all up. He's good at that kind of stuff."

"That evil bastard," Mark growled. "I-FUCK!" There was a loud thump from his end and James was sure that Mark had just kicked the machine out of anger. "I give up! Fuck it, I'm done!"

James finally stopped holding back his laughter. It was too much to take. "You're a dummy Marky," he declared happily while doubling over and laughing so hard that he was crying.

"Fuck you Lawson," Mark growled, although it wasn't a very good one. That meant he wasn't anywhere close to meaning it. "Now get over here. I want to see you."

"Let me get dressed and tell everyone where I'm going," James said as he slipped on a clean pair of jeans. Now it was time to look for a shirt. "Cooper's the only one who knows you were coming up here at all. I haven't even brought it up to Mindy yet."

"Oh. Do I want to know why?"

James found a plain black t-shirt on the floor. After taking a quick sniff, he determined that it was clean enough to wear. "It's been crazy here Marky," he said as he slipped the shirt on and worked on finding his shoes. "Mindy's had a million things to do and I got some shit done-"

"Has Trish drove you up the wall yet?" Mark asked suddenly. "She drives Glen batshit crazy whenever she's in LA with him and Mindy. Running around acting like she owns everyone-"

"Well she won't be doing that anymore," James said darkly while he was putting his shoes on.

"Why not?" Mark asked. He almost sounded like he didn't want to know the answer to that question. "What did you do Lawson?"

"I'll tell you when I get there," James replied. Julie had texted him the address to his house out here the other day so he at least knew where he was going. "Believe me though, she deserved everything she got." He hung up the phone and stuck it in his pocket before checking on everyone else's whereabouts. Cooper and Chelsea were still sleeping, Connor was running all around the house with Snoopy and Mindy and Amber were looking at some bridal magazine together. "No!" Mindy scolded when James attempted to sneak a peek. "It's not time for you to see yet!"

He pouted his lips and attempted to take another peek. "Why not? I want to see."

"Not until the wedding," Mindy said firmly. She marked the page she had been looking at before closing the magazine and swatting him away with it. "You sees it before the wedding, it's bad luck."

"Oh. Well damn it." James sat down next to her and placed a kiss on the side of her head. "That sucks."

"Yeah, well that's tradition." She frowned as she looked at his clothes. "Are you going somewhere Jamie?"

"Yeah. Mark decided it was a good idea to come up to sunny LA. I'm going to meet him and test the waters so I know whether I can tell him we're getting married and having a baby right off the bat or if I have to slowly build up to it. Marky's sensitive you know."

Mindy snorted and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Yeah sure. And I'm Robert Einstein."

James blinked and then frowned. "Who's Robert Einstein?"

"The man who invented electricity," Mindy replied.

James knew that last bit wasn't true, but he wasn't going to argue with her about it now. "Are you sure you're okay with me going?"

"I'm not a baby Jamie," Mindy huffed, sitting up to her full height. "I'm a big girl."

He chuckled and kissed her again, this time on the lips. "I know you are Baby Doll." He grabbed a pillow from the couch and handed it to Amber. "Here, go wake Cooper up with this. He needs a good whack in the head every once in awhile so he knows to stay on his toes."

"Okay Daddy," Amber replied, taking both James and Mindy by surprise. She grabbed the pillow and ran out of the room, leaving the two of them alone. They both failed to find the words that would be proper after that declaration. When they both failed to come up with anything, she grabbed his hand and gave him a serious look. "You won't be gone forever, right?"

"Right," he assured her, kissing her hand gently before kissing her lips once again. "I don't want to be gone forever." He gently placed a hand on her stomach and smiled softly. "If Marky tries to keep me too long, I'll call, alright?"

"Okay," Mindy sighed. She glanced down at her stomach and giggled. "Soon she'll be kicking you when you touch her."

"I can hardly wait." He moved her hair back and gently kissed her neck. "I love you."

"I love you too."

He kissed her again before finally getting up and leaving. The drive to Mark took about a half hour. It would have taken a little less, but traffic was so congested that he had to get off the interstate and take a detour, which added an extra ten minutes to his trip. When he finally got to the house, he found Mark sitting out on the front porch waiting for him. "You break the pinball machine?" he asked with a smirk as he got out of the car.

Mark shook his head. "Not yet. But believe me, it will die if it keeps mocking me." He got up and waiting until James was halfway up the porch steps before grabbing him by the arm and dragging him into the house. James started to ask what the hell he was up to, but after he was slammed up against the wall and kissed for all he was worth, the answer was pretty obvious.

"I've missed you," Mark said breathlessly, allowing himself and James to catch their breath before starting with the kissing again.

James tried to say that he had missed Mark too, but he wasn't being allowed to talk long enough to do so. Finally he just gave up and pushed Mark down to the floor, literally taking him right then and there. After being so gentle with Mindy lately, it felt nice to be as rough as he wanted to be with Mark. Mark could take it with absolutely no problem. Hell, he actually seemed to want to take it, which was surprising. Usually he was at least trying to fight for dominance. He really must did miss me.

Two rounds of rough sex and a half dozen massive rug burns on Mark's back later, the two of them wound up on the couch. It really wasn't big enough for both of them so James literally had to lay on top of Mark. He didn't mind that at all though. Mark may have been a cranky bastard more often than not, but he was comfy cranky bastard.

"I'm not gonna be able to walk right for a week, you jackass," Mark grumbled as he messed with James's hair.

James smirked and began tracing his fingers over Mark's tattoos. "You know you loved it," he said.

Mark grunted before changing the subject. "So what the fuck did you do to Trish? You kind of gave me this really weird feeling on the phone earlier."

James sighed and began running his fingers up and down Mark's side. "I killed her."

Mark looked startled by that confession. "You did what?"

"I killed her. I cut off her head, dismembered her body and dumped it in the ocean."

"Do I want to know why?"

"She mind fucked Mindy to the point where she was convinced I didn't actually love her. You should have seen how Mindy was. Trish practically broke her. And the bitch started talking about me like she knew me…cunt brought up Caroline and I lost it." James was leaving out the context in which Trish brought up Caroline because the baby conversation had not been had yet.

"Did you tell Mindy yet?"

"Yeah. And you know what? She actually apologized to me. I butchered her twin sister but she was sorry because I got upset. The girl was mind fucked beyond belief and I get an apology." James sighed and shook his head. "Do you have any idea how weird that was? I mean…she thinks I'm perfect Marky."

Mark sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Is that a problem?" he asked tiredly.

"No…it's just strange. I've never been perfect to anyone. You think I'm annoying-"

"No, I just say that you can be annoying. You-"

"-Annabelle hated the fact that I was a killer, Cooper thinks I'm nuts for liking you and I can't even begin to know what Connor really thinks of me. I've been the fuckup for so long-"

"James, you ain't no fucking fuckup," Mark said firmly. "Are you nuts? Yes. Psychopathic? Most definitely. But on the scale of one to fuckup, you don't come close to fuckup."

James shook his head. "You'll probably sing a different tune when you find out what else I have to tell you."

"Oh yeah? Well what else is there?"

"Uh…" James decided to go with the safest revelation first. "I've taken Mindy hunting with me a couple times."

Mark just about choked to death on the breath he just took. "Are you fucking serious?" he asked in disbelief. "You…you took…you don't even take ME hunting!"

"Because you told me to quit asking you to go along!" James said defensively. "Remember? You stopped wanting to years ago. So sue me for finding someone who actually likes to come with me."

Mark rolled his eyes and moved James off of him so he could sit up. "That's a fucking risky move Lawson. I hope you know what you're doing."

"Oh don't worry, I do," James assured him.

Mark snorted in disbelief. "I doubt that," he muttered. He shook his head in disbelief before speaking again. "What else is there?"

"Uh…what?" James asked, trying to play dumb.

"Come on Lawson, don't bullshit me. I can tell there's more to this than what you're telling me." Mark smirked and pushed James playfully. "You're not the only one who can pick up on these signs you know."

James smiled back weakly. "Well…hypothetically, if I told you that Crispy's baby has been aborted and Mindy's now pregnant with my child and we were engaged, what would you say?"

Mark titled his head to the side, taking all of that in. "Oh Jesus Christ Lawson!" he finally exclaimed. "You leave for a few days and you do all that?"

"Well…yeah," James admitted. "I did it. Are you mad?"

Mark threw up his hands. "I don't know. I really don't know what I am. All I know is that I don't want to lose you."

"Well that's not happening," James said firmly. "Believe me, I am determined to find a way for you, Mindy and Cooper to live peacefully under one roof."

"Good luck with that," Mark said with a roll of his eyes. Things were quiet for a minute after that. James almost started to speak but Mark interrupted him. "Glen came to me and asked me for help," he confessed.

"He did?" James asked with a raised eyebrows.

Mark nodded. "I told him no and then he stormed out. I've got the feeling that he's going to do something stupid."

James stared at Mark for a long moment, thinking about what Glen could possibly try to do, especially if he found out the bun in Mindy's oven was not his anymore. "Come on," he grunted, grabbing Mark by the arm and pulling him up to the feet. "We need our clothes."

"Why?" Mark asked.

"Because we're going back." James just had this really weird feeling now and it wasn't going to be shaken until he was positively sure that Mindy was alright.