Wow, hi everybody! I know, you can't believe your eyes after a 4-month hiatus in my writing. Well, to put it mildly, Zickachik and I had a VERY busy summer. Between work, family, death…yeah. But I have a stack of writing just waiting for a look over before it gets posted, so it should all be posted shortly.

And alas, this is the last chapter of the epic story known as Finn. I know, nearly 6 years on this ride and I will miss it dearly, but fear not! I have several chapters of a sequel planned, and partially written, so that will probably be my big project to get it read for December after my damn teaching practicum. I know, they're letting me around kids – not wise. But to tide you over until then, there is a small preview of that story at the end of this chapter that not even Zick has seen, so you can all enjoy that!

Special thanks to Zickachik for being my wonderful Beta on this project. I know Finn means as much to her, if not more, than it does to me. So I am grateful to have someone who was just as passionate as I was on board.

Disclaimer: The Usual.

And without further adieu…

Epilogue

November 1966
2 months post book

Darry's POV

"Finn!"

I was jolted from sleep and groaned into my pillow. It didn't matter whose house we were sleeping at, it was always Finn that Pony yelled for these days when he needed something. And as usual, the kid didn't bother thinking about whose day off it was when he started yelling like that. I had the theory that he would have found what he was looking for a hell of a lot faster without asking, but that wasn't the way fourteen-year-old kids thought.

"Layne!"

I felt like shaking my head right then. Even Aries, with all the brains he had, was a typical fourteen-year-old kid.

"Sodapop!" Now Steve was in on it. Hopefully they'd grow out of it before they were Steve's age.

I sighed and rolled over so I was staring at the ceiling. It had been my ceiling since Mom and Dad died and theirs before that, but I was more than used to the difference by now. I saw it every morning right around seven thirty, no matter what. Even on my days off. With how things always seemed to go around here, it seemed like I never slept in anymore. I didn't mind so much because there was no point in getting annoyed over things like that. There were usually afternoon naps on my days off, though. That was one thing Finn had taught me. I had been resistant at first, unable to relax during the day, but she was a good teacher when it came to a lot of things.

"I'll be out in a minute!" Soda hollered.

"Keep it down. It's Darry's day off."

Finn's voice was pitched low enough so I probably wouldn't have heard it if she was the first person yelling, but it had the desired effect. The entire house was quiet then, enough so I could hear the cooking bacon in the kitchen and the light, even steps Aries made down the hall, trying to do what his sister asked. Usually when she asked the boys to do something, they listened. I had the feeling it would always amaze me how she could manage that without ever raising her voice. It seemed that I always did more yelling than anyone around here. It would have been nice to have had her talent. Maybe it was a female thing because my grandmother had been the same way. My mother and I were both yellers, though, so maybe it was a select female thing.

Soda slid down the hallway in his socks, muttering a greeting to Steve before asking Finn where his pants were. With the house so quiet, I could hear the exasperation in her voice when she replied.

"Soda, you have a closet. Even if you don't use it, Darry does."

Soda ran back down the hallway, sliding the last bit on his socks while I shook my head. That boy wouldn't be able to find his head if it wasn't attached to his hair some mornings. I put a lot of blame on Ponyboy for being forgetful, but if he learned it from anyone, it was Sodapop. I glanced to the side, seeing it was eight thirty – I'd slept in for once – and Soda had plenty of time to get out of here before work for once. Knowing Soda, they'd probably be late anyway, no matter how much time they had to get there.

The door creaked open slightly and I watched for whoever was spying on me to come in. All I heard was the clicking of claws along the floorboards until Choc put his paws on the side of the bed and looked over the mattress at me. Seeing I was awake, he tried to scramble up onto the bed, but he was still too small, despite how he had tripled in size from when he fit in the palms of my hands. I had the feeling he was getting so big because of all the scraps he was being fed under the table. He whined in frustration before throwing back his head and letting out a hound dog howl. I sighed and threw an arm over the side of the bed to keep him quiet, knowing that as he got bigger, so would the volume of that howl. And judging by the size of his paws, he'd get a lot bigger. Leave it to Mike to leave behind a legacy that would annoy me the most.

Mike. That was still a touchy subject around here. I understood that he needed to leave and I had to give him props for doing it in style, but he could have handled his goodbyes better, especially when it came to Finn. She had quietly cried over Mike leaving for over an hour. I'd sat with her and let her get it all out – Mike, Johnny, whatever baggage she was carrying from New York...all of it. After that, she'd thrown herself into keeping busy with work and the boy's homework and the puppy. It was at night that she wasn't distracted enough to keep everything off her mind and curled close into my side just watching the shadows instead of sleeping. Aries gave up sleeping completely and the pair of them had a three-AM poker date nightly, or morningly, as the case was. The dark circles under Aries' eyes had given Mr. Tallowate cause enough to make subtle threats with just his eyebrows. So I'd invited them over to sleep here and since then, they had spent maybe seven or eight nights next door. Those nights were only when Sevrin and Dallas had blown up at each other, leading Dallas to crash in Mike's room after he'd cooled off. When you considered it had been just over a month since Sevrin and Dallas decided to make a go of it for their kid's sake, they were doing pretty good. That didn't change the fact that we were all stepping over each other over here with Finn and Aries pretty much living here.

We'd all fallen into a rhythm to cope with the change. Finn did most of the laundry and ironing, Aries took on dish duty most of the time and both Pony and Soda were soaking it up. There was actually laughter in the house now. It was nice to hear it again. Ponyboy hadn't been able to walk straight after Johnny died and Soda had been so wilted that even the girls at work noticed. Soda's birthday had helped, giving us a reason to celebrate and Finn to bake. Where her cooking skills were nothing compared to Mike's, she could bake like no one else.

I winced, feeling the sharp puppy teeth sinking into my hand. I grabbed the scruff of his neck and yanked him onto the bed so I could rake my fingers over his belly. The pup squirmed and rolled over, tail wagging. I smirked, willing to admit that right now I liked the little guy, despite his ridiculous name – also Mike's contribution. Sure, he made a mess of the lawn, chewed everything in sight, and was going to eat us out of house and home, but he could be fun.

My stomach growled now that I could smell the bacon and Choc twisted his head in curiosity at the noise.

"Breakfast time," I explained.

I threw my legs over the side of the bed and chuckled when the dog took a running leap off the bed, only to land in a heap on the floor. He shook it off, slipping under the bed before I was even standing. Immediately he had a pair of my socks in his mouth, growling like he had caught something that had given him a challenge. Sighing, I scooped him up and set the roll of socks on the bed out of his way.

The hallway was quiet, but I could hear the TV was on low as I set Choc down and walked towards the kitchen. Ponyboy and Aries were both sitting on the couch, neither of them dressed or even had their hair brushed. It was a Saturday, so they had both most likely just crawled out of bed. In Aries' case, he had probably got as far as sitting up, seeing as how he was sleeping on the couch these days.

"I still don't understand why the duck is fighting with the rabbit," Aries yawned, pushing a lock of black hair out of his face. It was growing long again.

"Daffy and Bugs fight," Pony shrugged, not sparing a glance from the TV. "It's what they do."

"That's like saying cats and dogs fight because that 'is what they do'," Aries replied. "They can be trained differently, interact differently. There is no base nature that says they must fight. However, rabbits and ducks do not even interact."

"The people who drew the cartoon didn't care."

Aries nodded slightly, like he could believe that. Pony laughed at something on the screen, forgetting Aries completely. I shook my head and continued on into the kitchen. Finn was at the stove, turning bacon while Steve and Soda were both eating as much as they could, as fast as they could. Choc was at her feet, chewing on the frayed hem of her jeans. She looked annoyed, but didn't seem to think he was causing enough harm to do anything about it. She glanced over at where I was standing in the doorway and pulled the strangest face I'd seen her make yet. She looked half exasperated, still a bit annoyed, and half happy. It fit the occasion well.

"We woke you up," she surmised and both Soda and Steve looked up from their meals.

"Mornin'," Soda offered, gulping down some juice before darting up from the table. He was only half-dressed and I assumed he was going to go and put on his uniform shirt.

I stopped him from leaving the kitchen with a hand on his chest. He groaned, already knowing what he'd forgotten. Soda went right back to the table and picked up his dishes. He set them in the sink before I let him dart past me. Steve would hopefully get the hint.

"It was impossible to avoid," I finally replied, bending over to rescue her jeans from the puppy. Choc whined, twisting in my arms like he had ideas about biting my chin, but I was wise to him now. One sharp nip to the ear while you were napping on the couch would do that.

"Hungry?" Finn asked, holding up a strip of bacon as an invitation.

"Starved," I assured her.

"Good." She nodded like she had expected nothing less.

I smirked, kissing her on the cheek before going to the kitchen door to put the puppy in the back yard. He immediately barked in protest about being outside when we were all inside. I ignored it. He didn't need to be inside when we were eating. The dog was going to turn into a beggar with how Pony, Two-Bit, Soda, and probably even Steve and Dallas were feeding him under the table. Finn and Aries seemed to be the only two around here who didn't even think to give the dog scraps. That's what happened when you were raised with actual table manners.

I sat down across the table from Steve, noting he was chugging back orange juice like it was going out of style. By the time he had the glass drained, Finn had a cup of coffee in front of me. I sipped at it slowly, actually enjoying the bitter flavour. Aries joined us then, hair still sticking up in every direction imaginable. He sat down at the table with a yawn, flipping open the notebook he was carrying to a page full of fairly neat writing. I had no idea what he was working on, but this was day two of his obsessive writing. He'd drug that notebook with him into every room of the house so far. I didn't bother asking about it, figuring Finn would take care of it. She took these things in stride.

Finn came over with a bowl of scrambled eggs to set on the table. She glanced at her brother and pointedly tapped him on the head as she passed. "You don't need to work on that during breakfast."

Like I said, in stride.

Aries groaned in protest, setting his pencil down. "I want to finish this paper before Monday."

"Normal kids leave their papers for Sunday night," Steve pointed out.

"Normal kids aren't writing their papers in Greek," Aries replied, glaring at the paper.

"Why would you go and do a thing like that?" Steve asked. "There ain't Greek classes at school."

"Mrs. Wallace said that we could write our paper in whichever language we wanted," Aries replied.

"Mrs. Wallace teaches Spanish." Steve gave the kid an odd look.

"Therefore I assume she'll be expecting papers in English or Spanish. But the way she said it was insulting, like she expected the whole class to turn in papers in English, for we would all be too dense to have mastered any inkling on how to put words together in Spanish after all these months." Aries shook his head, not looking at all impressed. "Perhaps next time she'll think about her words more carefully."

Finn frowned. "You are spending far too much time around Two-Bit and Dallas."

Aries merely shrugged, helping himself to some toast. I watched as he piled eggs, ketchup and marmalade on it, before carefully dissecting it on his plate with both a knife and fork. I had to admit that his paper had hints of both our friends. Two-Bit would want to prank the teacher for the sake of a good joke, but Dallas was all for making people eat their words. Combining the two and adding Greek is what made it uniquely Aries. However, combining the two was also a Mike trait, something no one was going to bother pointing out. I just shook my head and began looking around for the morning paper. Finn was usually pretty good about having it sitting right on the table by now.

"It's not here yet," Steve pointed out needlessly.

I sighed and settled back into my seat, watching Finn fret around the kitchen because I needed something to do.

"...Get it, long face?"

Two-Bit laughed at whatever his joke had been as the door slammed behind him and the dog started howling outside. Great. Mrs. Price next door was going to give me dirty looks again, just like she did any time the dog started barking.

"Yeah, I get it," Dallas' annoyed tone followed. "I heard that joke when I was back in grammar school, man."

"Who tells a little kid about a hooker who can –"

"Hey!" Sevrin's voice cut off Two-Bit before he could get any further. "Watch what you say around my baby!"

"Knock it off. The kid's not even born yet and you're acting like a moron," Dallas ordered, leading the three of them into the kitchen.

"Uh, Dal..." Two-Bit was looking at Sevrin worriedly and I didn't blame him when I heard the high-pitched crying start up.

Every time Sevrin was upset these days, she made a high-pitched noise like a cyclone alarm. You know, like the one that rang through the city when there was a tornado. Everyone had jumped the first time she made that noise, but now the only one who batted an eye was the puppy, who was howling along in the back yard. Sevrin popped an eye open when no one was making a fuss about her crying and glared before stopping. Pony used to do that when he was three.

"At least someone is looking out for our baby," Sevrin finally told Dallas.

"Yeah, whatever," Dallas waved her off.

"Why don't you come sit down, Sev?" Finn suggested and Sevrin turned her glare on Finn, walking over to the table and sitting down beside Steve.

"You are a disgrace to females everywhere. You are supposed to be on my side and stick up for me, not offer me a chair."

Finn sighed, going back to what she was doing at the stove. Sevrin sat with her nose in the air, practically cradling her slight stomach. She was five months along and proud as punch already, but Dallas had a point – they had time before the kid was here.

"I am on your side, Sev," Finn replied when it was clear Sevrin wasn't going to speak anymore. "But it's much easier to be on your side when you're calm and thinking about why you're upset."

"Ha! I know you better than that. You're not with me, even if I did think. It's because I'm fat, isn't it?" Sevrin demanded.

"Sev –" Finn sighed.

"I am not fat! I have a life inside me. You're just jealous because I got knocked up before you and you were sleeping with your guy first!"

Finn was sipping her coffee, but I could tell she found the whole conversation funny. She glanced over at me from the rim of her cup and I smirked a little.

"Oh yes, I am very jealous."

Right now, we had three kid brothers between us, two houses in disarray, a puppy who bit anything he could get his mouth on, and friends who seemed to never eat unless they were bumming meals off of us. The last thing we needed was a baby. The last thing we wanted was a baby. Right now, we had our life and it was more than enough.

"Oh Layne. Don't be sad – I'll let you babysit." Sevrin reached for a piece of toast and started buttering it liberally.

I got up to help myself to some of the fresh eggs, catching the look between Two-Bit and Dallas. Two-Bit was clearly asking how Dallas put up with her and Dallas' look said it all – she was having his kid and he had nothing better out there right now. If he was still around by nine months and Sevrin was still alive, then I'd eat one of the many chewed shoes hanging around.

"You two discussed names yet?" Pony asked coming into the kitchen with his empty cereal bowl, clearly looking for something hot to eat now.

"I like Fabio for a boy. Or maybe Drew – my father's name was Drew – or Andrew, since Drew is for short. Everyone called him Drew," she explained, patting the seat beside her in invitation for Pony to sit down. "But if it's a girl, I like Estelle and Juliana."

"Those are nice," Pony offered, reaching for the food on the table. "What did you pick, Dally?"

"Why? You hoping for a namesake, runt?" Dallas asked and Pony shrugged.

Sevrin made an unimpressed huffing noise. "He isn't allowed an opinion."

Dallas rolled his eyes and Sevrin sent him an annoyed look.

"Alright, I'll bite. Why can't Dal have an opinion?" Two-Bit asked.

"Do you want to hear what he thought were nice names?" Sevrin asked, carrying on regardless. "For a boy, he likes Bubba. For a girl, he likes Bubbette."

"Don't ask my opinion, then. Paint what you want, buy what you want, and name the kid something I'll remember."

"You just like being difficult," Sevrin accused.

"Yeah, that's why I do everything that annoys you," Dallas replied sarcastically.

Sevrin ignored him, sniffing at Pony's breakfast.

"Are those...eggs?" She asked, looking green.

"Would you like some?" Finn asked.

"I'm going to be sick," she declared, getting up to go and do that.

Dallas took her empty seat and started loading himself a plate of eggs. "I like eggs. I think I might start eating them three times a day."

"You're terrible, Dallas," Finn accused.

"Good."

"I'll go hold her hair," Finn sighed, setting her cup on the table and going to follow Sevrin.

"Hey, where's the little guy?" Two-Bit asked, looking around his feet.

"If you mean Choc, he's outside," Aries answered, pulling out his notebook again while his sister was gone.

Two-Bit didn't hesitate to let the dog in, further crowding the room. Soda came skidding in right about then, hat between his teeth, as he tried to do up his jeans with my keys in his hand.

"Ready to go?" Steve asked and Soda nodded, planting his hat on his head.

"Yeah. We're not so late, right?" Soda asked glancing at the clock on the wall. Already they were ten minutes late.

"Nah," Steve assured him, getting up and putting his plate in the sink.

"You coming, Two-Bit?" Soda asked and Two-Bit glanced up from where he was playing with the dog.

"I'll catch up later," he replied. "Hey Soda, did I tell you the one about the long-faced woman?"

"No," Soda replied, looking curious.

"Soda," I prodded and he shook his head.

"Maybe another time, Two-Bit." Soda smiled in a reassuring manner, probably intending to ask later. "Bye, guys!"

Steve nudged Soda towards the door and Soda nudged him right back. They often fed off each other and they often got into more trouble because of it. I just shook my head and hoped they actually made it to work in the next hour or so.

"Hey, Two-Bit. Mickey's on," Pony hollered from the other room.

"Well, can't make Mickey wait. C'mon, little guy. Let's go make mischief in the other room."

Two-Bit scooped up Choc and headed into the living room, teasing the pup's nose and dodging the sharp nips. That left Dallas, Aries and I in the quiet of the kitchen, it was nice.

"Aries," Finn chided, sitting back down at the table.

Aries huffed, picking up his notebook. "Fine. I'll go work on it in my room."

"You don't have to go next door, just not at the table while everyone's trying to eat. Alright?" She coaxed and Aries nodded, getting up to wash his dish.

"She still throwing up?" Dallas asked and Finn nodded, refilling both her coffee cup and mine.

Dally cursed, getting up to go see her, I assumed. That left the pair of us alone in the room. Finn sipped her coffee for a long moment before looking over at me out of the corner of her eye.

"Darry? You're happy, right?"

"What do you mean? Of course I'm happy," I told her.

Finn sighed, setting down her mug and turning towards me.

"Are you?" She prodded and I shrugged.

"Right now, yeah. I can't say I wouldn't be happier if I still had my folks and everything with Johnny...but for what I have, I'm happy."

She bit her lip for a moment before moving so that she was straddling my legs and hooking her wrists behind my neck. The position left no room to hide for either of us. It wasn't often Finn showed me her insecure side, but when she did, it was normally when we were alone together like this. I had the feeling I would see more of it with Mike gone and for some reason that made me happy. She trusted me. I couldn't ask for more than that.

"You don't want...you know...a baby?" She asked.

I thought we were on the same page with this baby bit, but maybe I'd missed something. I let my hand rest on the small of her back and let my fingers make gentle circles.

"Do you?"

"Would you be mad if I said no?" She asked. "I mean, I love you, and I do want kids. I always have wanted a big family...but right now... I'm just not ready."

I smiled a little. "I was just thinking the same thing. I'm not ready, either. With our brothers, our friends, and even the dog, I figure we have enough on our plate for right now. Besides, we'll probably get our fill of babies with Sev and Dal's kid added to the bunch."

She looked relieved and I was glad we were talking about this. I would have never guessed it was bugging her so much. I never guessed it was an issue, either. I was nearly twenty-one and she was coming up on eighteen next year. We had all the time in the world and that's how we were acting with everything else. We were still engaged, but made no plans to marry anytime soon. We had entwined lives without being completely caught up in each other. It was a good pace.

"But maybe, after the boys have all moved out and the place seems far too quiet, I'd like to come back to the idea."

She smiled then, twisting a lock of my hair between her fingertips.

"I like your way of thinking," she assured me. "I'm glad we're on the same page about all this. I mean, when I'm ready, I would love to be like Sevrin – thrilled to be a mother and embracing the whole experience...but I'm dreading morning sickness. I'm really not a fan of throwing up."

I chuckled then. "When was the last time you were even sick?"

"Gosh, now you're making me think," she sighed, resting her forehead against mine. "I think I was twelve and the school lunch gave all of us food poisoning. I've gone to great lengths not to be sick ever since."

I hummed in agreement, knowing food poisoning was not fun to have in the slightest.

"Hey, paper's here!" Pony called, walking into the kitchen with the paper in his hand. He blushed when he saw us. "Oh. Umm...here."

He dropped it on the table and left as quickly as possible. Finn rolled her eyes and kissed the tip of my nose before getting up to get started on the dishes. I flicked open the paper, immediately going to the announcements where there were usually a list of people looking to sell their houses. There were a few good ones, but nothing ever seemed to be in our price range.

"Well, she's sick and I'm tired of listening to her, so we're leaving," Dallas stated coming into the kitchen and folding more eggs between a piece of toast.

"Well, tell Sev I hope she feels better," Finn directed and Dallas made a 'yeah, right. I'll get right on that' face.

"She'll be fine after I'm done eating," Dallas replied.

Dallas turned to go and Sevrin called her goodbyes pitifully.

"You know, I don't recall Kathie's pregnancy being this bad," Finn commented.

Everything Sevrin did was a production, and apparently that applied to being pregnant, too.

"Did she ever have that baby?" I asked, still browsing the paper.

"Two weeks ago. I thought I mentioned it." Finn shrugged. "It was a boy. They called him Tyler Richards Danielson. Poor kid has a name like a law firm."

She may have and I just couldn't remember, but she had a good point about his name.

"Kathie said it was her fresh start, her new beginning," Finn added. "When you consider she was scared to death when she found out about Tyler, it was an amazing conversation."

"I can imagine." I nodded, not really seeing the point about this conversation.

"So it got me thinking about a non-baby fresh start."

"What was that?" I asked and she pointed at one of the ads in the paper.

It was for a two story, five bedroom house in one of the middle class neighbourhoods. It was the closest house in our price range and it had a massive back yard by a park. There was even a garage. We'd driven past a few times and we even liked the color of paint.

"If I sell my house, we can pay off most of that one."

I glanced at her, wondering if this whole baby talk had opened her up more. The plan had always been to move in together, but we never took that step, we never even talked about it that much anymore. We rarely ever thought about buying these days, either. Opening up to the houses was more habit than anything when I was reading the paper. But the main question was how she planned to sell the house for enough money to pay off most of what the new one was going for?

"I want this," she told me. "I want us to finally start a life together without a yard between us. So I talked to Tatton and he says that if we sell my house to the bank, then they'll be more inclined to set us up with a mortgage on the new one, just transferring funds or something. Then if we put yours on the market, we can pay off what we owe the bank on the house," she explained. "We could be done owing anyone money in five years."

"Since when does your brother know anything about banking?" I asked and she shrugged.

"Tatton has two loves in his life. The first is being right all the time. The second is money. So I'm pretty sure what he said was probably perfectly accurate since it concerns the two."

I hummed to myself, knowing she was right, but also knowing I would have to look into it before we got too hasty.

We were quiet after that, listening to the house as Finn did the dishes and I read the paper. It reminded me so much of all the mornings I had watched my own parents in our exact positions. But this was me and Finn, and we weren't my parents. That kept me from worrying about it too much. Not that my parents weren't great, but I wanted something uniquely us.

The quiet was broken by a few notes from the piano. Aries had dug it out from under every bill I had let sit on it and seemed to enjoy playing every classical song he could recall from memory. However, everyone else seemed to get a kick out of playing random off key notes. The dog usually picked up on that and howled along. I winced and Finn laughed, yelling for Two-Bit to give it a rest before noon.

"Just think – if we buy that house, the piano can go in the garage," Finn joked, smiling and rubbing my shoulder before actually going into the next room to put a stop to Two-Bit's less than promising career as a musician.

I just smiled to myself, thinking that no matter where we were, no matter who came around, and no matter what would happen, it was always going to be another morning at the Curtis's. And I wouldn't have had it any other way.

The End
July 16th 2009


Preview of Finn2:
May 1971
Mike and Layne in the kitchen...

"So, that's the Anti-Christ," Mike muttered, watching Charlie play with Choc in the back yard.

"He's nearly four, Mike," I sighed, shaking my head. "There isn't an evil bone in his body."

"Dallas is his father."

"Sevrin is his mother," I added.

"You're right. He could go either way – destructive or whiney."

I sighed. Mike hadn't changed. In four and a half years, he hadn't even changed his appearance. Apparently, he wasn't any more mature, either.

"Four years already. Time flies. Feels like everything and nothing has changed." Mike shook his head, arms crossed as he continued to watch everyone in the backyard.

I stopped fiddling with the dishes and set down the towel in my hand. "Mike, I appreciate you coming, but are we going to have the same problem we did when you left the first time?"

"What? You think I'm still holding a flame for you after all this time?" He snorted.

"I didn't even know you were the first time. What am I supposed to think now?"

"Knowing you, you'll think whatever you want. I'm here because somebody's got to tell you –"

"What? That I'm making a mistake?" I asked, shaking my head. "Get in line."

"No. Somebody's gotta tell you that you're doing the right thing for you."

I felt a smile tugging at my lips in what felt like the first time in forever. Oh, how I'd missed Mike. He had a way of saying the right thing, no matter what he personally thought.

"Thanks Mike."

"Don't thank me. Just make sure I didn't drive all the way up here to be disappointed."

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find something to justify the trip."

Mike's eyes followed Chely Randle around the yard and I was willing to bet my frown matched his. If he so much as got the idea in his head to touch Steve's wife, I was going to kill him.

"Yeah. I'm sure I will."

Well, that`s the end!

Any comments at all are welcome and Flames are accepted.

See ya in the funny papers!!!

Tens & Zickachik