Part Vingt

J&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&L

It was Wednesday of the new week, and Julie and Carlos were at school. The guys were all sleeping in today out in the studio (Luke had come in to say good morning to Julie, but then gone back to bed, his now-usual routine.) Ray was cleaning up in the kitchen, Reggie had made an incredible lasagna for dinner last night, and they had all been full and happy, so he told everyone to just leave the dishes for the morning. It still amazed Ray how naturally the three ghost boys fit into their family, well, four, with Willie. He was still a little shy, something that didn't seem to be his normal personality, but it made some sense, the other three were already so close, he was just slowly figuring where he fit in. Ray also got the impression Willie had been on his own as a ghost for awhile, aside from time spent at the Ghost Club, which in his book did not count.

As he was finishing the last of the plates and drying them, his phone rang. He turned to see it right there on the counter, smiling because he knew Reggie took his self-appointed job of keeping track of his phone seriously. He probably had put it there last night, after Ray had absentmindedly set it down somewhere random. He picked it up and quickly swiped to answer, he had been waiting for this call.

"Trevor." They had agreed that he should keep using his middle name, it would be a little odd for him to suddenly have Ray calling him Bobby with no explanation, and what they were doing was not something they wanted to have to explain.

"Hey."

"Hi. Any news?"

"My friend has come through with the 'tickets'."

"All four of them?"

"Yup, I threw in a little bonus for the expedited service."

"Canada?"

"Yes. I've scheduled a private plane for Friday for you and me. We should be all set to bring them home this weekend."

Ray sighed in slight relief. The hardest part wasn't over yet, but they were roughly halfway there. "This means a lot."

"I'm not sure I'll ever think it's enough."

"They will. And you know they've already forgiven you."

"Doesn't mean I've forgiven myself."

"Well, unfortunately you have to get there yourself. But we're all here for you now. You can talk to any of us about it if you need to."

"Thanks. I'll send the flight info, you're set to go with me?"

"Yeah, then I can call Julie here, and tell her exactly where we are, you know?"

"Perfect."

"I'll look for your email. Bye, Trevor."

"Talk to you soon Ray."

J&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&LJ&L

The next two days passed both excruciatingly slowly and fast as a blink for Ray. He was just ready for the trip to be over with, it would either work, or he and Bobby would be in jail, so it did make him a bit anxious. At least they had everything laid out and everyone knew their parts of the plan.

—Flashback—

It was Monday night, Ray had spoken to Trevor after he had found someone, and he just needed the details for the boy's paperwork, "Okay, we have to decide on names for you guys."

"Wait, why can't we keep our names?" Luke was visibly upset by this idea.

"Well, I was going to say, you should probably keep yours, your parents already know and everything. But Alex and Reggie, we might want to switch up your last names. It would be a little hard to explain if someone Googled you three and the article about your deaths kept showing up, with the picture that is obviously of you. Are you okay with that? Willie, it's up to you what you would like to do."

The discussion lasted awhile, Reggie kept throwing out Star Wars name options, but no on agreed with him.

Finally, things were decided and they were ready.

—Present—

Friday dawned bright and sunny. Ray forwent a big breakfast since he had to meet Bobby at the airport. Everyone had been up to see him and wish him a good flight, before the guys went back to get some more sleep. They would be popping to Ray and Booby's hotel room later that night, and Saturday they were all planning to get on a regular plane at the Canadian airport and enter the US 'legally', or at least as close as they could come.

"I'll call you once we're settled, Julie. Then you can send the boys to me, okay? We'll all be back here tomorrow night."

"All right, Papi. I love you, good luck!" She hugged him goodbye, she still had to go to school, not that she was going to be able to focus today, at all.

Carlos followed his dad out to the car, he was getting dropped off at his school on the way. Julie sighed and turned to grab her bag and go meet Flynn, but paused at the sight of Luke leaning up against the counter watching her.

"Luke."

"What's up Jules?"

"Do you think this is going to go well?"

He smiled the softest version of the grin she had deemed hers yet, "Julie, no matter what happens, I will ALWAYS come back to you."

She didn't have much of a response to that, but she knew she wouldn't have peace until all of this was over and he was back with her. "I'm just anxious for this to be done."

He straightened up and walked over to her, reaching out to brush her cheek with the tips of his fingers, and then pulling her into his chest in a tight hug. "I promise things will work out. I have a really good feeling about this."

Julie lifted her head and pushed up on her tip-toes to press a kiss on his lips. They lost themselves in their own world for a few minutes, only pulling back when there was a knock on the front door and the sound of Flynn calling for Julie to, "Get your butt out here we have to get to school!"

She giggled at her friend's words and stepped out of Luke's embrace, "I'll see you as soon as my last class is over."

"I'll see you then Jules."

Picking up her bag from the couch, she started to the door, but stopped and spun around back to him to peck his lips one more time. "Have a good day."

And then, as she actually made her way to the door, under her breath she whispered, too soft for him to catch it, "I love you." He had basically said it in his song, but that wasn't quite the same. She had thought about when would be best to say the words to him, and it wasn't now, especially because they had a fairly risky plan they were trying to execute this weekend. She was pretty sure they would come bursting out as soon as he got home, though, and she wasn't going to fight them then.