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"It doesn't seem like anyone's home."

After that chaotic kind of breakfast, then the one I and Ryan had simply just ordered up to our room. All of us had quickly made our way to our old house. Standing outside and ringing the doorbell for the third time, still hearing nothing from the inside Seth said at last what was the obvious.

"Well…" I sighed and finally took a few steps away from the door. "There's no point with standing around here and waiting for someone to come. Seth? Which one of your friends do you want to meet first?"

I pointed in different directions from the house. First on the left was the Walkers'. First on the right were the Watkins' And in the middle of it when we lived here the three had been running back and forth in the backyards, every day so many times no one could count.

Now Seth stood looking from each direction, first one and then the other.

"I'd like to live here so I could meet them both at once."

That was the only option we couldn't use!

"Oh well. I'll just pick one."

Just as I was about to say something, but didn't know what Seth turned towards Maddie's house and the rest of us follows him.

"Don't worry," I told Ryan. "Maddie talks more than anyone else I've ever known and asks a lot of questions. But she's quite harmless. And if she starts asking what happened to you, or to Seth's arm or anything else around it, you don't have to reveal more than you're comfortable with." I sent a last glance towards my son when I told him. "As you know, he can talk too. But I've talked to him about it and he promised to think about what he says."

Ryan nodded and looked down, I could imagine he was making sure the whole slack was down over the prosthetic.

The next second I looked up and on Seth again when he rang the doorbell. In this house not more than a couple of seconds until we heard footsteps down the stairs that was right inside the door.

"SETH?"

Seth wouldn't have had to worry that his friend had forgotten about him. Almost before Maddie had opened the door and ran straight into Seth's arms, hugging him so tight around the arms he couldn't hug her back.

"Sandy?"

I wasn't very surprised when Maddie jumped straight into my arms so fast she almost pushed me right over.

"Maddie." I laughed slightly when I was certain I had regained my balance. "Be careful. The last time you did that you were a few pounds lighter." Maddie stepped away from me and only smirked.

"Kirsten…" She hugged my wife too, thankfully without the jumping. "And…. I don't know who you are. I'm Maddie." She held out her hand, Ryan moved both his crutches into his left hand and took her.

"Ryan."

Maddie smiled brightly again and then turned towards the kitchen.

"MUM? DAD? THE COHEN'S ARE HERE. I know! I can't believe it neither…" Peter and Nadya Walker came from different parts of the house. And the next couple of minutes was a whole mess of more hugging and greeting and shaking hands.

Not that the mess was over when everyone knew each other. Because it was then Maddie started asking every single question she could think of.

"Does Jack know you're here? Why are you here in the middle of the school term? Does Jack know you're here? Have you seen him yet? Have you been to see your old house? What happened to your arm? Does Jack know you're here?"

Madison Walker in a nutshell. She asked way too many questions and didn't wait for a single answer.

"You usually travelled every once in a while, and sent us post cards. I have them all collected and up on my bulletin board. Does Jack know you're here? Haven't you been anywhere since like two years or something? It's been years since we heard from you last. Like, literally years. We started thinking you'd forgotten all about us."

"Mads." When she took a short break to breathe in her dad interrupted. "Shouldn't we give Seth to answer before you answer anymore questions?"

"Oh yeah… Does Jack know you're here."

"No." Seth answered at last. "We went to see our old house but no one was home. Then we came here… You have heard from me. You must have gotten the post cards I sent by Christmas?" Maddie wondered for a second and then shook her head. "I sent post cards from Khao Lak in Thailand." Maddie thought for another second and shook her head.

"You didn't get i…"

"I heard about that place…." Maddie interrupted. "I didn't know you were there."

"I think I heard about it too." Peter said and I would have trusted him more than Maddie. "On the news, after the tsunami…" He was frowning. "If you don't mind me asking. Were you there when it… happened?"

I still got nightmares, not as often and not seeming as real. But for just a moment it flashed by for my inner vision before I shakily answered.

"Yes. We were there… on our way to the beach and… we got a bit too close."

I'd have to find a way to explain this better. But I couldn't mention every time how I had been shaken and hit back and forth in the roaring water. How I had lost my family in the wave and searched for them.

How Ryan had ended up so much worse than we did.

"We saw the water came." I heard Seth explain. "Closer and closer, we tried to run but it came too fast and suddenly we were stuck in it."

When Seth took a break the kitchen was as quiet as it was for just a moment. And when Maddie raised her voice, for once it was only one and not a long stream of questions at once.

"Was then when you hurt your arm?"

Seth looked down on his arm and twisted it a bit as if he'd forgotten all about it until Maddie mentioned it.

"Yeah... I didn't hurt it that bad. I had to have surgery to fix it and I used to have a big cast instead of a splint at first. But it's already almost healed… Loads of people were badly hurt and even died." Ryan was uncomfortable next to me but I was grateful Seth only looked to him for a second and didn't mention his family.

Then all of a sudden we were interrupted when there were footsteps on the porch steps and a voice I knew very well sounded through the house.

"Hello-o?"

"Jack?"

There were more hugs, names and shaking hands. Then all of a sudden the three old friends were going God knows where.

"Do you want to come?" They turned towards Ryan and Maddie asked. "Well, we're not really going anywhere. Just first upstairs to my room and then over to Jack's maybe." Ryan hesitated. "Oh come on. It will be great fun getting to know you."

"Yeah…" Ryan gave a short but insecure laugh. "….It actually will."

"Do you need help?"

I couldn't even help myself for asking even though I now knew it annoyed Ryan who wanted to do things himself.

"No. I'm getting used to these."

"So…" Peter started once the kids had disappeared up the stairs. "…if you don't mind me asking. Who is he?"

"Ryan…" I sighed seeing the first day we had met each other. "…Well, I met him back in Thailand. He was back there with his mum and brother. He's actually from Chino but came back here since he needed proper hospital care for his leg." I gave another, even deeper sigh. "Unfortunately his mum and brother didn't make it through. And he can't live with his dad."

I'd really have to find some better way to do this…

"Oh that poor thing." Nadya, who was always squeamish had tears in her eyes. "Where's he supposed to go now? Does he have any other family?"

"He has us." I said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world- maybe it was! "We arene't biological family." I sighed. "It's a long story. But we're adopting him now and… he feels more than he shows for sure. But we're all doing okay. As okay as we ever could that is… Now, we were thinking to just get away for a bit. Things have been crazy and now, with the adoption having been started… Now we're here… So, as first we were wondering if we could borrow your car." There were some spread laughter's from the four of us. As if a car would matter in the moments we were here after years…

"Of course." Peter answered. "…I have to say it's very nice to see you guys again. What a surprise!"

"Nice to see you too…. I never realized how much I missed this place until I was here…"

I looked around the kitchen as if it would show this whole neighborhood, this whole town.

"Maybe you should move back then?"

The kitchen was left silent for just a few moments until the children all came in at once.

"What do you say guys? Would it be nice if the Cohen's lived in Berkeley again? I have to say I think it would. We're staying in Orange County for now at least. But it would be especially nice if we could move back to our old house here. The neighbours here, are they nice?"

"Not as nice as you" Maddie said almost before I had finished the question. She was always the talker of the three. "They don't have any kids our age and considering they're gay I don't think they will have any time soon."

"They could adopt…" Seth said, and when he glanced towards Ryan I interrupted.

"There are two guys, right? Not girls?"

"Two guys…." Maddie answered. "Their names are…"

"Dad?" For once anyone managed to interrupt. "There's someone there. They came home, whoever they are…" I looked out the window- sure they had. "…we can go back here later. I just have to go there."

For a second or two I froze.

But I had to admit I wanted Seth to be right.

"Sure… come on you three.2 Maddie wanted to say something I noticed. "I think we'll have to go alone, without you. At least for now." She nodded. "Wish us luck."

"Good luck."

They might only have been home from wherever for a few minutes. And it hadn't been many minutes more since we were up the porch and ringing the doorbell to an empty house. But this time there weren't either many seconds before we heard footsteps from inside and the door opened to the two men Maddie had just mentioned.

Now I realized I should have planned something to say…

"Can we help you?"

"I… yes. My name is Sandy Cohen, this is my wife Kirsten and… our boys. … we used to live in this house when Seth was little. We…. We were wondering if we could come in. Maybe see if the Seth Cohen growth chart is still notched in the wall."

"It isn't." One of the men said. "We thought it was termites."

"Well…" I ran out of words, after everything I had just sort of wished we could come into the house. I realized I hadn't quite been able to admit it to myself- let alone anyone else I had actually had an idea of moving back. "…if it is… was… it's not."

The two men only looked at each other. I barely even noticed it, but Seth had stepped right up to my side.

"Hi. I'm Seth. What my dad is trying to say is we'd like to come in and show Ryan…." Seth gestured towards Ryan who turned his head away not to show us he was blushing. "…where I was born. And then we might be moving back to Berkeley and then we'd like to know if we could buy the house."

Children really knew more than we thought they would.

"I'm Todd." One of the men said. "And the house isn't for sale."

Silence fell again.

I didn't want it to be over and done just like that.

"Uhm…" Kirsten interrupted the silence. "Is the bathroom still in the same place? Do you mind?"

"Why would we mind?" The one that hadn't yet said his name stepped away from the door. "You know the way."

"Thank you."

Kirsten went into the house and disappeared out of our sights. The two men, I and Seth and Ryan were left staring at each other until the same man took yet another step back.

"Well, maybe you'd like to see some of the inside of the house. We've changed it quite a lot… I'm Patrick by the way."

"Nice to meet you." We all made our way into the house. "This still feels like home. I mean, all the times we've passed these hallways and these doors". We found the living room where the walls had a new wallpaper and other furniture than we had put in here. "Things have really changed in here."

"I was born in this room." Seth was the first one to say something except for me, I knew he had been mentioning the truth but the other three guys looked confused. "It's true!"

"It's true." I confirmed. "…It all happened so fasts and suddenly Kirsten's water bro…"

"SANDY?"

Hearing the panic tone in her voice while Kirsten yelled for me twisted my stomach, there still wasn't more than a second.

"SANDY?"

Every meter through the hallway, through the master bedroom and to the bathroom door felt like a thousand miles.

…As long as the door and the toilet were still placed like they had been before it at least shouldn't hit and hurt Kirsten…

Before anything else I, as if it had been on a reflex reached back and then kicked hard to kick the door down- I could deal with it later.

Kirsten was on the toilet but the fact that her pants were pulled down was our smallest problem. She sat with her hands on her belly, leaned over and with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I think we're losing him."

Kirsten tried to stand up but had barely taken half a step when she sunk down, half to her knees and half into my arms while she cried out loud.

"Mrs. Cohen?" Suddenly Patrick was right next to me. "Are you pregnant?"

"Yes."

He turned his head back, I hadn't noticed first but as well as Patrick the others had followed us worriedly. He said something to Todd, who was trying to get the boys away I heard something about calling and 911.

"How far along?"

Everything was so blurry, I couldn't think and I doubted Kirsten could either. She whimpered and let hear a short scream as she hugged her stomach tighter.

"What if we're losing him?" She whimpered through the tears and sobs. "What if we're losing him?"

"Sch, sch, sch…" I tried with whatever I could think of saying. "Don't think like that. Let's not think like that."

But I couldn't help but think like that too. What if, after everything we were losing the little person growing inside of Kirsten, now when something was obviously terribly wrong.

"What's going on?"

When I heard Seth's voice I was reminded of the boys that had been forced away by Todd, Ryan suddenly crossed my mind, how I had found him alone in the room at that hospital. And how I had come with him to find his mum and brother were dead.

And at last it crossed my mind about the knowledge how I and my family had all made it home from Thailand.

We couldn't lose anyone now. Would we?

"What if we're losing him?"

Random fact

I have planned this moment since I started the story. But until recently I imagined it Kirsten crouched over having walked down the stairs.

I've planned this moment since I started the story. So, what do you think will happen next?

Do you think Kirsten's right? Are they having a boy? Are they losing the baby? Are Patrick and Todd going to end up selling the house like they did in the series?

I know. And you'll know soon since there are only two chapters left.