Hello Readers! Sorry that it's been a while since we updated! Life has gotten crazy! We hope you enjoy this new chapter! Please, please review, follow, and favorite this story! We can't wait to provide you with chapters and hear your ideas. In fact we have a favor to ask you if you're reading this. We want you to tell us something that you would like to see happen in a future chapter! Don't be afraid to get creative! We can't wait to hear from you! We hope you enjoy the chapter!

-D.H. Caldwell and HAS5245

Two days later, Andy and Jack made the collective decision to send the boys back to school. Up until now they had been hanging around the house, doing their best to get adjusted to new rules and new routines or lack thereof. Andy could see how bored they were just sitting out on the deck or playing video games in the unfinished playroom; the boys were starting to get on each other's nerves more often than Andy would have liked. Sending them back to school was going to give them something constructive to do for six hours a day besides annoy each other and think about Jenna. Prior to the fire, the boys went to Seattle East Grammar School, a public school about twenty minutes away from the house, thirty with traffic. Andy was familiar with the place as 19 was often the go to station when they had fire drills or needed station tours. East Grammar was run by a no nonsense principal whose compassion and tact when talking to the school community, were often non extant. Andy worried about sending the boys there and received an earful from Gregory Peterson about why the boys missed so many days when she called to explain the situation. His reaction now rivaled the reaction he had when the boys missed school after Carl died. Jack had to pull the phone away from Andy to keep her from going Baby Rambo on the guy.

After much convincing, Andy reluctantly allowed them to go back, and took the boys on a shopping trip to buy school supplies the day before they were set to go while Jack took Amelia on a drive to Snohomish to go to the large dollhouse store so she could get the one he custom ordered for her room the day of the adoption. He made a day out of going there while Andy treated the boys to lunch, a ferry ride, and a trip to the interactive kids' museum, the only museum that she could get DJ to go to. Rowan stood by her for the first few exhibits and protested going to the kids' museum, but she wound up leaving with pictures of him having fun with DJ.

Jack wasn't back with Amelia by the time Andy got home and she was way too tired to cook, so she ordered pizza and let the boys watch a movie while she caught up on some paperwork for the school. After the movie, the boys went up to Rowan's room and busied themselves with getting their backpacks ready for school in the morning. Andy asked them if they needed any help, but they politely declined and grabbed their several Target bags on the way upstairs. Rowan shut the door in his room and emptied all the folders, markers, and pencils all over the bed while DJ took their backpacks out from the other bag. It felt like the first day of school all over again even though that had been months ago. "Won't we just have to do this all over again in September?", DJ asked.

Rowan nodded, "Yeah, but it's not like we have anything for school right now remember? I don't even have my cello or my music anymore"

"What are you going to do?", DJ wondered, knowing his older brother's love for music.

"I don't know yet", Rowan answered while taking a set of ten pencils out of the packaging. He handed five to DJ who zipped them into his new Ironman pencil case. Rowan took a stack of folders that he had on the bed and tossed them onto his desk with the pack of white labels before spinning around in his desk chair.

"Well, I have new markers and a new Iron Man pencil case. Dustin's going to love these. Dustin and Roger", DJ told himself aloud as he opened the packages of glue and markers that were sitting on Rowan's bed. He counted each of the colors while he put them away. God forbid any of them were missing. "What are you doing?", he asked Rowan while watching him turn and turn until he stopped to label the folders on the desk.

"None of your business", Rowan answered while going back to labeling a camouflage folder as "Math". He glanced up and noticed DJ take the handheld sharpener and the pack of colored pencils. "You better not be sharpening those pencils on my bed. You're dead if I find pencil shavings on my new comforter"

DJ chuckled while emptying a Crayola eight pack of markers into the case, "I'm just putting them in here, you're such a neat freak"

"And you're a slob", Rowan fired back before Andy walked through the door to check on them.

Andy let herself in and sat down on the edge of the bed. She smiled and watched as DJ shoved his stack of folders and his new math workbook that his teacher mailed Andy into his new spaceship backpack. He had begged for that one at the store and asked Andy to pay the extra fee to embroider his initials in the back with red thread. Andy happily paid the extra and did the same for Rowan's and the lunch boxes. Andy even threw in a backpack for when Amelia started preschool. She checked her phone which read 7:30; she knew the boys would get busy packing, which is why she had them shower prior to dinner and the movie. "It's almost time for bed boys", she warned them while watching DJ slip a picture of their family into his bag. She smiled and asked, "You're taking our picture to school buddy?"

"Of course Mommy. I want to show everyone my new family for Show and Tell tomorrow. Now all I need is one of your SFD shirts", he told her seriously. It warmed Andy's heart to hear that and she could feel a tear or two coming to her eyes. DJ, sensing that she was sad, smiled and hugged her tightly. "Why are you sad Mommy?", he wondered, blue eyes full of questions.

Andy smiled and hugged him back, "Oh buddy, I'm not sad. These are happy tears. Mommy is so happy that you want to show Daddy and I to your classmates". She sniffled and looked at Rowan who was packing folders away in his backpack. "What about you honey? Are you excited to go back to school in the morning?", she asked him.

"Not really", Rowan sighed, "Everyone's going to look at us weird for not being there for a week. And for being dropped off instead of taking the bus. Why can't we take the bus like Jenna used to have us do? She used to have us get on at the bus stop down the street and walk either home or to your house. All the cool kids take the bus"

Andy laughed, "Oh really? You're seriously going to argue about the bus Rowan? I used to hate the bus when I was your age and I used to beg your Grandpa Pruitt to drive me". Rowan and DJ exchanged looks as if they were contemplating the truth behind that. Rowan loved the bus mainly because he was able to talk to his friends and sit far away from DJ who was too busy plotting trouble with Dustin to pester him. DJ loved the bus because an adult wasn't asking him what he was doing every five seconds. Andy watched as the boys silently nodded and mouthed words to one another. "I thought driving you boys to school would be a fun way to spend time as a family. Besides, the bus smells like feet and stale diesel. Why wouldn't you rather take the Jeep or the new Gibson Mobile that Dad's buying tomorrow? We can stop at Starbucks, you can eat in the car, and there's going to be plenty of room", Andy offered, hoping to make the car ride to school a bit more appealing.

"Did you and Dad have a call with a bus accident where a lot of people died?", Rowan asked, knowing his mother all too well now.

Rowan wasn't wrong; last month, Andy and Jack responded to a call about a school bus coming home from a YMCA trip to Mount Rainier. It was raining and the bus careened off the cliff, killing nearly everyone on board. After adopting the kids, she thought of that call and others that involved children and less than favorable outcomes more than ever before. There was no way that she was going to let them on a school bus after responding to boatloads of accidents like she had. They were all either caused by old buses that shouldn't have been on the road in the first place or less than competent drivers. Andy sighed and smiled while messing up Rowan's hair. She chuckled and told him, "I can't get nothing past you anymore can I?"

"Nope", he answered while smiling himself. He packed a calculator in the front pocket and paused when he heard the front door open downstairs. "Is Dad home with Lia?", he asked anxiously. They hadn't all spent a day apart since the fire and Andy could sense that he was struggling with not being able to have eyes on his siblings 24/7. "You let your Dad and I worry about Lia", Andy reminded him. "I know, I know", he sighed while listening to the jingling of the car keys being put on the hook by the door and the squeak of the front door shutting.

Jack took his and Amelia's shoes off downstairs and crept upstairs to join Andy and the boys. Amelia was fast asleep in his arms so he chose not to yell and ask where they were but instead follow the sounds of laughter and conversation to Rowan's room. Amelia clung to him like a monkey and he adjusted her in his arms as they walked into the room. "Look who fell asleep in the car", he whispered as Andy got up to see Amelia.

"That's too precious", she whispered while taking the sleeping child from his arms. Amelia had her left pinky finger in her mouth, which Andy removed. Andy discouraged the habit when she saw it but Jack passed it off as a comfort thing in the wake of Jenna's death and having had her paci taken away not too long ago. "You know I don't like her doing that. How was your day?", she asked while running her fingers through Amelia's hair. It had gotten so long and curly ever since Jenna stopped cutting her kids' hair.

"You should have seen her today. Her eyes lit up when she went into the dollhouse store. We stayed there for a little while and then we went to this petting zoo where she got to feed the baby animals and then we went to a park over there. She's so fearless; she reminds me of you even if she isn't biologically ours. An, when I turned my back to open a juice box for her, she had two hands holding onto one of the monkey bars. She yelled 'Look what I can do Daddy' and when I ran over to grab her so she wouldn't fall, she told me that she could get down all by herself", he summarized while Amelia shifted in Andy's arms. The boys listened intently to see if Amelia got into any trouble from her stunt. Andy looked down at Amelia's knees and elbows and noticed two large and two small Frozen bandaids.

"I take it that she couldn't get down all by herself?", Andy wondered.

Jack shook his head, "She let go with one hand and yelled for me to help her. Those are from tripping in the rest stop parking lot. I was holding her hand and she was skipping beside me and the next thing I knew, she was on the ground screaming. She handled it like a champ though! She sat on the back of the car and let me clean the cuts before putting the band-aids on. Then I got her ice cream from the ice cream place at the rest stop". He chuckled while the boys listened in about the rest of Amelia's day.

"Oh Lia", Andy laughed as she kissed the top of Amelia's head while Jack asked about her day with the boys. DJ and Rowan talked over each other, each of them wanting to talk about what happened at Target and on the ferry where DJ told a man who was decked out in green for the Mariners game that he looked like the Incredible Hulk. Andy was embarrassed and distracted DJ by pointing to a view of Seattle. She apologized to the man while listening to Rowan tell DJ that he was being rude. Andy laughed at each of their stories, DJ's retellings being more dramatic than Rowan's, and gave Jack the low down of what they did. "Our day was fun. We went on the ferry, went to Target and I took the boys to that interactive kids' museum", she explained. "As much as Rowan says he hated it...he didn't", she whispered while glancing over at Rowan. She glanced down at Amelia who was waking up after hearing all the noise. "Hi big girl, you're home. Did you have a fun day with Daddy?", she asked.

Amelia nodded and snuggled closer to Andy. She buried her head in Andy's neck and tried to close her eyes again. "I have fun", she answered sleepily. "I gots a big dollhouse"

Andy chuckled and stood up. "Great job tiring her out today. Such a difference from yesterday where I had to chase her around the house after bathtime. I've never seen a kid with as much energy as her", she explained while taking Amelia's pinky finger out of her mouth yet again. Andy kissed both DJ and Rowan goodnight before leaving to put Amelia to bed. "Good night boys. I want you two in bed by the time I finish tucking in your sister. Thank you for a fun day. I love you", she told them.

"Today was pretty cool Mom", Rowan told Andy on her way out of the room.

Jack took Andy's place on the edge of Rowan's bed and talked to the boys about school. He had been eager to share this moment with them all day. "Alright, who's excited to go back tomorrow", he asked, only for DJ's hand to shoot up while Rowan kept his hand down. "Only DJ? Really? Rowan, I know you love school"

"I'm 11, Dad. 5th graders hate school", Rowan answered angrily while putting away yet another folder as well as his blue pencil case.

"Word Check. What did I say about the word 'hate'?", Jack questioned, wondering if he had been talking to himself when he gave Rowan the lecture on using words like that.

Rowan rolled his eyes and scoffed while Jack arched his eyebrows at him. "Fine, 5th graders really dislike school", he corrected reluctantly. "I like my friends but that's it. School is boring"

Jack chose to ignore the comment for now, understanding that Rowan would probably change his mind once he got back into the swing of things. They were going back to school after losing another parent, this was undoubtedly incredibly hard for both boys. "What about you DJ? Are you excited to go to school?"

"Kind of. Daddy, do you think I can write Herrera-Gibson on my school work? My teacher wants us to use our last name and it isn't Somersworth anymore right?", DJ asked, genuinely confused. Rowan nodded in agreement, wanting to know the answer as well. "I usually leave that blank", Rowan admitted much to Jack's surprise. "My teacher doesn't ask questions anymore when I only write Rowan on my paper"

"Herrera-Gibson is super long", DJ added, "But I like it because it means I have a Mommy and a Daddy. I miss having both"

Jack smiled and messed up DJ's hair, "You got that right, and I'm sure both your teachers would love having you write Herrera-Gibson on your school work. I know I do!". He looked around at Rowan's room which had become even more full in the past few days. Jack looked at the shelves above the desk and smiled when he saw the half-melted participation trophy for basketball that Rowan refused to throw away as well as another, slightly more intact Teacher of the County award that Carl had won. Rowan managed to find both of them while they were salvaging things from the old house yesterday and put them on his shelf for safe keeping. "Are you guys part of any afterschool activities?", Jack wondered, knowing DJ's skill with T-Ball and Rowan's past with basketball.

"Jenna said we were broke so we couldn't", DJ answered honestly, causing Jack to chuckle slightly. Even if what he said wasn't funny, DJ was just so honest that it was. "Can I do activities now?"

"You bet", Jack answered as he watched them check their backpacks again and talk about their friends. "Alright, time for bed you two", he told them a minute later when he checked the time on his phone. Jack kissed them both goodnight and DJ groaned before going next door. Rowan put all the extra school supplies on his desk and climbed into bed while Jack turned off the light and went downstairs to carry in Amelia's dollhouse which turned out to be a replica of their house.

Andy, in the meantime, left Amelia's room after ensuring that she was asleep and went to check on the boys. She noticed Rowan sprawled out in his bed, snoring away, but opened DJ's door to hear a tired "Hi Mommy"

"Hi Mommy?", she asked as she walked in. "DJ honey, it's bedtime", Andy told him while turning on the lights. DJ sat up in his bottom bunk with his eyes wide open, waving at Andy. "You have school in the morning so you should be asleep my love", she told him.

DJ stared at her for a brief second before shaking his head, "Can't I stay home with you? Lia gets to"

"Lia's only two. You have to go to school honey. Is anything bothering you about school?", she wondered as she laid next to him. He snuggled up next to Andy and she couldn't help but feel bad for a minute that she was sending him to school. All she wanted to do was give in at that moment, but she thought about what Pruitt would do and decided to instead talk to DJ to get more information. "You can tell me if something is bothering you kiddo", she reminded him.

DJ sighed sadly, "I'm scared. People won't understand that I have a new Mommy and they'll make fun of me. They'll, they'll call me names and laugh and I'll get so mad that I'll have to fight them"

"Woah, pump the brakes. First of all, you are not fighting anyone, Dalton James. What do we do when we get mad?", she quizzed.

"Use our words or tell a grown-up", DJ answered

Andy chuckled and kissed him on the head while he grinned, pleased that he gave the correct answer. "Bingo", she told him while he laughed in response to her silly way of answering him. "DJ, honey, look at me", Andy started with her face getting serious, "Nobody is going to make fun of you for having a new Mommy and Daddy". She watched as DJ stared at her in disbelief while clutching his stuffed alligator close. "DJ, sweetheart, I know how hard it is to go to school after a parent d-I mean leaves", she explained, correcting herself. "I don't like to talk about this that much, but your Grandma Elena, my Mommy, left your Grandpa Pruitt and I when I was just a little girl", she explained, hoping to show him that she knew exactly how he was feeling.

DJ gave her a puzzled expression, being the first Gibson child to hear about Elena. "Why did she leave? Did she die too? It's okay if she did Mommy"

"She told me she did. She might as well have", Andy thought to herself. "No buddy, Grandma didn't really want a family but Grandpa did so she decided that she had to leave. She packed her stuff one night while I was asleep and went to live with Auntie Sandra for a very long time. Anyways, I had to go to school a few days after she left and deal with all my friends asking where your grandmother was. Sometimes I answered them and said that I didn't know, but other times I would get so sad that I would sit in the hallway and cry and cry. Your Uncle Ryan used to tell me 'It's none of their business and what happened doesn't make you any less Andy. Just pretend it's a normal day'. That's what I want you to do buddy. Just pretend it's a normal day", she told him. "Besides, you have Rowan right there if you need him"

"Okay. I guess I can do that. Or I can just tell them that you're the boss at a fire station. Then I'll be cool", he grinned while Andy got up and tucked him in. Andy chuckled and told him that she was glad that he thought her and Jack were cool. She kissed DJ's head and covered him with that old baby blanket from the old house. "Goodnight Mommy. I think you're the best Mommy in the whole wide world", DJ told her tiredly.

Andy chuckled while shutting off the lights, "And I think you're the best DJ in the whole wide world. Sweet dreams bud". After closing DJ's door and going to her room to throw on a pair of pajamas, Andy joined Jack downstairs on the couch. She yawned while sitting down next to him and resting her head on his shoulder. She reached into the bowl of popcorn he was holding and grabbed a handful. "What are you watching?", she asked

"American Ninja. It's kinda like WipeOut but without the lawsuits", he chuckled.

"Eating popcorn while watching people fall off balls and get hit with giant moving, rubber poles only to fall into a pit of mud? You're sick", she told him while throwing a piece of popcorn at his head.

He threw one back at her and laughed, "You're watching it and eating too"

"Touche", she responded while they continued watching the show. They listened to the screams from one guy after he slipped on the balance beam and did a split before descending into a pool of mud. Andy cringed at the fate of the contestant and watched as another one got smacked in the head with a giant swinging ball. "You see, that guy got that balance beam in the place where you don't want one and that one is probably looking at a concussion. Holy hell, how is he getting back up again?", she wondered while grabbing more popcorn and watching the contestant dodge a wall full of boxing gloves.

"I would love to be the aid car on call during this show. Think of all the injuries", Jack mentioned as they quietly watched the contestant get smacked in the face by a rubber board. "Ohh, that has to hurt. Rowan was telling me about the trampoline park downtown that's modeled after this show. He was going on and on about how cool it was but all I could think of was telling him no. You?", he asked, looking for backup on the matter.

"Couldn't agree more", Andy chuckled. "I had to talk DJ into wanting to go to school tonight, just a few minutes ago actually. He's asleep now", she confessed.

Jack's attention was suddenly off the TV and he muted their show to talk to Andy. "What? An, he was excited! What happened?"

"The same thing that happened when my Dad told me my Mom died. Things are different and he's afraid that the other kids are going to make fun of him for it", she summarized. "I'm sure you can sympathize with him after being thrown into a new home and having to listen to kids talk about your situation all the time"

Jack scoffed, "Hardly. A new home usually meant that a new school came with it. I was enrolled in almost every elementary school in the Seattle Metro Area. I didn't have to worry about kids asking questions or being cruel because I could literally start off the year by saying 'I'm Jack Gibson and so and so are my parents'. I was always the new kid and nobody knew about where I had been previously. Of course I didn't stick around enough to make friends, but you get the picture. I mean it wasn't any less frustrating or heartbreaking for me to have to reinvent myself"

"Unfortunately DJ and Rowan don't have the luxury of reinventing themselves. DJ told me that Rowan doesn't have any friends because he gave up making them after Carl died. I'm so worried about them going back", she admitted. "Maybe it's too soon you know? Maybe we should keep them home just a few more days, or homeschool them entirely. You helped homeschool Marcus and you didn't screw that up. How hard can it be?"

Jack laughed and sarcastically remarked, "Thanks for the encouragement". He looked into her eyes, eyes of worry for the kids' future and got lost in them for a minute. He had to admit that she was even hotter when she was frantic and jumping to extremes. He snapped out of his trance when Andy threw a handful of popcorn at his face and yelled his name. "Okay, first of all, Inara mostly homeschooled Marcus. I just helped with fractions and it ended in the two of us arguing over sign language. Second of all, that was during a pandemic and the teachers stopped giving a shit about how we taught the kids and only cared that we taught them and you know didn't give everyone COVID". Andy's eyes pleaded with him to change his mind. His look softened, "God, how could I say no to her?", he thought to himself. He wrapped a comforting arm around her and gave her a knowing look. He understood all of her anxieties and her struggles with this. Sending their kids to school wasn't something they thought they were going to have to worry about until later. "Rowan will be more outgoing when he realizes he's here to stay, trust me. He's probably afraid to put down roots like I was. And DJ? He has a strong group of friends already and he's a chatterbox who will have more friends by the end of the day. He's not afraid to tell anyone off if they have questions that bother him", Jack explained, putting Andy's mind a little at ease.

"I guess you're right", Andy told him as she snuggled next to him. Jack chuckled and turned the volume back up so they could finish their TV show before bed.