"Noah Lyman!" Toby roared as he let himself into his daughter's home. "Where the Hell are you?"

"Un'le Toby?" he heard Noah call him from the living room.

Toby stalked into the living room intent on making Noah pay for whatever he'd done to hurt Kate, but what he saw stopped him in his tracks. Toby sighed and whispered, "Oh Hell!"

"She hates me, Un'le Toby," Noah moaned from where he sat sprawled in the arm chair. It was pretty obvious that he too had been crying over whatever had happened between himself and Kate, but that wasn't what caught Toby's attention.

"You're drunk, Noah" Toby informed the younger man.

Noah raised the nearly empty bottle of scotch to his face and peered quizzically at the amount left inside. "Why, yes. I believe I am," he informed his uncle as he carefully poured himself another glass.

Before he could bring the glass to his lips to take another sip, Toby had stalked across the room and snatched it from his hand along with the bottle. "Give me that before you give yourself alcohol poisoning," Toby said before taking a sip from the glass himself. "What happened, Noah?" Toby asked as he eyed the younger man's pitiful condition. "Start from the beginning."

Noah met Toby's gaze with eyes that didn't quite focus and said, "I'm in love with your daughter."

"Tell me something I don't already know," Toby growled.

"You know?" Noah asked confusedly. "How do you know? Did Mom tell you? Or my sisters?"

"Noah, you've been in love with Kate for years. You are just like your dad was with your mom," Toby said. "Totally in love and totally oblivious. The only two people who didn't know you were in love were you and Kate."

"Oh," was the only reply that came to Noah's alcohol numbed mind. "What am I going to do, Uncle Toby? She hates me."

"No, she doesn't," Toby disagreed with a sigh. "Now tell me what happened so we can fix it." Noah eyed him warily. Toby's protectiveness of his children was legendary. Something in Noah's expression must have given Toby a clue as to what the younger man was thinking. "Eventually, Noah, you'll make her happy. I know that. So I'm going to do what I can to get the two of you to that point with the least amount of pain involved," Toby told him. "I do not want to go through another courtship like your parents put us through."

Noah smiled in spite of himself. "You think we're like my parents?" he asked.

Instead of answering the question Toby growled, "Stop changing the subject. What happened that had my daughter crying on my shoulder ten minutes ago?"

Noah's expression sobered instantly. "I made her cry?" he asked. "Kate never cries."

"What did you do, Noah?" Toby yelled at him as he finally lost his patience.

"I kissed her," Noah replied.

"Then what?" Toby demanded.

"She kneed me in the groin and yelled at me. She thought I was playing at something," Noah said. "I told her I loved her."

"And?" Toby asked.

"She called me a jerk and left," Noah answered as he made a grab to reclaim the scotch.

"No," Toby said as he evaded Noah. "You have your father's delicate system. I don't need you passing out on me." Toby pulled Noah into a standing position then steadied the younger man as he swayed on his feet. "Let's get you sobered up," he said as he lead Noah down the hall to the bathroom. He got Noah into the shower and turned icy water on the drunken man full blast.

"Jesus, Uncle Toby!" Noah screamed as he tried to get out of the shower and away from the cold water.

"Stay there," Toby ordered. "I'm going to go make you some coffee, and I'd better find you there when I get back."

Noah glared but didn't try to get out of the shower again so Toby left him to make coffee.

"Ziegler," he growled into his cell phone a minute later as it began to vibrate in his pocket.

"Dad!" he heard Kate greet him. "Where are you?"

"At your place. Where did you think I'd go?" Toby told her.

"What have you done, Dad?" Kate demanded. "You'd better not..."

"I'm not the one who hurt him," Toby told her with a quiet snicker. "Your mother was right that day at Leo's funeral about you taking care of yourself, Kate."

"Is he alright, Dad?" Kate asked apprehensively. "I didn't hurt him too bad did I?"

"Noah, how's your...ermm...injury?" Toby asked in a loud voice intended to break through the alcohol induced fog Noah was in as he carried a cup of microwaved coffee back into the bathroom.

"My head hurts," Noah told him from within the shower.

"Dad, he hit his head on the coffee table when I pushed him off the couch," Kate told him after he'd relayed the information to her. "He may have a concussion."

Toby snorted. "More likely he's got the start of a hang-over," he told his daughter.

"What?"

"He's drunk, Kate" Toby told her.

"He's drunk!" Kate exclaimed. "How could he..."

"I don't know...it's usually a good way to numb pain," he interrupted her. "Why do you think he crawled into a bottle, Kate? He's upset, Kate! He told you he loves you and you called him a jerk and left!"

"You're taking his side?" Kate demanded forgetting for the moment that she herself had already admitted to her mother that she'd been wrong to do what she'd done.

"Do you love Noah?" Toby demanded.

"That's not the point!" Kate dismissed the question.

"Of course it's the point!" Toby yelled into the phone. "Now answer the damn question!" he demanded just before he handed the phone to a dripping Noah.

"Of course I love him!" Noah listened to Kate scream. "I've loved him for years!"

"You do?" Noah asked as he sat abruptly on the toilet forgetting for the moment that he was still dripping from the cold shower his uncle had forced on him. Toby draped a towel over his shoulders then left closing the door behind him.

"Noah?" Kate asked.

"Yeah," Noah replied as he ran a tired hand across his dripping face. "I do love you, Kate" he told her with more than a little urgency.

"I love you, too" she admitted quietly.

"Will you give me a chance, Kate?" he asked hoping Kate couldn't hear just how close to tears he was. "Please give us a chance, Kate" he begged.

"How could I not?" Kate replied in a voice so quiet he had to strain to hear.

"Come home," Noah begged. He held his eyes tightly closed as he waited for her answer.

"I'll be right there," she promised.