29-year-old FBI agent Holden Ford sat down on his couch. Realizing he sat on something, he let out a surprised and slightly annoyed noise. It was just the remote. Sighing, he began flipping through the channels before settling on something to watch.

He was still on edge from a long, stressful day at work. As fascinated as he was with his job - which involved interviewing and analyzing serial killers - a.k.a. people who had committed multiple murders in a similar fashion - it was rather emotionally draining. Not to mention, Holden's partner, Bill Tench didn't seem to like him all that much.

It wasn't that Holden was looking to be best friends with Bill or anything - he just figured it would help make work easier if his partner didn't hate his guts.

Okay, now it was time to relax. Relaxation was a term Holden Ford didn't use very much in his vocabulary - he was a rather high-strung individual and generally worked up about basically everything. This was something both of his parents, particularly his mother, often chided him about.

"We only have today, Holden," Margaret Ford would say. "No need to take everything so seriously." Of course, this was the woman who had run such a tight ship when it came to child-rearing and rarely, if ever, hugged him when he was growing up.

Holden's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing. Begrudgingly, he got up and headed for the kitchen where the phone sat. Maybe it was his girlfriend, Debbie. He had hoped to spend some time with her this evening, but she was busy with schoolwork, and Holden had come home more exhausted than he anticipated after work.

"Hello?" He asked cautiously, upon picking up the phone.

"Holden?" A woman on the other end replied.

"Mom?" Holden asked, trying to hide his confusion and slight annoyance. His parents rarely called him and he was fine with that. They had never been close, and he was fine living his life while letting them live theirs.

"How are you?" Margaret asked softly.

"Uh…fine. Work is going…well. How are you and Dad?"

"We're great, darling," Margaret replied. Holden winced. His mother almost never used terms of endearment. It would have been less awkward for her to call him a swear word, but that would've been completely out of character for the anti-profanity Margaret Ford.

"So, Mary says you found a girlfriend," Margaret immediately jumped to a new subject, per usual. Holden winced yet again, this time at the sound of his sister's name.

19-year-old Mary Ford was a college student. Holden and Debbie had run into her while on a date and it had been a complete disaster. First, the moment Mary recognized her older brother she had screeched out the embarrassing nickname she had christened him with when she was a toddler.

Then, without being invited, she had sat down next to Holden in his booth and eaten several of his French fries while interrogating Debbie about why she was dating Holden, as Mary felt Debbie was "out of his league." Before returning to her friends' table, she had congratulated her brother on his new girlfriend because their mother (and Mary, most certainly) was starting to worry he would "die alone."

For some reason, Debbie had found the whole thing hilarious which pissed Holden off even more. Many people - far too many - found Mary to be charming and endearing. According to them, she had a "bubbly" personality. Holden, however, had known her her entire life and at the end of the day she was just annoying. She had gotten less whiney as she got older, but it still came out once in a while when she was frustrated - sometimes with Holden, sometimes with their parents.

And it wasn't as though she was completely spoiled by Mom and Dad. Ultimately, Margaret and Thomas Ford had been quite strict with both of their children - firm believers in the adage "spare the rod and spoil the child." But there had also been many times that young Mary had been given leeway that Holden had not been at her age - or when he had been even younger. It likely stemmed from the fact that Margaret had struggled to have another healthy pregnancy after Holden with many tragic losses in between.

She and Thomas had been hoping to have eight children (just the thought of dealing with seven Marys was enough to raise Holden's blood pressure for weeks) but when that couldn't happen, Mary became the reminder of all they had overcome - the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. The only time Holden ever associated light with his younger sister was regarding the time a five-year-old Mary had shined a flashlight in his face at 4am.

But back to the phone call - why the hell was Mom calling him? It had been months since he had last heard from his parents.

It was as though Margaret Ford could read her son's mind. "Daddy and I would like to invite you and Debbie - and Mary and Scott, over for dinner this Saturday evening at 5:00."

Holden cringed again - this time at multiple things: the thought of eating dinner with his family, the thought of Debbie meeting his parents, and his mother referring to his father as "Daddy" as if he wasn't nearly thirty and in the FBI for God's sake. Yes, Mary called him that, but she was still a teenager and also hopelessly immature.

Holden's first instinct was to turn down the invitation but he knew that would result in a phone call from his father later guilting him for "breaking his mother's heart." He also knew that, should he spill the beans to Debbie about the invitation later, she would have been mad at him for not introducing her to his parents even though he would be doing her a favor. She had already met Mary and that was more than enough.

"I'll…I'll talk to Debbie and I'll call you tomorrow," Holden replied, knowing damn well Debbie would want to go.

"Wonderful. Take care, Holden," Margaret said.

"Bye, Mom," Holden replied before hanging up the phone.

Fuck.