Nick neatly put the papers on his desk as Rae, Jackie and Letty walked into the room.

"Hey Nick. What're you doing here? I thought this was your day off," Rae said as they walked up to him.

"It is my day off. I've just come by to check up on everything before I leave," he replied.

"Why? Where's your day taking you?" wondered Letty.

"Oh, that's right, I forgot to tell you. One of Sarah's classes is going on a school trip today. I've agreed to help chaperone," Nick told them.

"Aww, how sweet. The knight is living up to his shining reputation," Jackie said, starting to laugh.

"Jackie, I will get you for that someday. Be warned for you don't know when I may strike back at you," Nick told her as he leaned towards her.

She could barely hear him over her laughing. Rae and Letty couldn't stop their giggling.

"I believe this is the reason I didn't tell you in the first place. I somehow knew you were going to react like this. You have been ever since the moment Sarah and Patrick came through those hospital doors," Nick whispered to her while he was still at his close proximity to Jackie.

"Nick, I'm sorry. Can you ever forgive me?" Jackie told him, her voice still filled with laughter.

Nick looked her over before sighing.

"Let me think on that Jackie. I'm not sure I want to. We'll have to wait and see, won't we?" replied Nick as he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh please, Nick," pleaded Jackie.

He walked around her and out the door, the three women watching him carefully.

"Better be careful Jackie, he might be serious about getting back at you. Once he gets back to work, you'd better watch out," Letty told her.

"You never can tell with Nick Kokoris," Rae agreed.

"He won't do it," Jackie said in a confident manner.

She looked at Letty and Rae with a slightly scared look.

"Won't he?" she nervously asked the two.

***

At the school, Sarah and Patrick patiently waited for Nick to show up. She was pacing back and forth as her brother watched her.

"Stop or else you'll get gray hair before you're 20," laughed Patrick.

"I know I shouldn't worry but this really the first time we really asked him to do anything we us. Before now, he was always someone to fall back on after school and help us with homework," Sarah said.

"Mainly you. I know how to do mine," Patrick said.

Sarah stuck her tongue out at him as Jessica walked up behind her.

"Sarah, don't worry. He'll be here. He seemed to be pretty happy to do this when we asked him," Jessica told her.

Before anyone else could say anything, Nick walked up behind them.

"I'm here. Am I late?" he asked as a teacher walked up to them.

"Mr. Kokoris, I take it?" she asked.

Nick nodded.

"I'm Mrs. Tand, the astronomy teacher. I have heard some about you since Sarah came back to class," the teacher told him, holding out her hand and he took it.

"It's nice to be here," Nick said as he looked around at the students.

"There's about 30 going today. I tell you, ever since Sarah came back from that absence of hers, she's been like a whole new person. Before, she was very, how can I put it, tougher for lack of a better word. Not only that, she got into trouble with the other kids a lot," Mrs. Tand told him. "You must have done something to her to change her attitude."

Nick stared at her with an odd look as she shrugged and the teacher walked away from them. He sighed and ruffled her hair. She laughed as she tried to stop him.

"I don't know about you," he told her.

"Alright everybody, on the bus. Now that everybody's here, we'll be on our way to the observatory," the teacher said to the students.

They all climbed onto the bus and it started on its way out of town.

***

Sarah was sitting next to Jessica, Patrick and Nick were in the seat across the aisle.

"Man, I wish we'd get there before the day is over," whined Jessica.

"The day will be over. You know it's better to look at the stars at night," laughed Sarah.

Nick put on a smile as he listened to their conversation.

***

Matt walked up to Harriet, drinking a cup of coffee.

"Harriet, where's Nick today? I have something to ask him and he's not answering his home phone or pager," he asked her.

"That's because he's not home Matt. I heard from Letty and Rae that he's chaperoning a class trip of Sarah's. Won't be home until after dark," Harriet replied.

"Sarah? She's the one who came in with her brother, Patrick, a few months ago, isn't it? The same two he took in, right?" he wondered.

"Same ones," Harriet told him as she turned the page of the newspaper.

Matt slowly nodded his head as he lifted the cup up to his mouth.

"Way to go Nick," he whispered to himself.

***

Nick looked through the telescope at the stars after everybody else had done so. He walked away as the teacher continued to talk .

"As you can see, they are many stars in the night sky. There are billions of stars throughtout the galaxy," she said. "Has everyone had a look through the telescope?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good. Now this concludes our tour. Everybody please proceed to the bus," Mrs. Tand told them.

***

Six feet ran through the forest near the observatory. They soon came across the building and the students heading out towards the bus.

"Look, there's our ticket back to town. Let's hitch a ride," one said.

"Great idea," replied another.

The third nodded his head as they ran towards the bus. They hid in the shadows of the bus as the kids climbed onto it.

Soon, everybody was on excpet the bus driver. Sarah was now sitting with Nick and she laid her head against his shoulder. He looked at her with a smile on his face.

"Tired?" he asked.

"Um-hum," was her reply.

"Everybody on the bus?" the bus driver asked the teacher.

Mrs. Tand nodded as she faced the students.

"Everybody in a seat now. We have to get going," she told them.

Suddenly, they heard a commotion coming from outside and three men walked onto the bus, shoving the driver forcefully into the seat. All the students became nervous. Sarah bolted up in her seat, wide awake.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Bus is being hijaked," replied Nick in a quiet voice.

The two looked over at Patrick and Sarah, who were sitting nervously next to each other. Jessica looked over at her, worry written all over her face.

"Don't even think about resisting 'cause if you do, people will start falling like flies," one man said.

The man looked like the obvious leader of the group as he scanned the group of students and adults, a shotgun now over his shoulder.

Sarah lowered herself in her seat as did Patrick.

"How did they find us Pat? I thought we lost them years ago," wondered Sarah as she looked over at her brother.

"I don't know but once he sees us, we're dead," he replied.

The man walked in between the two and looked at their faces. His eyes lit up in recognition.

"Well if it isn't my little pesky friends. Nice to see you two here. Now to say good-bye," the man said as he aimed the gun at the back of the bus.

"Excuse me, but what do you think you're doing?" asked Nick as he stood up and aimed the gun at the floor of the bus.

"Stay out of this. It's between them and me," the man replied.

"I'm sorry but when it deals with these two, it most certainly deals with me," Nick replied. "Now tell me. What is it with two teenagers that concerns you?"

"These aren't your ordinary teenagers. Five years ago, they took away everything about me. Stole most of my money. Now, just recently, they took away my only source of drugs in this town. But of course, how was I supposed to know the man and them were related by blood?" the man angrily replied as he aimed the gun at Patrick.

Patrick grew scared as he stared down the insides of the gun. Nick climbed out of the seat and stood in the way.

"I don't want to do this man. Don't get yourself involved with this now. They destroyed my life!" the man screamed at him.

Nick shook his head.

"No, I involved myself the first time I saw these two. I have been ever since. You have something against them, you also have something against me," Nick told the man.

"If you won't get out of my way voluntarily, I'll do it myself," the man said as he aimed his gun at Nick and pulled the triggor.

TBC...