"So remind me how freezing off anything I might later find useful is supposed to be fun," Jig said as she and Ephram rolled a giant ball through the recent layers of fallen snow. Ephram laughed as they finished rolling it and heaved it up onto the larger ball they had already rolled.

"It's one of those things you get more out of after you're done," he explained. She nodded.

"Like Thomas Mann…" she said. He looked at her surprised.

"You read Thomas Mann?" he asked her as they started another one. She laughed slightly.

"Amy's reading anything by him she can find, so…"

"So are you…" he finished. She nodded.

"I like talking to Amy. I like it more if I know what the hell she's talking about…" Jig told him. He chuckled slightly and they lifted the third and final ball of snow onto the other two. They both sighed and looked at it.

"This is fun?" she asked him. He smiled and walked over to it. He took two stones out of his pocket and placed them on the head for eyes. Jig sighed and walked over to him as he started placing fives small stones for the mouth. She took a carrot from her pocket and placed it for the snowman's nose. The carrot fell to the ground. Ephram laughed as Jig quickly picked it up and placed it deeper into the snowy head. She nodded and the two took a step backward from it.

"Our baby," Jig said and Ephram laughed slightly.

"He has your eyes," Ephram said Jig laughed.

"Yea well, he has your head shape…" she retorted and he laughed. He turned to her.

"You hated making that didn't you?" Ephram asked her. She laughed slightly.

"I may never have children again but it wasn't that bad," she said laughing.

"Yea well, thanks for doing this with me…" he told her. She turned to him.

"We've been over this Ephram. You're my friend. As long as the sun spins I'll be there for you," she reassured him. He nodded and looked back at the snowman.

"Well, thanks anyway," he told her. She nodded.

"You know of course, if you should receive a call in the middle of the night…" she started. He nodded.

"Don't worry about it," he reassured her laughing slightly.

~

"Mommy… Steve Duncan made fun of me today…" a small, brown haired girl said rubbing her eye slightly as she walked over to her sympathetic mother. Julia Brown picked the girl up into her arms and wiped away a tear with her thumb.

"Do you think what he said about you is true?" Julia asked her. Delia shook her head. Julia smiled warmly at her young daughter.

"Well that's all that matters Delia. As long as you know what he's saying is wrong, his words can't hurt you," she reassured the small girl, who was now smiling. Delia leaned forward and hugged her mother, thanked her, jumped off of her lap, and ran into the kitchen to attack her older brother. Julia watched the small girl as her brother yelled at her, smiling. Those were her kids.

~

School was over and Delia spoke her first words since that morning. She told Murasaki not to be worried about her, and to go home. Murasaki had hugged her, and obeyed. On the bus ride home Delia just stared out of the window, again wordless. When she got off of the bus Irv followed her with his eyes worriedly until she was safely inside her home. Inside she found her father oddly early, but her brother off somewhere. She never would have imagined him to be off with friends or Desi on a day, on a day like this.

In the kitchen she hoisted herself up onto a stool and Andy placed a plate of cookies in front of her. She looked up from the plate to Andy worriedly. He held his palm up, as if stopping any comment she might make.

"Don't worry, Mama Joy made, I only ordered them," he reassured her. She smiled (the first all day) and picked up a cookie. Andy placed two glasses of milk in front of her and picked up a cookie himself. He took a bite out of it and nodded in approval. Delia did the same.

"So, do you know where Ephram is?" he asked her. Delia shook her head.

"Jig might…" she mumbled, trying to keep cookie crumbs in her mouth. Andy nodded, figuring the girl was right. He picked up the phone and called the Harper residence. Jig answered.

"Oh hi Dr. Brown, can I help you?" she asked him with some odd sympathetic tone for a phone greeting.

"Uh, yea. Is Ephram there?" he asked her. There was an unusual pause on the other end.

"No, I haven't seen him for a few hours. He said he was going home… He isn't home yet?" she told him. Andy frowned.

"No, no he isn't…" he answered her, even though she had already gathered that. Jig sighed.

"I'll call Desi and whoever else might know. Don't worry Dr. Brown, he's safe, you have my word," Jig reassured him. Andy nodded, though that did little for Jig.

It was already very late and no one had found Ephram. Delia was asleep and Nina was checking in on her. Andy was out searching Everwood for his son. Jig and Desi would have readily joined him, but Edna and Irv didn't want Jig out late, and Desi's parents were still weary from Valentine's Day. But at about eleven all fears were put to rest. Edna and Irv were in bed but Jig was sitting in the living room reading by firelight. If they thought she was going to sleep while her best friend was lost, well, they were freaking nuts. At eleven, almost exactly, there was knocking on the front door. Quickly Jig shot from the couch to the door, knowing the knocker bared news if Ephram was dead or alive. To her surprise, it was Ephram himself.

He was slumped against the doorframe, his hair a dirty mess and his lip split and bleeding. But, despite his appearance and, smell, he had a grin on his face. A smile conquered Jig's face and she hugged him happily. She frowned, however, when he slumped against her with all of his weight. It was then she noticed the beer smell that stained his clothes and sweat.

"Hi honey I'm home…" he mumbled into her ear. She sighed and pulled him into the living room, kicking the door shut behind them. She yelled up to Edna and Irv. She yelled so loudly Ephram yelled in pain and leaned off of her and took a few steps away, holding his hands tight around his ears.

"Ow… Don't do that…" he told her. She sighed and took a hold of his hands and led him over to the couch and sat him down. At this time Edna and Irv emerged down the stairs wrapped in their bathrobes. They both looked surprised to see Ephram there, naturally.

"You call the Doc, I'll make some coffee," Edna ordered Irv and he obeyed. Jig knelt on the floor by Ephram's feet and tried to keep him sitting up and awake.

"Oh Ephram you louse. Why'd you…" she said but didn't feel like finishing. Ephram smiled and started laughing at something only he knew of. Jig held her hand to his face and slapped his cheek slightly, trying to bring him back to her living room. His smile turned into a serious look and he placed his hand on hers, pressing it against his cheek. He leaned down closer to her.

"Why haven't we kissed yet?" he asked her. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Because we're not in love," she replied.

"Oh…" he said nodding. He then pressed his eyelids together and looked at her again.

"Why aren't we in love?" he asked her. Jig sighed again.

"Because you like every girl you meet more…" she told him.

"Oh…" he said again nodding. He leaned away from her and back against the couch. He released her hand and flew both of his up into the air.

"I love you Desi!" he yelled. Jig sighed and crawled up onto the couch. Ephram was wearing a scarf around his neck, no jacket, but a scarf. She tried to untie the scarf from his neck, but as she was his hand quickly grabbed her wrist and held on to it with a strength she never knew he had. He was almost hurting her. He brought her hand up from his scarf to his face, and smelled it. He smiled and looked at her.

"I like your smell, it's like, butterscotch and leather…" he told her to her surprise. Then, still with a smile, he leaned his head back, let go of her hand, and closed his eyes. Jig, all or mostly unnerved, called his name and tried to wake him. The only response she got was his leaning over and resting on her shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her waist and held his pillow tighter.

"I love you, Mommy…" he said and fell sleep. Jig sighed.

"No good can come from this…" she muttered as Edna walked into the room with coffee.

It's a mostly unknown feeling, one hundred jackhammers in your head, but that's the feeling Ephram had when he woke up the next morning. The morning light burned his eyes but he sat up anyway and looked around. He was laying on a couch with a blanket over him. On one of the two chairs across from the couch sat Andy Brown, his head resting on his fist, asleep. On the other was Jig, balled up and uncomfortable, but asleep as well. Ephram had a bad taste in his mouth and a horrible feeling in his stomach, like he might throw up. The feeling in his stomach grew to be so great, he sprinted from the couch and into the bathroom.

While he was leaning over the toilet seat Edna walked into the room behind him and leaned against the doorframe, shaking her head. After a few minutes, when his stomach was thoroughly empty, he sat back and turned around to look at her. She leaned off of the doorframe.

"Take a shower, it'll do you good," she told him and left the room, closing the door behind her. Ephram flushed the toilet, looked at the shower curtain, and began undressing.

While he was in the shower Ephram heard the bathroom door open and someone walk in. A little nervous he demanded who was there.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, just getting your clothes to wash. You can use the blue bathrobe…" Jig's voice told him, decreasing in volume as she walked out of the room. Ephram quickly turned the water off, grabbed his towel, and ran after her. He caught her in the hallway just outside of the bathroom door. He startled her and she almost dropped his clothes onto the now wet carpeted floor. He released his hold on her arm that he had made to catch her.

"Jig, look, I'm sorry that I-" he started.

"Hey, Brown. Don't worry about it. As long as you pay for my psychiatrist bills later we'll be fine," she joked, laughing slightly at it herself. Ephram frowned both because she was treating it lightly, and because he was really cold.

"But Jig, you see, I don't remember what I did last night. Did I do anything…?" he asked her but couldn't find the right words. Jig laughed, knowing the right words herself.

"You said you liked my smell, and called me 'mommy.' That's all…" she reassured him. He frowned anyway.

"I called you 'mommy?' Oh god…" he said with a sigh. She waved it off.

"Don't care Ephram, now, go wash the rest of the shampoo out of your hair, I'll get this stink out of you clothes. And relax. You're troubles are yet to come. Your father is waiting for you in the kitchen…" she said walked away from him. Ephram sighed and walked back into the bathroom, closing the door and locking it.