Elliot went with Ben to get the scans done and Olivia stayed with Rick and Lizzie. "Do you remember what Ben was doing when you found him?" she asked her stepson.

"Um…looking in Kathleen's bag, I think. I pulled him away."

"Do you know if he was holding anything?" He shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Olivia. I wasn't paying that much attention. I didn't think it was important."

"That's okay," she told him.

"Do they know what's wrong?" Lizzie asked.

"Yeah…Kathleen had drugs in her room, and Ben found them and took some."

"I didn't leave him that long!" Rick instantly said.

"I know you didn't. I believe you. He probably thought that what he found was sugar, and the fact that it didn't taste like sugar is more than likely the only thing that saved him from being a lot worse off than he is now. It's not your fault, Rick, because he should be able to go anywhere in the house without us worrying that he's going to find something we don't know about. This was not your fault, okay?" He slowly nodded.

"But it was mine," Lizzie told her, tears falling from her eyes. "I knew, Olivia. I saw her last night."

"That was your secret?" Lizzie nodded.

"I didn't want to get her in trouble! She said she wasn't going to take it, but one of her friends gave it to her and she didn't want to make them mad. I wanted to trust her; that's why I didn't know if I should tell you. I'm sorry! I didn't think Ben would get hurt. I really didn't." Lizzie was sobbing, and Olivia pulled her into her arms.

"I know you didn't. It wasn't your fault, either, okay? There was no way you could have known." Rick wrapped his arms around his sister as well, and they stayed together in the waiting room for a long time. Olivia was trying to figure out how they'd ended up in their current situation, but she couldn't put it together.

Once he got a room on the pediatrics ward, Olivia got Ben to bed while Elliot got the twins something to eat, since none of them had ever had dinner. He came back to find his wife watching their son sleep.

"I'm going to take Rick and Lizzie home," he told her. "You going to be okay?"

"Yeah. He got to sleep fine."

"You want me to come back once they're in bed?"

"No, stay with them." Elliot approached the bed and leaned over to kiss Ben's forehead.

"Sweet dreams," he told his son. He kissed Olivia as well. "You sure you'll be all right?"

"It's not like I don't know this hospital inside out from work."

"I know, just…the last time we were here for something other than work was when Ben was born." She slowly nodded.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that a lot…The image of you holding him for the first time keeps popping up in my mind. You said you didn't care if we had a boy or a girl, but I know you better than that, Elliot." He smiled.

"I would've gotten over it if the outcome had been different, but yeah, I'm not gonna deny that I had my hopes up. I just remember, when that doctor said he was a boy…you have no idea." Olivia smiled.

"Actually, I've got some. I don't think Ben was in as good of a mood." Elliot laughed.

"Hey, he had a set of lungs and he knew how to use them.

"That was the truth. But they put him in your arms and he just cracked one eye open and stared at you for a bit, and then he settled down." Elliot laughed.

"Yeah, he didn't like getting put down very much back then, did he?"

"No, he did not…and as he was lying here tonight, I was holding his hand, and just thinking…I used to wonder how people did it. How they lived in this world, knew all the things that were wrong with it, and still brought children into it. Your kids taught me different."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Mmm-hmm. You ever just sit and listen to a nine-year-old try and explain the world? Or hear a toddler's idea of the perfect day? They see all the things that we can't. They saw us before we could even admit it to ourselves. It's an incredible thing to be young enough not to know what can't be done. And now I finally get it."

"Get what?"

"The problem with bringing children into this world is that they eventually grow up."

When Elliot, Lizzie, and Rick got home, there were a few lights on, so they knew that Kathleen had been there, but she'd left again. After the twins were in their beds, Elliot headed for Kathleen's room. There wasn't anything else he could do for his son at that point, but there was much that needed to be done for his daughter. He wanted to know what she wasn't telling him.

"What are you doing in my room?!?" Kathleen asked as she came in the door a scant minute before her curfew to see her father tearing it apart. He held his hand out to her.

"Where is it, Kathleen?"

"Where is what?"

"The coke; where is it?" Her eyes went wide.

"Lizzie ratted?"

"Your sister didn't have to rat on you! Your brother found it, and he's currently in the hospital."

"What was Rick doing in my room?"

"Not Rick, Kathleen. Ben. Your three-year-old brother overdosed on your cocaine, and I want to know what you did with it."

"I don't have it. Is he going to be okay?" Elliot ignored her question.

"What do you mean you don't have it?"

"I gave it back to my friend. I was holding it for him so he wouldn't get caught."

"So you don't want your friends to end up in jail, but you don't care if one of your siblings ends up dead?"

"Lizzie and Rick know better, and I didn't think Ben would be in my room!"

"It doesn't look like you've been doing much thinking at all lately."

"I didn't do it on purpose! Is he going to be okay?"

"We don't know yet." Elliot took a few breaths to calm down before an all-out yelling match started. He had no doubt that Rick and Lizzie had been patiently listening for their sister's return, but he didn't need the neighbors in their business. "What was going through your mind that made you think this would be a good idea?"

"I don't know."

"You're going to have to do better than that, Kathleen."

"I don't know, okay? I'm sorry!"

"'Sorry' doesn't cut it this time. Did you ever think about what would happen if you got caught with drugs?"

"I wasn't taking them."

"That doesn't particularly matter in the eyes of the law."

"So what happens now?" Elliot sighed.

"I don't know…I talked to your mother; we were thinking about sending you up to her."

"To Canada? Now? It's the middle of the school year! I can't just leave all my friends and everything." Elliot snorted.

"Wake up, Kathleen! These friends almost got you into more trouble than you can get yourself out of…I want a name."

"What?"

"I want the name of whoever you decided covering for was so important."

"No. I'm not getting them arrested."

"At this point it's pretty much them or you. Tell me who had the drugs, where they got them from – something! – and I'll see that you get in as little trouble as I can."

"You're negotiating with me? I'm not one of your suspects! Why aren't we allowed to screw up? Are you really that perfect?"

"There is a difference between just screwing up and almost getting someone killed."

"I wasn't trying to hurt Ben!"

"You weren't protecting him, either! And no, I'm not perfect. But family comes first."

"Family comes first? Is that why we barely saw you growing up? I would have thought that saving the rest of the world comes first."

"You think the past few years have been easy? They haven't always been, for any of us. Even with Olivia's help, it's taken a lot of creative planning to raise four kids. But we do it because we couldn't imagine anything different. And yeah, I probably should have been there more when you were little, but that was the past and I can't change it now. I thought we'd done pretty good lately. And I thought you were a hell of a lot smarter than what you're proving to me right now."

"So that's it? One strike and you're out?"

"No, Kathleen. I'm not sending you out on the street. I think you need some time with some one-on-one parenting, and there isn't a lot of that in this house. I'm trying to keep your brothers and sister safe, and you safe from yourself. And if you can't understand that now, then I just hope someday you will."

The next morning, Elliot and the twins were headed back over to the hospital after a quick breakfast of cold cereal. Kathleen wasn't leaving her room or talking to her father, and Elliot wasn't inclined to have another fight with her. He'd talked to Kathy, and had agreed to put their daughter on a flight to Canada on Monday.

After spending the morning home alone, Kathleen finally ventured downstairs to get something to eat. The phone rang while her food was being microwaved, and Maureen's number popped up on the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"Kathleen? It's me. How are you doing?"

"Are you calling about Ben?"

"No, I'm calling about you. Dad told me last night about Ben, and I just talked to Olivia at the hospital, but I want to know how you're doing." Kathleen didn't answer. "Have you seen him yet?"

"No."

"Are you going to?"

"I don't know. I doubt anyone wants me there."

"Kathleen…you messed up. Big time. Deal with it. Luckily, Ben's going to be okay. That means you've got a chance to make up for this. And no, it's not going to be easy, but you've got to do it."

"What if I can't? I mean, Dad's sending me away. He's never made any of us leave before. What if he decides he doesn't want me back?"

"That's not going to happen. Do you know how scared Dad is for you? With all the stuff he deals with at work, do you know how scared he is that one of us is gonna wind up as a file on someone's desk? That's always been what he's afraid of. I think at one point he thought that maybe he could make the world a little safer for us, but he's learned better since then. We've got to keep ourselves safe, and you're not exactly helping out in that department."

Kathleen sighed. "So what am I supposed to do?"

"Well, for starters, you could be with the rest of your family right now instead of sitting home by yourself. Nobody's forcing you into exile, Kathleen. They just don't know how you got where you are, and how to keep it from happening again. You're scaring them."

"I don't mean to."

"I know. I guess this is just your first grown-up problem, and they weren't ready for that yet."

"Is this what happens when you go away from home? You get all wise and sage-y?" Maureen laughed.

"Kinda. You get a new perspective. I can see a lot of stuff about Mom and Dad and growing up with them differently now. And I think Dad knows it. He saw a lot of stuff about us differently after he and mom got divorced. He wants to give you the same opportunity. I think it'll help you, too."

After she finished with her sister, and got something to eat, Kathleen headed over to the hospital to find the rest of her family. A nurse directed her to Ben's room, and from the hall, she could see that Lizzie, Rick, and Ben were the only ones inside. The twins were each holding a book and reading to their brother.

"Peter flung out his arms," and after resting the book on his lap, Rick demonstrated. "There were no children there, and it was night-time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think; boys and girls in their nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees. 'Do you believe?' he cried."

"Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate," Lizzie continued. "She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, and then again she wasn't sure. 'What do you think?' she asked Peter."

"'If you believe,' he shouted to them, 'Clap your hands; don't let Tink die'."

"Do you believe in fairies?" Lizzie asked Ben. The little boy nodded. "Then you clap, too." And he obligingly clapped his hands.

There was something so perfect about the three of them together, and Kathleen could remember when it had been her and Lizzie and Rick that were caught up in the innocence of childhood. She hadn't asked to grow up, and wondered if she'd pulled her brother and sister along with her too soon.

"How long have you been here?" she heard a voice behind her ask, and turned to see Olivia.

"N-not that long…I'm sorry, Olivia. I didn't think…It was really stupid and I'll never do anything like it again." She was quiet for a long moment.

"Between you and me – I swear I won't tell your father – did you actually take any of the drugs yourself?"

"No."

"Have you ever before?"

"No." Olivia simply nodded.

"Why are you standing out here instead of going inside?"

"I didn't really know what to say."

"'Hello' might be a start." Kathleen turned back towards Ben's room. All three occupants looked up when they saw her in the doorway.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey," Rick cautiously replied. Ben waved as well, but Lizzie was silent.

"C-can I join you guys?"

"We're reading Ben more of Peter Pan," Rick told her. "I'm doing the parts with Peter and the lost boys, Lizzie's reading for Wendy and Tinkerbell, and Ben's pretending he's Michael."

"Sounds fun."

"W-we could use some pirates coming up," Lizzie told her. Kathleen nodded.

"Sure."