"Ellie, isn't that Sean's house?"

The red haired girl helping him stagger up to the house turned and raised an eyebrow at him, confusion written clearly across her face. Out of the corner of his eye he was aware of Sean doing the same thing, stumbling over a rock almost unnoticeably. Marco hid a smile at Sean's clumsiness and opened his mouth to ask again.

However the door opening and a very happy looking Nana bouncing out saved either of the teenagers from answering the other boy's rather odd question.

"Caro! You're home finally! Come, come, I have pancakes on the stove for all of you." Nana seemed to be full to bursting with excitement, hopping from foot to foot and ushering them towards the house with wide sweeping motions. Marco couldn't keep the grin from his face at her antics, the question from a moment ago forgotten for now in the wake of seeing his grandmother again.

Inside the house Marco noticed that it looked nothing like Sean's house had been in his mind. The walls of the den were painted a dusky orange and there was furniture littered around the room, magazines and jackets thrown here and there. The newly added photographs clinging to the walls were all, not of Sean's family, but five familiar faces stared out as well as a few others that he recognized.

Moving quickly Ellie and Sean pushed and pulled him into the kitchen where he was dumped into a chair at the table. While everyone collapsed into their own respective chairs Marco looked around at his surroundings wildly, eyes jumping and bouncing as if they would never stop, unable to land on one thing.

The walls were a dark yellow and the table cloth under his hand was a dark green and covered in fruits. The entire room looked forcefully rustic and antique, even a little out of place with the shiny appliances on the counters. Golden summer light poured in to the room from the window behind Sean and lit everything with a content glow. If this was indeed home...he rather thought he could grow to like it.

"Ellie, do we live here?"

The girl, who had been filling glasses with what looked like grape juice at the counter turned her head to look at Marco over her shoulder, strands of red falling down into her eyes. "Marco, I don't understand. You obviously know something we don't. Why did you mention this being Sean's house earlier?"

Marco didn't answer momentarily, thrown off by how bright her hair looked in this light, but quickly shook his head. "In my world...er, my mind I mean, this is where Sean lived. I lived a couple of blocks from Degrassi. Sean lived here. And you lived halfway across town."

Nana stepped forward and placed a plate of steaming pancakes in front of him and raised her eyebrows in amusement. She didn't say anything though, only continued to place the plates of food on the table, Ellie running around behind her with the drinks. They ran like clockwork, he Marco noticed. Sean got up from his place and grabbed forks from a drawer while Bryce stood also to put the used dishes in the sink. A great flurry of activity. Calculated chaos. Marco could only sit in awe. They worked together seamlessly. They'd done this before, that much was evident.

Finally, the movement died down and all five of the room's occupants sat at the table. Silverware scraped plates and the group began to eat. After a few bites Ellie finally stopped and looked up at him curiously. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. There's a story to it really."

"Tell me. I feel so confused."

It wasn't Ellie who spoke but Sean. "I did live here. For awhile...with Tracker. Then he left with a job offer somewhere else...and I stayed here. I was dating Ellie at the time."

Ellie took this as her cue and jumped in. "I stayed over almost every night. My mother was still in the middle of her drinking stage and I hated the idea of being trapped in that house so often."

"Then there was the fire," Sean whispered.

Ellie nodded and continued in the same hushed tone. "The party...I got caught staying with Sean. That night I told my mom about the cutting....that was when my mother finally grew up and decided to go to rehab. I moved in the next day. Does this all sound familiar?"

Marco nodded and a lull fell over the table. It stayed silent until Nana looked up and caught his eyes.

"And then we lost the house."

"What?" he asked, trying in vain to get the upperhand on the conversation. He'd just lost the track he he'd been running so smoothly on.

Bryce jumped in. "Since it was just you and Nana...there wasn't much money. Nana had reached retirement age a few years ago and no one wanted to hire her. Eventually, what little money you two had...was gone. The house was just too expensive to keep anymore."

"So we all got together, and decided, a joint house would be best. I could take care of all you children...and you could take care of me in return. You all seemed to practically live with each other to begin with anyway, so I didn't see how any bad could come from it," Nana whispered.

Ellie smiled at Nana. "It was a very good idea, Nana. We all benefitted from it." She stopped and turned her gaze to Marco. "So here we've been. I suppose in a way... we are living in Sean's house. However the documents have Nana's name on them now."

Marco nodded slowly, trying to piece all of this information together so it could flow better. "So, it was Sean's. Then it was you and Sean's. Then finally Me, Nana, Ellie, and Sean's? Where does Bryce come in?"

Bryce looked up from where she had been making pictures in her syrup and smiled at him. "I don't live here. I told you, I live out of town. I spend the night sometimes, but my dad needs me there."

Silence reigned again, but this time no one made too much of an effort trying to fill it. Vague questions about leaving the hospital filtered in every now and then but for the most part the meal finished without anymore great secrets popping up, for which Marco was terribly grateful. He'd had enough surprises in the last two days to last him a lifetime. Before he knew it the dishes were being cleared away, people were running off to find things to occupy themselves, and he was being told to go to sleep again to his great dismay.

"But Nana! I slept in the car. I'm not tired at all. Honest!" Puppy dog eyes met his grandmother's stern glare and Marco knew he had lost before he had even got started. Darn parental figure type people.

"Fine. Fine." Marco ground out between his teeth and began to stand up before he realized that he was lost in what was "his own" house.

"Um, El? I think I need directions."

Ellie was engrossed in what looked like an Anne McCaffrey novel beside him at the table and didn't even look up at his inquiry. "Sean, will you help him hobble to his bedroom? I'm at the funeral of Petiron and...."

Sean snorted and looked up from the television show blaring from the screen to make fish eyes at the other girl over the couch's back. "You have got to be kidding me. You've read that book a million times already! You've read all that woman's books a million times!"

The red head did stop her reading at that, keeping her finger on the line she had reached before growling in disgust and staring at Sean in disbelief. "What about those dumb automotive magazines you carry around? You've looked through all of those a million times! And what are you going to miss on that show anyway?"

Marco's face had contorted into an expression of abstract humor at the very beginning of this exchange and now he turned to Bryce. She rolled her eyes and clamped a hand down on Ellie's mouth mid-tirade. "Geez. I'll take him. Try not to kill each other before I get back."

The brunette girl smirked at Marco before she stood up, stretching. She stopped, stared at her hand, then began rubbing it on her baggy jeans as if it was revolting. "Ew, Ellie cooties. Come on, Marco, let's get you in nappies and in bed. I've got to go home soon," she said as she drug Marco out of his chair at the table.

For his part, he followed silently and without a struggle, actually feeling exhaustion creeping into his bones. Surely he couldn't be tired already. It was only noon! But the ache he was feeling was testament otherwise so he climbed into bed without a fuss, not even coherent enough by this point to look at his surroundings. Nor did he notice the lights going out or the voice telling him goodnight.

He dreamed of Dylan.

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Marco woke up a few hours later, groggy and completely disoriented as if he had taken sleeping pills or drank too much. There was something warm on his chest and it made him smile.

"Hey Dylan. You would not believe the crazy dream I had last night. I was at your hockey game and..."

Marco's hand had absent-mindedly dropped down to play with his boyfriend's hair when he noticed the first sign that this wasn't who he thought it was. This person was smaller. Very much smaller. And the hair was short and definitely not curly.

Feeling panic rising up quickly Marco's eyes snapped open to see just who he was fondling and talking to at this hour.

"HOLY SHIT! ELLIE! HELP HELP!! RAT!!!!"

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