Part 5

A helping hand

The next morning Alex made his way to Serena's grandparents' house and hoped that everything would go to plan. Asking Serena for help would have to be his smartest move yet and pretty fool proof.

He knocked on the door and prayed that her grandfather wouldn't answer the door. Judge Là ssacè took scary onto a whole new level and sometimes Alex found it hard to believe that the Judge had actually raised Serena since she was one because Serena was the least scary person that Alex knew.

"Alex, what are you doing here?"

Alex bit back a smile as he took in Serena's appearance. The girl had seriously too much time on her hands. "Well howdy cowboy. Oh man, I haven't interrupted something with Sean have I?"

"Number one, I'm a cowgirl! Number two…"

"Who's at the door Serena?" A familiar male voice shouted from upstairs.

"Is that Max? Are you playing dress up with Max?" Alex asked stunned, the stunned expression quickly turned into a frown. He knew that Serena and Max were close, he had even commented on the strangeness of their bond in the past but he hadn't thought that there was anything more between them. "What's going on?"

"If you're thinking what I think you're thinking you better start running cause I will kick your ass!" Serena said with a fierce glare.

"Serena!" Alex heard Max shout again "Can you hurry up and untie me? I'm starting to lose feeling in my hands,"

"You've tied him up!" Alex raised an eyebrow as Serena continued to glare at him. Had he actually thought that Serena was the least scary person that he knew?

Before Serena could reply an arrow sailed past Alex's head closely followed by what could only be described as a war cry, make that two war cries.

"Suddenly it all make sense" Alex mumbled as Lucas and Nathan Valenti, Tess and Kyle's five year old twins, came running towards them.

"Tess had a doctor's appointment this morning so I offered to baby sit for her," Serena stated "Max had a meeting with my grandpapa about a case and then decided to spend the rest of the day with me and the boys. We are playing cowboys and Indians"

"Uncle Alex! Uncle Alex!" the two boys shouted with glee as they threw themselves at Alex. "We caught Uncle Max and tied him up."

"I've gotta see this!" Alex smirked, finding it extremely amusing that Max had been out smarted by two five year olds. He started to walk past Serena which was extremely difficult considering he had a child attached to each leg and Serena was still blocking the doorway, her arms folded across her chest, her eyes still narrowed.

"I'm waiting for two things," Serena said slowly "First of all I want you to say sorry for thinking whatever unmentionable thing you were thinking and then number two I want to know what you are doing here when you should be at work"

"I'm stressed out with thinking of the perfect way to propose to Isabel. My brain has actually started to melt so I'm sorry if I implied something unmentionable was going on between you and Max." Alex said using his very best puppy dog eyes "And I need your help. My plan with Michael failed big time and you are my last hope!"

Serena squealed and clapped her hands in joy, "Oh this is so exciting. Let me change and then we can go shopping."

Serena ignored the four very male groans as she walked into another shop. Anyone would think that they had been sentenced to death by the way they dragged their feet and refused to do as they were told.

"Alex, what do you think of these roses?" She asked thrusting a bunch of red roses under his nose causing him to sneeze uncontrollable.

"I think he would like them a lot better if they weren't half way up his nose!" Max stated, taking the roses away from Serena. "Actually I think he would like them a lot better if we were sat in the food court"

"Yay the food court!" Nathan and Lucas said eagerly, quickly moving towards the door with Alex hot on their heels

"Ugh men, all you think about is food and S.E.X" Serena groaned in disgust and hit Max on the arm for good measure.

"We don't just think about food and sex," Max said in defense of all men world wide.

"We also think about sports and cars" Alex added, too relieved to be out of the shop to try and defend his sex.

"Uncle Max said sex!" Nathan giggled

"I'm telling mommy!" Lucas stated with a puckish look in his eye "Mommy said if she caught daddy or anyone else saying naughty words she would wash their mouths out with soap!"

Max groaned "Would candy make you forget that I said that word?"

"What word Uncle Max?" Nathan and Lucas said in union, the two boys smiled up at Max and Serena, looking like little blonde angels.

"You two are going to break some hearts when you are older!" Serena grinned, ruffling their hair.

"I wouldn't bother!" Max said "Women give you nothing but trouble!"

"Max! Don't say that to them! God you sound just like Michael!" Serena said in outrage before adding in disgust "Or Sean"

"Whoa sensing some hostility here!" Max said backing away slightly. Serena might be only 5 foot something but she sure hit hard and fast.

"Its her hormones!" Alex mouthed to Max as he remember that Serena was pregnant. He wondered why she was keeping it a secret from everyone, of course it must have been a shock but her and Sean loved each other or at least he guessed they did. It was hard to imagine that the two of them couldn't be as happy as him and Isabel.

Alex felt a pang in his chest as he thought about Serena's pregnancy, was it possible for men to get that broody feeling. He wondered what his and Isabel's kids would look like. He hoped that they had her looks and brains and his well at least his surname.

Max nodded quickly in understanding and changed the subject back to Alex's plans or lack of plans for his proposal. "Come on Serena, you've got to have some good ideas. I mean every time I see you, you've got your nose in one of those trashy romance novels!"

"Well I've got to get romance from somewhere!" Serena said with a bitter note before sighing "Isabel doesn't know how lucky she is to have you Alex!"

Alex grinned as he looped arms with the brunette "Sean is a J.A.C.K.A.S.S if he doesn't realize how lucky he is to have you!"

"We all know that is exactly what he is!" Serena snorted "Now didn't someone mention something about food?"