Tim groaned lightly as the sunlight came through his window. He rolled over and was surprised to find he was alone.

"Calleigh?"

He glanced around and fell back against the pillows. The adjoining bathroom door opened and Calleigh walked out in Tim's shirt. She smiled when she saw he was awake.

"Hey sleepyhead." she crawled back into bed and wrapped her arm around his chest.

"You scared me for a minute. I thought maybe last night hadn't happened, that I dreamt it all." Tim said, his arm around Calleigh's shoulders.

"No, I'm here." she smiled, kissing him softly. "I shouldn't have stayed."

"Yes you should've and I'm glad you did."

"Horatio will be wondering where I am."

"He doesn't need to look too far." Tim muttered as the phone rang. He grabbed it off the bedside table and pressed talk. "Hello?"

"Speed, what's up?"

"Horatio..." he gave Calleigh a look and she sighed deeply and sat up. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to say hi."

"I'm sure you did." Tim looked at Calleigh and she motioned for him to give her the phone. He handed it over and nervously, she brought it to her ear.

"Horatio..."

"I knew it! I knew it Calleigh!"

"I'm sorry!"

"You just couldn't follow what they told you! What if Kerner saw you and followed you?"

"Oh yeah and get past Tim? Look, I'm finished with this whole stupid thing. He hasn't shown up."

"He hasn't shown up because he thinks you're dead! What are you going to do when he sees you?"

"He's not!" Calleigh exclaimed loudly. Tim held a finger to his lips.

'The kids.' he mouthed. She reached over to smack him and Tim yelped as he took a dive off the bed, resulting in a loud bang. Calleigh appeared over him.

"Honey are you okay?"

"Yeah just peachy." Tim groaned. His eyes widened as the doorknob jiggled. "They're coming!"

"Who?"

"Dad?"

Calleigh's eyes widened as well. What if you walked into a room and saw your mother who you thought had been dead for a year?

"We heard a bang. Is everything okay?" Abbie's voice filtered into the room.

"Yeah. Everything's fine. Just uh... go downstairs." Tim replied. The footsteps died away and Calleigh started talking again.

"Horatio, I don't understand why you think I can't protect my... Horatio? Horatio! Ugh you get me so mad sometimes!" she hung up and tossed the phone to the foot of the bed. "So... now what?"

Tim had pulled himself back into the bed, his hair sticking up oddly.

"Um... how do you think we should tell them?"

S/C------

Tim walked into the kitchen and sat down, his eyes fixed on the table.

"We uh... we need to talk guys."

His kids looked up from their breakfast and stared at him.

"Are you uh... seeing someone?" Jen asked. Tim sighed and his leg started bouncing.

"Um... well... sort of... I mean I've been seeing her." Why did Calleigh make him talk about this?

"What?" Abbie looked confused. "Oh you uh... broke a bottle. I cleaned it up."

Tim stared at the counter. Hadn't he cleaned it up? Oh no, they uh... became busy.

"Listen, something's come up. I swear to the three of you that I had no idea about this." he started. "I don't even know how to tell you... um... Mommy isn't... dead."

The three Speedle kids went back to eating breakfast.

"Guys, I'm serious. She..."

"Dad, please stop." Jen begged quietly. Tim sighed and looked over his shoulder. Calleigh bit her lip and walked into the kitchen, standing behind Tim. Abbie's jaw dropped, Nicky's spoon froze halfway to his mouth, and Jen just sat there. "That's not possible."

"Yes it is." Calleigh nodded. "I know that this is very weird and I know that you guys are probably wondering what the hell is going on..."

"Words can't describe what's going through my mind right now." Abbie said slowly. "What... we... you..."

"Guys, you know that in our job, your father and I can piss people off. I've pissed off one too many and one of them has been... following me. Your Uncle Horatio thought it'd be best if I went into the Witness Protection Program..."

"But... why didn't you tell us?" Nicky asked.

"I couldn't baby. I wanted to so badly." Calleigh replied, leaning against Tim's back. He pulled her arms around him and leaned back against her. Jen shook her head and stood up. "Jenny, honey..."

"No. You're... you lied to us!"

"I didn't lie to you."

"Jen, didn't you tell me that if Mommy came back you'd be happy?" Tim asked.

"Yes but... this whole year has just been a lie!" she exclaimed and ran upstairs. Calleigh sighed and pulled away from Tim. She followed her daughter upstairs and knocked on the closed door.

"Jen..."

She didn't reply and Calleigh opened the door slowly. Jen was sitting at the window seat, her forehead rested against the cool glass. Calleigh closed the door and sat across from her.

"I'm sorry sweetie, I really am." she said quietly. Jen suddenly threw herself into Calleigh's arms, crying hysterically.

"It was so unfair."

"I know it was Jenny." Calleigh rocked her slowly.

"I missed you so much."

"I missed you too." Calleigh was close to tears now and pulled away from Jen slightly. "Hey, everything's fine okay?"

Jen nodded and Calleigh quickly wiped the tears off her cheeks. She pulled Jen back into her arms and kissed the top of her head.

"I love you so much sweetheart."

"I love you too Mommy."

S/C-----

Calleigh knocked on Abbie's open door lightly. She glanced over her shoulder and gave her mother a week smile.

"Hey."

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah." Abbie put her homework away and turned away from her desk. "What's up?"

Calleigh shook her head and sat down on the bed.

"I just wanted to talk with you. Are you doing okay?"

"A little shocked to see you but other than that yeah."

"I know this is odd..."

"I guess when Dad told us you died I never figured it could be an act." Abbie said quietly. "I mean, you see that stuff on TV and in movies but I never actually heard of someone doing that."

"Honey, I did this so you and Dad and your brother and sister didn't get hurt."

"Why?"

Calleigh hesitated for a minute.

"Mom, I'm not a kid."

"You're my kid." Calleigh smiled. Abbie smiled back. "Okay... about right around the time I went back to work after you were born, your father and I were assigned a case. A man, his name is Hank Kerner, killed an innocent person. We put him in jail and at his trial, he swore that he'd get his revenge on me. Didn't care about Daddy, just me. Two years later, he escaped from jail about two days before his parol hearing. I caught him and that was the end of it. Or so I thought. Last year, about two months before you came back into our lives, I started getting followed and soon it escalated. Horatio thought it would be best if I went into hiding for a while."

"So the only way of doing this was to make it seem like you died?"

"Well if he thought I was dead then he'd leave me alone and I could come back." Calleigh said. "I know that the past year was rough."

"You wouldn't believe it." Abbie mumbled, moving over to the bed. "Is... is everything gonna be okay?"

"Of course it is."

"I mean between us."

"What are you talking about?"

"It really sucked. I mean... I got kidnapped when I was two, barely remembered you, fourteen years later you and Daddy found me and then we spent three weeks together before you went into the program. We don't have the closest relationship."

"Well we can fix that." Calleigh said.

"How? I'm going to college in ten months."

"That's ten months away. That's a lot of time."

"You're not going back are you?"

"No. I'm not."

Abbie nodded and looked down at her lap.

"Abbie..." Calleigh started, making her look up."I don't care if we spent five minutes together. Nothing is going to change the fact that you're my daughter. I promise you that things will get better. We won't have us pretending to be dead or getting kidnapped... we'll just try to be a normal family. Okay?"

Abbie nodded and Calleigh pulled her into a hug.

"You know... I think I always knew." she said quietly.

"Knew what?" Calleigh asked.

"That... that something wasn't right with Allison. She acted differently to her daughter than she did to me and even before Casey was born, I didn't feel like she was my mother. I know why now."

Calleigh pulled away from her slightly and brushed the hair out of Abbie's face.

"You know I love you right?"

Abbie nodded and Calleigh kissed her forehead.

"Finish your homework." she murmured. Abbie grinned and walked back over to her desk. "Tomorrow, you want to go to the mall?"

"Shopping?" Abbie's eyes lit up.

"Yeah." Calleigh laughed, walking over to the door.

"Mom?"

"What?" Calleigh turned and looked at Abbie.

"I love you too."

Calleigh smiled and walked out of the room.

"Mom?"

'Never a quiet moment in this house.' Calleigh thought, entering Nicky's room.

"You called?" she teased, climbing onto his bed. Nicky smiled and Calleigh pulled him onto her lap. "Have your sisters been treating you good?"

"Yeah." Nicky nodded.

"Good. We need to talk."

"We do."

"Indeed." Calleigh smiled, tickling Nicky. He squirmed in her arms and he settled down after she stopped. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I missed you."

"I missed you too. I see you and Dad have been bonding." Calleigh glanced around the room, which was covered in Yankees posters.

"Yeah but it wasn't the same without you. I got used to it after a while but it wasn't as fun."

"So I'm better than Dad?"

"If we're not talking about sports yes."

Calleigh smiled and dropped a kiss on the top of Nicky's head.

"Mommy?"

"What baby?"

"Are you gonna leave again?"

"I don't plan on leaving ever again."

"Good. I don't want you to leave."

"I'm not Nicky. I promise." Calleigh murmured. Nicky tightened his hold on her waist and leaned back into her arms. She didn't know how long they had sat there talking but Nicky finally came to his senses and said he was going to his friend Matt's. He had jumped off his bed, then came back and hugged Calleigh tightly and kissed her cheek with an 'I love you Mom.'

Once he ran downstairs and Calleigh heard the door slam, she walked downstairs and saw Tim stretched out on the couch, his eyes fixed on the TV. Calleigh smiled and walked over, dropping herself onto his lap. He winced slightly from the extra weight and turned to look at her.

"Got any more complaints?"

"Why would I being complaining? I've got all I've ever asked for right in front of me." Tim grinned. Calleigh smiled and leaned down, kissing him gently. "God Cal... I really don't know how I got through this past year."

"Let's not worry about it anymore." she said quietly. Tim nodded in agreement and pulled her back to him. He shifted slightly so she had room to lay down and she buried her head in his shoulder. "Who's winning?"

"Yankees, duh."

S/C------

Across the street in an SUV, Hank Kerner watched the couple intently through the front window.

"Yeah be happy." he growled. "It won't stay that way for long."