1November 7th, 2005


Carlos stared at the pile of messages on his desk. People always had a tip and all of them seemed to be bogus. Slowly Carlos was believing that Kylie was gone forever. Kim knocked on the door. He looked at her.

"You have a visitor." She said. Carlos shook his head.

"I'm not in the mood fo anyone right now." Carlos said.

"It's your brother." she said. Carlos stood up. His brother? He hadn't heard anything from his brother in a couple of months. Carlos left the office and saw Christian standing there.

"Chris?" Carlos smiled weakly, "What are you doing here?" The two men embraced.

"My niece is missing. I thought I'd help out where I could." He said. Carlos smiled weakly at his brother.

"I don't know what to tell you." Carlos said, "There are no leads. I think we just have to try to move on." Carlos sat down trying to take in his own words, "You know...I just...I want to bury her. I just want her body so I can bury her."

"Don't think she' dead, Adam." Christian said. "You cant think like that."

"It's hard not to." Carlos glanced at the door, "It's fucking up our marriage. I sleep on the couch most of the time. We're breaking apart."

"You need alone time with her." Christian said glancing back at the door.

"I don't want alone time with her." Carlos said, "I'm just threw with her for right now." Christian groaned loudly as he sat down across from his little brother.

"Don't say that. Don't ever say that." Christian said. Carlos just sat there staring at the desk. "Look, I'm going to stay in town for awhile to help out around here and out there if you need me."

"You don't have to." Carlos said

"I know I don't have to but I want to." Christian stood up, "Continue what you were doing. I'll check in on you later." Carlos nodded. Christian left the room and went into the kitchen. "Little brother is in rough shape."

"We all are." Kim said picking Rebecca up. "Thank you for coming."

"No problem." Christian opened up the fridge. "Go relax and I'll go make some dinner."

"You just arrived. I should be making dinner fo ryou." Kim said.

"Go away." Christian said. Kim laughed and left the room.

The entire family, minus one, sat at the kitchen table. They were all silent as they ate. Christian looked at his newer nieces and nephew. He cleared his throat.

"How do you like the food?" he asked.

"Good." Orlando said. Christian smiled at him.

"So you like chicken?" He asked him. Orlando nodded. Carlos leaned over and picked Rebecca up.

"I think she likes getting messy more than eating." He said wiping her face with her bib. Rebecca laughed and reached for his plate, "You cant have chicken just yet." Sierra leaned over and blew raspberries on her highchair tray.

"Sierra, stop it." Kim said.

"She's just having fun." Christian smiled as he tickled underneath her chin. Sierra bellowed out a loud laugh.

"Then you raise her."Kim put her fork down and walked out of the room. Christian looked at Carlos.

"Did I do something wrong, Adam?" Carlos shook his head.

"No. She does that. Mood swings I guess..." he said. Orlando frowned deeply.

"Uncle Chris, why do you call Dad, Adam?" He asked. Christian smiled.

"Well, He was born with the name Adam and then when his foster mother took him, she named him Carlos." Christian said.

"What's a foster mother?" Orlando asked.

"Remember your other mommy?" Carlos asked. Orlando nodded, "Well, she gave you to us to take care of forever. If we were only going to take you for a little bit and then give you to another family to take care of then we'd be your foster parents. But since we adopted you, we're just your parents. Do you understand?"

"I guess." Orlando shrugged his shoulders. Christian chuckled.

"It's almost too much for me to understand." He winked. Carlos chuckled and nodded. All of this was almost too much for him to understand too. Being a grown up really sucked.

November 21st, 2005

Kim stepped out of her car. She didn't notice to winter temps even though all she wore was a tank top. She didn't feel much of anything anymore. Kim walked up to a door, she hadn't been to in years and stepped in. McCaoughly's bar still smelt the same. The smoke nearly choked her, but she ignored it. Kim walked up to the bar and sat down. She shouldn't do this. She shouldn't drink. She was a few years sober. She couldn't screw it all up.

"Can I get you something?" The barkeep asked. Kim bit her lip and looked around. She shouldn't be doing this.

"Yes, I'll take a Coors lite. Could you start a tab?" She asked.

"Certainly." He said. Kim glanced next to her at a man nursing a beer. She smiled slightly.

"Aren't you cold?" He asked. Kim chuckled.

"No." She said extending her hand, "Kim." He reached over and shook it.

"Vic." He told her, "You here alone?" Kim nodded.

"I had to let some steam off after work." She told him as the barkeep handed her her beer.

"Oh, what do you do?" Vic asked. Kim chuckled. It felt nice to have a man pay attention to her. Carlos didn't seem to do that anymore.

"Stripper." Kim said. Vic laughed as he leaned back in his seat.

"Yeah me too." He said.

"Right." She said sipping her beer.

"I see a ring." Vic pointed to her wedding band, "You married?" Kim glanced down at her ring and shrugged.

"It's not much of a marriage anymore." She said, "We've only been married for a year and it's gone to shit. I guess we don't have what it takes to stay married."

"Some people don't." Vic said, "I've been married for three years and I think we'v e already ran out of things to talk about. We don't even sleep in the same room anymore." Kim nodded.

"Neither do We..." She sighed. "I say tonight, we're not married. We're single and having fun."

"We're single and having fun." Vic smiled Kim jumped off of the stool.

"Game of darts?" Kim asked. Vic nodded.

"That sounds good." He said.

Kim took Vic's hand and pulled him into the bathroom. A few hours after they met they had had their fair share of beers. The rooms were spinning and Kim enjoyed it. Vic chuckled as she began to unbuckle his belt.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked her.

"Of course im sure." She said pulling him into a bathroom stall. Vic put his hand on her hip and pulled her against him. His crushed his lips against hers. The kiss was different. He tasted so different than Carlos. Vic helped Kim with his pants. He pulled away and saw no worry or regret in Kim's eyes, so the two of them went forward with the affair. Five minutes later, the affair was over with and the two of them stood there fixing their clothes.

"Well, I...this was great." Vic said. Kim looked at him and smiled.

"Yeah, it was great." She said walking out of the stall. Kim left the bathroom and headed to the door. She didn't feel guilty. She felt fulfilled and content. It only took her ten minutes to get home on foot. Even this drunk, she knew she shouldn't drive. When she went inside, she saw Carlos standing there waiting for her.

"It's two o'clock in the morning, Kim." Carlos said.

"Did I miss curfew, Dad?" She asked walking past him. He grabbed her arm and spun her around to look at him.

"You've been drinking..." He whispered.

"Yes, I've had a few drinks."Kim said, "And I had sex in a bathroom stall." Carlos' hand loosen on her arm.

"What?" He whispered.

"I had sex with some guy in a bathroom stall." She said. Carlos took a step back running his hand through his hair.

"You're joking right?" He asked her.

"No." She said crossing her arms.

"We're married, Kim! You cant have sex with other men!" Carlos cried.

"We're married? You could have fooled me." She said, "We haven't acted like a married couple since Kylie was taken."

"You sicken me." Carlos walked away from her, leaving Kim to stand there alone. She closed her eyes, fighting back the tears. She had screwed up. She had fucked up their already fucked up marriage.

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