Sorry to leave you guys hanging like that. I am late but I got stuck. I had the talk all thought out but I was driving at the time and didn't get a chance to write it down. And of course I couldn't get it to come out exactly right later. Good news is I visited every major city in Texas last week. It was great. Hope you enjoy. Happy reading.

Sat night Hotel.

Thoughts circled his head as he pounded on Randy's door. When there was no answer he slapped the door in frustration and stalked down the hall. Watching from a hidden corner Adam smiled at the look of despair on older man's face.

Feeling an itch between his shoulders Dave whirled around, his gaze searching the hallway. Sensing something he stepped forward but was distracted when a door to his right opened.

"Are you okay?" Journey asked as she stepped into the hall. She shut the door quietly so as not to wake the sleeping child within.

"Where's Randy?" Dave demanded.

"Maybe you should leave him alone for a little while." The young girl said as she stepped up to hug the distraught man.

Dave relaxed a little in her arms. "Do you know what's going on?" He asked.

"Enough." She told him. "You two really need to talk but I think you need to let him have some time first. You approach him now you're going to take his head off and make everything worse."

The older man shook his head. "I can't let him get away with this." He said with finality. Kissing her forehead he strode down the hall.

Journey shook her head in worry. "Why do I have the feeling my family's falling apart?" She asked as John walked up behind her.

"Seems like it don't it? I don't know if they can fix this." John agreed. He laid his chin on her head. "It got bad in there. Dave was so cold and I've never seen Randy lose it like that."

Journey shrugged him off. "This is crazy. I can't take sides. What happens if they never speak to each other again?"

"Hey," He said softly, taking her by the arms and turning her towards him. "We'll deal with whatever happens, together."

One hour later

Dave sighed in relief when he spotted Randy sitting on a bench in the park outside the hotel. Walking up he could hear the younger man talking softly on the phone.

Sensing the big man behind him Randy said goodbye and clicked off the phone.

"Didn't think I was going to find you tonight." Dave started as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. He watched as the younger man started to say something only to stop. "Say what you want to say." Dave encouraged.

Randy shrugged his shoulders as he looked off into space. "Won't matter."

Closing his eyes Dave sat down on the bench. "When I started after you I was angry and disappointed and sad. I didn't want to believe that you could have had anything to do with what happened upstairs."

Randy leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. "You say that like you aren't disappointed now." He observed in a disinterested voice.

"Well I had a lot of time to think as I searched the hotel for you." He sighed. "Listen, I'm sorry for what I said upstairs. It just kind of hit me in the face and I didn't think it through."

"But you automatically thought it was me?" The younger man asked.

"Damn it Randy. You admitted yourself that you had been thinking about doing something like this. Everyone thought you had played a part in it." Dave ranted.

Randy looked up for the first time. "Have you been talking to Jayden?" He asked suspiciously.

"What?" Dave asked confused.

"Its just that she said pretty much the same thing to me. How it was partly my fault since I neglected to talk to you about how I was feeling." He shrugged as he got up to pace.

Dave looked around as if searching for an answer. "When did you talk to Jayden?"

Randy held up his phone. "Just now."

"Would you sit down?" Dave requested. He held up his hands as he tried to make sense of what was going on. "Why did you call Jayden?"

"I called her earlier today. She had promised me she wouldn't tell you about the kidnapping stunt and I wanted to ask her about it. We got to talking about you and I mentioned how I was upset about this morning. She helped me understand some stuff so I called her tonight."

"Okay, I'm confused." Dave admitted as he slumped back in the chair.

"Wow, I expected hell to be colder when it froze over." Randy said smiling a little.

"Smart ass." The big man took a deep breath. "Lets start at the beginning. You were upset because I yelled at you."

Randy stared at him in disbelief. "You didn't just yell at me, which I didn't deserve by the way, you yelled at me in front of a group of my friends and people we work with. I'm not a ten year old."

"I can see your point." Dave rested his chin in his hands. "You have to admit that usually I am more careful about that kind of stuff. You've given me plenty of reason to dress you down in public and I haven't. All I can say is that I have been upset about some stuff and took it out on you."

"Damn, are you and Jayden on like the same wavelength?" Randy asked grinning.

"Don't get off track. You retaliated to my little slip by acting like the ten year old you claim not to be."

"Not one of my finer moments." The younger man agreed.

Dave snorted. "To continue. The more pranks you pulled the more angry and disappointed I became with your behavior.

"Until Friday, when I guess I realized that I had pushed you too far and it was time to back off a little." Randy continued the theme.

"Something that I noticed." Dave pointed out.

"Then why did you get mad at me this morning? I didn't play that stunt on Adam."

"I know you didn't." Dave stopped him when he was about to speak again. "Something Adam said bothered me. About everyone knowing that you were my boy and that I didn't keep control of you. It didn't sit right with me and I got up to go think about it. I wasn't mad at you."

The two lapsed into silence.

"Why do we do this to ourselves?" Randy asked finally as he looked up at the stars.

Dave thought about it for a minute. "We are two people that are alone in the world and have bonded together to form a family."

"Along with all the hassles that comes with." Randy agreed. "And the disappointments." He added.

"Seems to me the lows, and the highs come with being part of a family." Dave answered gravelly. "On both sides. You can't tell me that I didn't disappoint you when I lit into you last week in front of everyone."

Randy smirked. "You know, I never really thought about it that way."

"So can we wipe the slate clean on the last couple of weeks and just say everything's even?" The older man asked holding out his hand.

Randy pretended to think about it. "I guess that would be okay." He eyed the hand in front of him before shaking it.

Dave shook his head in amusement. "You know, for all intents and purposes you are my son."

"Yea, I know. It kinda sucks." Randy said causing the older man to laugh.

He settled back on the bench. "Why don't you tell me about the prank you did have planned."

Randy grimaced. "Nothing special. You were supposed to find an obviously used blow up doll in the looker room in front of everyone."

"Embarrassing but not hurtful. Enough to piss me off." Dave said thoughtfully.

The younger man flashed a quick grin. "That was the plan." He sobered as he looked up at the hotel. "What went on in that room, I could have never done that."

"I know that you couldn't be that mean to me, it just took me a while to get there."

Randy scoffed. "Had nothing to do with you. I couldn't have done that to Jayden. She kind of scares me." He teased.

"What's going on between you two?" Dave asked perplexed.

Randy shrugged the question away. "For a step mom she's pretty cool." He called as the walked away.

Shaking his head Dave followed his footsteps back to the hotel, veering off to the bar. Walking in he was not surprised to find Mark and Shawn seated at a table with a pitcher of beer in front of them.

"Well you don't look ready to kill someone and there's no blood on your hands. Everything okay?" Mark asked as Dave sat down.

"Yeah, they are definitely looking up." He answered as he poured himself a drink.

"Randy is still alive right?" Shawn asked just to be sure.

Dave laughed. "He's as much a smart ass as ever." He turned to Mark. "What made you defend him earlier?"

Mark shrugged. "He was desperate to get it cleaned up before you saw it. He didn't want you hurt that way."

"You know who really did it don't you?" Shawn asked.

Dave nodded. "I figured it out half way through my search for Randy. I don't think it's hit him yet."

"Or John. We," mark circled his finger to indicate the three of them. "Need to take care of this before those two hotheads decide to do it on their own."

"I think we can be persuasive enough to end this thing once and for all." Dave announced grimly.

"So," Shawn asked as he poured them each another round. "Are you going to tell Jayden about her, um…." He trailed off unable to come up with a word to describe the scene.

"I don't have to. Randy already did." Dave frowned into his beer.

"Randy?" Mark asked confused.

Dave shook his head. "Don't ask. I don't think I completely understand it myself."

Upstairs in the hotel.

Randy leaned on the doorframe as he waited for his knock to be answered.

"What?" John demanded as he wrenched the door open.

"Listen I know you're mad at me because I'm a bad influence on Ari but…" Randy started.

"I'm not mad at you. And you're not that bad an influence. Hell I'm probably worse." John said cutting his friend off. "I am a little irritated cause you're kinda interrupting the mood."

Randy shuddered. "Do you have to say stuff like that?" He demanded.

"What do you want?" John asked grinning at the look on the young man's face.

"I need to talk to journey." Randy said shaking the image from his head.

"What are you doing here?" She asked a few minutes later as she came to the door.

"I know you and I know that you are tearing yourself up thinking your family is killing each other." He said smiling down at her.

"And I repeat, what are you doing here?" She asked dryly.

He leaned down to kiss her forehead. "No worries." He murmured before walking off.