Chapter Seven: The People We Meet
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Almost Ten Years After Mark Left
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"Are you sure?" Mark asked the nearly ten year old for the nearly thirtieth time, not believing that he was giving into Shea's request.

"Yes."

"Absolutely positive?"

"Yes. Dad." The boy nodded fervently.

"Okay, bring me the scissors."

The boy complied rather quickly and sat on the kitchen stool they had pulled into the bathroom, while Mark began to cut his hair. I can't believe I agreed to this.

London sat on side of the bath tub looking up occasionally from his book to watch.

"What do you think?" Mark asked London as he began the second half.

"Shea, you look weird."

"It because Dad's not done." Shea retorted.

"Hold still." Mark said, not wanting to screw this up; true, he had done this before, but that was a long time ago.

"There, we go...all done. What do you think?"

Shea got up and looked into the bathroom mirror before turning to Mark with a huge smile on his face.

"I take it you like it." Mark said.

Shea nodded, still grinning, "Thanks, Dad. This is so cool."

The boy grabbed his brother and Mark watched as they ran out of the bathroom. Mark followed and watched the two interact from the door of their bedroom. "Finish your homework."

"Yeah. Yeah." Shea said looking at the closet door mirror at his hair again.

"Shea, if you pay more attention to your hair then you do to your homework, I'm gonna shave it off."

"Fine." The boy went to the pair of desk in the corner.

"If you guys need help, I'm gonna be in the kitchen making dinner. Do you want spaghetti or macaroni?

"Spaghetti!"

"Macaroni!"

Mark pulled away; good to know some things never change.

As he pulled out the macaroni and tomato sauce the phone in the corner caught his eye. There had been a few phone calls between him and New York, but he had yet to tell them about the boys. Every time he called it weighed on him, they needed to know. He needed them to know why. For them to be okay with what he had done.

He put the water on the stove to boil, and slowly picked up the phone, dialing the familiar number to the loft.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

"Speak"

Mark laughed at the sound of Mimi and Roger's voice trying to copy what he and Roger had done so well.

"Hey, Roger, Mimi, you guys it's Mark..."

"Hey." The other end picked up and the sound of Roger's voice came through.

"Hey."

Mark froze for a few moments.

"Mark? Did you need something?"

"Sorry, zoned out...yeah, I was actually wondering if...if you and Mimi wanted to come out here and stay with us for a few days or something. I'd really...I really like it if you could come..."

He could hear mumbling on the other line, and few muffled words from Mimi, and it didn't sound to promising, "Please Roger, there's something I need to tell you, but I need to tell you face to face."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah."

Mark smiled to himself, "When do you think you can get here?"

More conversations in the background, "How about a week and a half?"

"Okay. See you then."

"Yeah...Hey, Mark?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm stilled kind of pissed, but...um, I still, uh..."

"Rog, I know. Me too."

"Okay."

"See you then." And with that Mark hung up the phone; just in time to prevent the water from boiling over.

The next week and a half went by too fast for Mark, and he had to keep preventing himself from calling to cancel. He had told the boys either just in case something happened. The morning of the day Roger and Mimi were supposed to arrived, two days before the twins' birthday, went by like normal. Shea waking up late, and London accidentally knocking his medicine container on the floor, and scattering pills.

Mark walked to school with the boys, as he had every morning, "Hey, um, now don't forget you, I need you to go to homework club, then walk home on your own, okay?"

"Yeah." Shea sighed annoyed.

"Sure, Dad." London smiled in an effort to make up for his brother's lack of interest.

As soon as they got to the school, Shea gave a quick hug before running off, while London went off with a hug and an 'I love you, Dad.'

Mark walked away slowly back to the apartment, having took the day off, nervous and finding himself praying that this weekend went by as smooth as possible. Oh, what had he gotten himself into? Borrowing a car from a neighbor he made his way to the airport. And after grabbing lunch when he learned the flight had been delayed, Mark stood nervously rubbing his hands together, since he had decided to leave the camera home. The flight was finally announced and people started drifting towards the people waiting. Towards the end Roger and Mimi appeared, and Mark waved them down.

"You made it." He said as Mimi wrapped her arms around him.

"Good too see again, Mark." She said and he could tell she was more tired than her normal self.

After an awkward hug between Roger and Mark the three began their way towards Mark's apartment.

"So, where are these kids of yours?" Roger asked.

"In school, Roger. You know the place where they give supposedly free daycare disguised as a system of education."

"Shut up, Cohen."

Mimi smiled at the banter between the two of them, how it used to be, saying her own prayer that this weekend went by smooth.

"You get a better job, and yet, you still have a walk-up apartment." Roger complained as they trudged the flights of stairs in Mark's apartment building.

"It's still a step up. I'm only on the third floor."

"Isn't that a flight down, not a step up?" Mimi teased, all three of them trying to keep the mood light.

"Well, here we are..." Mark opened the door for them.

"Shit, Mark. This is nice." Roger said nearly under his breath.

Glad of the approval Mark relaxed for a moment, "Thanks."

He looked at the clock on the wall...it's was almost time for the boys to come home.

"Look, you guys, before you get comfortable...I need to tell you what I wanted to tell you..."

"This can't wait?" Mimi panicked, not wanting to ruin the weekend already.

"No. The kids will be home soon." Mark said taking a breath and dove into his confession, "When you guys told me that you were pregnant, Mimi, I got excited, because it was gonna be apart of you guys still here even after you had left. And when you decided to give them up, I decided to leave...that's why I left..."

"Mark, there's no need to bring up that." Mimi started to stop him from anymore, but from his corner of exploration Roger could tell Mark wasn't done yet.

"No, that's not it. The job I got was a job with Benny's company. It paid enough for me to...well, I talked to Joanne... and because you had decided on a closed adoption, it was easy for me to..." Mark couldn't look anymore, "...to adopt them. Please just hear me out, I know you're pissed. You made your decision, I made mine. I wanted them to have a part of the family, they needed to know where they came from, and the least I could do was give myself. You told me that you didn't want them to see you die, that you didn't want them to live in your mistakes. So they didn't, but at Collin's memorial...I had to tell you. I couldn't let you leave with out knowing they were okay...so here we are..." Mark looked up, "They don't have to know if you don't want them too. I just needed you to know."

Roger came walking up to him, "Mark, this isn't something you can just throw us into and hope we're okay..."

"I know, but I didn't know any other way."

There were a few moments of silences, as Mimi sat dumbfounded on the couch, and Roger walked off to the corner. From inside him, Mark was kicking himself...he had done this the entirely wrong way. In the hall Mark could hear Shea and London's shouting and Mark silently cursed delayed flights and fourth grade teachers who didn't give enough homework. The door opened and London walked in first,

"Dad! Guess what? Guess what?" London came rushing up to Mark his curly brown top shaking as he excitedly jumped up and down, oblivious to the guests.

"What?"

"I got a crew spot for the play!"

"That's awesome buddy..." Mark caught sight of Roger in the corner staring at the door way. Mark looked over to see Shea standing staring back. Looking at Shea, Mark knew why Roger's face held that expression. Shea's newly chopped, bleach-blonde hair could make anyone believe they were looking at a smaller version of Roger. While London and Shea were identical, the way Mark had cut Shea's hair--the same way he had cut Roger's in the pre-withdrawal days-- made the similarities more poignant.

"Dad, are you listening?" London said dragging Mark out of his thoughts. "Shea got a part in the play."

"Dad, who are they?" Shea asked from where he still stood by the door.

"Guys, these are some very good friends of mine from New York. They're going to be staying with us for a couple of days. This is Mimi and that's Roger." Mark explained, "Why don't you guys go to your room and get changed, and the five of us will go out for dinner, okay?"

The boys ran off and Mark was left in the awkward position he had placed himself in. "Um...you guys are gonna stay in the guest room...it's the second door on the left...I'll understand if you don't want to stay, but at least come to dinner with us."

Mark sat on the couch while Mimi nearly dragged Roger out of the living room. This wasn't how he had wanted things to go...

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Okay, this was even harder to write than I had imagined, and didn't go exactly how I planned either. But there is part two, that will most likely be up tomorrow.

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Until next time, this is me...signing out.