As Charley pulled up in front of what was now his home and turned off his car engine, he sighed with a bit of depression, depression, and worry. What was he going to do? He only had approximately forty-five minutes to think of something before a representative of CPS came and evaluated the home of his guardian - the problem was that Charley didn't have a guardian, and he cringed at the thought of having Jerry be his guardian, but at this point, did he even have a choice? As he briefly closed his eyes with a sigh, he jumped out of his car, slammed his driver's side door shut, and forced himself over to Jerry's house. Shit, he hated that this was his only choice, but he heard enough horror stories about foster homes to know that he definitely didn't want to spend his last year as a minor there. As Charley knocked on Jerry's house door, his heart was pounding like a bullet, not out of nervousness but half out of hatred and half out of adrenaline. When Jerry opened the door, Charley made sure to give Jerry a look that let him know how much he despised him.

"Um - CPS is coming in forty-five minutes," Charley said. "I - need you to play my guardian one more time."

Jerry stared at Charley with what Charley was sure was a smirk.

"I thought you said you didn't need my help," Jerry replied.

Charley sighed as he rolled his eyes at Jerry.

"I thought I didn't," Charley replied, "but I do."

Jerry stepped aside with a single nod and ushered Charley in.

"Oh, wait, you better get some of your stuff from your room next door and bring it over," Jerry said. "It can go in the main guest room upstairs and- "

"I'm not staying here," Charley snapped. "This is only for CPS, then once they leave, I'm going back home, and thankfully I'll never have to talk to you again."

Jerry smirked at Charley with amusement.

"Oh, really?" Jerry replied. "Charley, let me inform you of the process that's about to happen. A CPS representative is going to come here and do a home visit, and then after that, there's a court date of which I - your guardian will have to attend, and upon me attending, the judge will then grant me legal guardianship. Now if I don't go before the judge on the court date, they'll find out why, the why being that I'm not your guardian and you get shipped to a foster home. Now you don't really want that, do you, Charley?"

Charley frowned in anger at him.

"Why the hell do you even care?!" Charley snapped. "You were ready to kill me just six months ago, now all of a sudden, you care? Well, don't! You're unable to care in the first place because all you are is - a damn dead vampire!"

As Jerry stared at him, with a slight look of offense and a touch of hurt, Billy walked into the hallway where they were.

"You're right, I shouldn't care," Jerry said as he walked to his front door and opened it. "Get out."

Charley stared at Jerry with a look of slight disbelief.

"Yeah whatever," Charley snapped. "Look-"

"I said get out," Jerry replied with anger.

With a look of anger, Charley scoffed shook his head, and stormed out, resulting in Jerry slamming the door shut on him. As Jerry stood with his back to Billy, he didn't want to turn around, because he knew he would meet Billy's eyes, Billy's critical eyes.

"Jerry," Billy began, "why-"

"Don't." Jerry interrupted as he turned and walked past Billy.

"Jerry, what is going on with you?" Billy asked as he grabbed hold of Jerry's arm.

Jerry sighed and yanked his arm away.

"Why are you trying to help this kid?" Billy asked. "He's a little pathetic maggot, who - if you remember it or not, almost got us in trouble with the police-"

"I know Billy all right?" Jerry snapped.

"Then what's going on here?" Billy asked.

Jerry sighed as he glanced down with a brief frown.

"Back when I was - mortal," Jerry began, "I was eleven, Regine was six, our parents were murdered, the night before Christmas. Regine and I were both devastated, especially Regine. However what hurt the most was when we were separated and had to work as indentured servants, me for six years and Regine for eleven years, and for all those years, we were separated, it was horrible, horrible for both of us. So, I don't know, perhaps Charley's situation hit home for me."

Before Billy could respond, Jerry shrugged and walked away towards the living room, but as he got to the living room entrance, three knocks came at his door. When Billy went to open the door, he saw Charley standing on the doorstep.

"Um, I'm - sorry," Charley said without looking Billy in the eyes.

As Jerry turned and looked back at Charley, Charley walked inside and over to him.

"Look um - I'm - sorry, all right?" Charley said. "I - don't want to go into - some damn foster home. I've heard the stories and I refuse to go there. So - I guess what I'm saying is - you can - be my guardian - just until I turn eighteen, which is in June."

Jerry nodded with an eyebrow raised.

"But I want to keep my mother's house," Charley said. "She put in her will for me to have it, so I'm keeping it. I'm not selling it or anything-"

"I wouldn't want you to sell it, Charley," Jerry replied. "So fine then, I think this arrangement will go along just fine with- "

"Okay so I'm going to bring a few things over that will tide me over for the next two weeks or so. I'll be back." Charley said, interrupting Jerry and turning and walking out before Jerry could say another word.

As Charley walked out of the house, Jerry stood there thinking, thinking about how exactly he would pull off being the guardian to a mortal human, when he himself was immortal. Despite what Jerry told Billy, Jerry still didn't quite understand just why he was helping Charley, he knew there had to be something that was driving him to want to help Charley, but he just didn't know what that something was.