A/N: It's interesting how quickly things can change. I posted this story on August 10th, and I kid you not it was a nice sunny morning that day that very quickly turned bad. I was going to post another update soon, but that was post-poned of course due to the devastating derecho that hit my city and many others in the midwest. I made a mention of it in another story of mine, but I'm not sure who is reading it and who will be reading this. So if you see the same message or similar message twice, I apologize. But this isn't something I'm going to stop talking about. We're still dealing with the aftermath. Is there anyone reading this that lives in a city or knows a person (besides me) that lives somewhere that was hit by the derecho on August 10th? How are you all doing? If you need someone to talk to process your feelings after this or even anything unrelated...as always, I'm here for you all.

~Ponchy

Ponch stood in the kitchen, waiting for the new batch of cupcakes to be finished cooling off. As he waited, he began frosting the previous batch.

"You think we could snag one of those?" Brianna asked, as she leaned against the counter, looking at the delicious chocolate cakes.

Ponch almost laughed. "Your dad will kill me if he knows how many cupcakes you've had."

Brianna glanced to Jonny who was patiently sitting at the table waiting for his older sister to bring over another cupcake. It had been hard enough trying to sneak one, while Ponch was on the phone with Grossie and easily distracted. But now Ponch was right there. How am I going to do this? she wondered.

"If you're thinking about taking another cupcake-" Ponch started.

"Oh come on, Ponch. PLEEEEEASSSEEEEE" she begged.

How can I say no? He smiled at her. "Fine. One more." He could hear Jonny clapping from the table. Jon's never letting me babysit again.

He handed over a cupcake for Brianna, then one for Jonny. "That's it now, okay? You don't want to get sick."

Jonny giggled. "How can we get sick?"

Brianna sat with Jonny at the table. "Daddy said, too much sweets will give you a bellyache."

Ponch nodded. "She's right, and you don't want that."

Jonny made a face. He wasn't so sure about that.

oOoOo

Jon sat in his truck waiting in line at the Wendy's drive thru. This line is taking forever. He thought He began drumming his fingers against the steering whey, waiting to here a 'welcome to Wendy's may I take your order' or something along those lines, but the words never came. Instead he sat waiting...and waiting and waiting. It had been several minutes he grew impatient. "I just wanted a burger, I didn't think it'd take that long.' Having little patience for staying in the drive thru, Jon looked around to make sure it was safe to back out. When he noticed no one behind him he did, then started to drive away, when he noticed the big sign saying:

'drive thru is inoperable at this time. Sorry for the inconvenience'

"You mean I waited all this time for-" Jon sighed angrily. "I need a break." Had he not just been down to see his wife's grave he wouldn't have been in such a mood. All he could think about now was her, and how much he wanted her back. He hadn't eaten much if anything all day, so the thought of food sounded good. Something to take his mind off of everything.

"So much for distraction," he told himself as he pulled out of the parking lot, and headed on his way home. He had promised Ponch he'd be home by 6 so Ponch could go home and rest. He knew his kids weren't too much to handle, but he also knew his best friend was still in pretty bad shape mentally after losing Ashlyn. Ponch couldn't even go with Jon to visit the grave site, because seeing it made him sick.

Jon had taken him once since after the funeral, and he could never forget his friend crying until he had no tears left to cry, then having to go to the nearest trashcan to throw up for a while.

He always knew Ponch was emotional, but he'd never seen him that bad. Of course he understood because of how much Ashlyn had meant to Ponch. But that had been the first time he'd seen Ponch react, aside from the day it happened. At the funeral he barely interacted with his friends, he hardly remembered any conversations he had with anyone, including Ponch. He only vaguely remembered Ponch trying to be okay, so that Jon had his best friend there for him.

"I wish I knew how to get you to open up," Jon said quietly as he continued down the road. He turned on the radio, tuning into a country radio station, then rolling the windows down.

Jon lost track of time, his mind on the lyrics to the country songs as he sang along. Soon he pulled up to his driveway. Everything seemed fine, he hadn't noticed the cars parked all down the street trying to stay out of sight. He turned the truck off and sighed. "Let's hope you didn't break any rules this time," Jon muttered then had to laugh. Ponch not breaking rules? That would never happen...

He got out of the truck, and walked up to the house. His key in hand, but he figured he could try to see if it was unlocked first to save himself the work of unlocking the door. To his luck he found it was in fact unlocked. "The kids must have been in and out playing," he said with a smile as he opened the door.

He'd barely walked inside the house and flipped on the lights when...

"SURPRISE! Happy birthday, Jon!" His co-workers and kids all jumped out of hiding places from around the living room. "Happy birthday, Daddy!"

Jon smiled, shaking his head. "And here I was thinking for once you weren't going to do anything," Jon said looking to Ponch.

He shrugged. "Sorry, Baker?'

But they both knew he wasn't sorry. Not in the least bit...