Disclaimer, the usual.

The next day, after school, Dorothy, Ellie, Alex, Betsy, Trot, and Aislynn found themselves sitting around a square table in Jon Foreman's backyard, having been invited after they got home the night before. They had been enjoying some apples from a basket on the table, and had attempted to find something interesting to talk about while Jon was out in the orchard.

"You know, I think he and Cap'n Bill would get along nicely enough, they both have done a fair amount of traveling, and they're both around the same age." Trot finally said.

"but Bill could never walk all the way down here, and your mother isn't a fan of driving." Betsy said.

"doesn't mean he can't come over to our place." Trot said.

"hm, fair, anyways, how was that pre-test?" Betsy asked turning her attention to Ellie.

"it seemed easy, but I won't know how I did until tomorrow." She replied.

"you seemed rather nervous about it." Aislynn said.

"thank you ace, I definitely wasn't thinking about that all." Ellie said sarcastically

"Officer grey came over yesterday, he left before you guys got home, I'm not sure what he wanted, I didn't ask." Aislynn said.

"was he in his truck or his police car?" Alex asked.

"Car, I thought he was coming to tell us something had happened at the school, but that definitely wasn't the case." Aislynn said.

"maybe something else came up that he needed to talk to my aunt and uncle about?" dorothy suggested.

"yea, but what? I know I don't typically show interest in things other than schoolwork, and I know it's probably not really important to us, but it makes me curious." Aislynn said.

"Feel free to join in the conversation at any time Jon" Dorothy said turning to look at him.

Jon had been standing by the group for a while, noticed only by dorothy who was the only one facing the orchard. He had heard most of the conversation, but felt that it wasn't really a necessity to join in.

"how long has he been standing there?" Alex asked turning to look at him.

"a couple of minutes, but he's been within earshot, it makes me wonder why he didn't join in." Dorothy said.

"didn't want to spoil your fun." He said setting a full basket of apples on the table.

"hey, you were at the farmhouse yesterday around the time officer grey arrived, not that it's any of our business, but what did he want?" Aislynn asked curiously.

"oh, he wanted to know if Em and henry had heard from any of their other former classmates about plans for a class reunion." Jon said taking an apple and shining it on his shirt.

"Mom mentioned something about that to dad last night after I got home, apparently everyone who is still around is getting in contact with everyone else." Alex said.

"Meaning we could wind up babysitting sometimes soon." Dorothy said.

"nothing wrong with that, you know how much Annabella loves being around your cousins." Alex said.

"yes, I know, they're going to be almost as inseparable as we all are, I almost guarantee it." dorothy said.

"and as your parents were." Jon said as they heard the phone ring in the kitchen.

As Jon went to answer the phone the group sat in silence, he had shut the door so that they couldn't hear his side of the phone call, a moment later he came back out.

"Alex, it's your mother, she wants to talk to you about something." He said.

Alex sighed and got up, going inside, he closed the door behind them.

"Wonder what she wants?" Betsy asked.

"She's probably worried about whether or not alex will get home before dark, and whether or not he'll need a ride home like you do, trot." Ellie said.

"or something's come up and they need alex home to watch Annabella, I mean, I know donna and Kelly walked her home, but they don't live there, and can't stick around." Dorothy said as alex came back outside.

"I can stay for another hour, then I have to go home, have to watch Annabella while my parents take care of something." Alex said sighing.

"we kinda figured as much." Betsy said.

"you know, I wouldn't mind it as much had they found out about whatever it is they have to deal with earlier in the day, I mean, it's not that hard to get a message conveyed to me, my mom's brother is the principal." Alex said.

"well, that's life." Aislynn said picking up her bag and going over her schoolwork again.

"Ace, how many times are you going to check your school work?" Ellie asked picking up another apple.

"as many times, as I think is necessary." She replied.

"don't look at me, I can't stop her from always worrying about it, no matter how hard I try." Dorothy said sighing.

"by the way, are you three planning on going to emerald city this coming weekend?" Aislynn asked.

"it's kinda what we plan on doing unless I'm needed here." Dorothy said.

"actually, I was asking because this time I want to come along." Aislynn said.

"as do we." Trot chimed in.

"well, you and Betsy need to get approval from your parents first, I don't want to have to deal with repercussions of that." Dorothy said.

"yes ma'am." They both said.

This idle chat went along for about another hour before alex departed. And not long after, the sun began to set in the sky. Mr. Griffiths came by to pick up Trot, and shortly after Ellie departed for home as well. As it got a bit darker dorothy, Betsy and Aislynn decided it was time to head home. Bidding farewell, the three of them started off down the road. When dorothy and Aislynn got into the farmhouse, they found Em going through some old papers. Pockets was standing on the table looking over them.

"Pockets, why are you on the table?" Dorothy asked curiously.

"curiosity mostly, your aunt doesn't seem to mind." Pockets said.

"also, where's toto?" Dorothy asked.

"Over on the chair, I warned him not to jump onto the table." Em said straightening her glasses.

"what are you looking at anyways?" Aislynn asked hanging her bag up on coat hook.

"oh, just some old memories, I was in the storm cellar earlier and found them, these are some letters Dorothy's mother sent me when they first moved into that house." Em said.

"you guys didn't really use the phone a lot to communicate with each other" dorothy said walking over.

"that's because your father would come around whenever I asked him to." Henry said coming out of the kitchen.

Dorothy sighed and looked behind her, the triplets were playing quietly in the playpen, not seeming to take any notice of what was going on. She walked over to the table and took toto off of his chair before sitting down.

"why do you hide so many of these things?" Aislynn asked picking up one of the letters.

"mostly for Dorothy's sake, some of it for henry's." Em said.

"there are somethings I wish I could say to him, I wish, we hadn't parted the way we did, the last time we saw each other, we had a bit of an argument." Henry said sighing.

"you never told me that!" Em said shocked.

"I've been trying not to, the night before he died I had thought about calling him up and apologizing, it was childish, but we were always like that." Henry said.

"you never realize how much someone really means to you until you lose them." Aislynn said sadly.

Both Em and dorothy thought about this for a moment. Em took the time to reflect on the years she had been teased by her brother, sure, he wasn't the nicest when they were kids, but he was also the older sibling, and no matter how much of a grudge she held against him, she still cared about him very much. She was glad they were able to bury the hatchet after all these years, but now she wanted to see him sooner than the summer. She knew that she wouldn't want her last words to her brother to be in the form of an argument, but she had never known that the last words exchanged between her husband and his brother were as such.

"I just can't believe those were the last words you and your brother shared were that of an argument." Em said.

"you want to know what it was about?" Henry asked, "Dorothy?" he added.

Dorothy said nothing, she simply nodded as Pockets walked across the table and jumped onto her lap.

"it seems childish to think about it now, but we were arguing whether or not they were doing a good job at raising dorothy." Henry said.

"what do you mean, doing a good job at it?" Aislynn asked.

"dorothy didn't have much contact with kids her own age before she came to live with us, I mean, that house was in a good neighborhood, don't get me wrong, but no one around there seemed to have kids." Henry said.

"we had just had dorothy over a week previous, as they had to go to a wake for a friend, Em and I spent most of our time in the fields so we weren't able to attend, but we were able to watch dorothy, a week later I called him up to help with the barn as one of the rafters had come loose." Henry said.

"oh, I remember that day, didn't you call him because you thought you could do on your own?" Em asked.

"and wound up making it worse, he scolded me for that first, and then asked why I didn't call the Teaks, since they only lived right across the town, not long after that, he dropped that question on me." Henry said.

"But how did it escalate into an argument?" Dorothy finally asked.

"it was rather childish, I told him I was sure you would grow up just fine, given your friendly personality that like your mother, you'd be able to make friends quite quickly, but he was still worried about it. he then asked if I thought he did the right thing, leaving town with your mother, I told him that it wasn't my place to say." Henry said.

"Doesn't sound like much of an argument." Aislynn said.

"it didn't escalate for a bit, until I suggested that they move back to the town, and send dorothy to school here if he was so concerned about it, I don't know why, but he took offense to that a bit, the last things we said to each was an angry exchange, I can't remember what we said exactly, as I haven't thought about it in years, but it ended with him storming off, it was the last time he and I spoke before his health started to deteriorate, what I found odd though, was that day he didn't take the road straight home, he went towards town, I saw his truck go back up the street about an hour later, and by then the sun was beginning to set." Henry said.

"he had gone into town, that evening I had gone into my father's study, to get some colored pencils, and found some of their old schoolwork, they had apparently discussed sending me to school here many times, he came home saying that he had ran into Mr. Alistair while in town, and had wondered if they had ever considered sending me to the school." Dorothy said wiping some tears from her eyes.

"Really?" Henry asked surprised.

"it's the only time my parents ever talked about my future education, at least while I was around, excuse me." Dorothy said getting up and heading to her room.

Dorothy thought back, that day, her father did not come home angry, or upset, he seemed a bit tired like he often was at the end of the day, but he wasn't in a bad mood. She wondered if he harbored as much regret for the argument as her uncle did.