I looked up and saw Dad and Grandpa watching me on the steps. I turned back around to say bye to Uncle Joe, but he was already gone. I stood up, walked into the kitchen, and tried to hop into the tall chair. I couldn't reach but tried a few more times for good measure. I still couldn't reach, but I was as hard-headed then, as my Dad was at his age. Dad picked me up and sat me on top of the chair. I surveyed Dad and Grandpa's faces, then finally spoke.

"Is it cause I'm a Reagan? Is that why you don't want me going to school, Daddy? Cause you're scared, they might do something to me if they find me?" I sounded and looked completely innocent. Dad looked at me, and with tears in his eyes walked over and hugged me and pulled me close.

"Xavier, I'm afraid that I may lose you. I can't lose another person close to my heart. I can't lose you like I lost Joe, or Grandma, or Mom. I can't handle that type of loss again. Not this soon." His voice started to break up at the end of it. Grandpa walked over, and I looked at him over Dad's shoulder.

"Grandpa, do I have PTSD? Am I ever gonna be normal, like Jack and Sean?" He made his face of deep thought, and after about a minute, he put his hands on both of my cheeks and lifted my face so we were seeing eye to eye.

"Joseph, no one is normal. Your brothers are moving faster than you because they weren't there. They don't know what happened. They didn't have to experience it as you did. Who were you talking to over there?" He motioned over to the steps, took his hands off my face and put them back in his pockets.

I hesitated, then responded. "Uncle Joe. He came and sat next to me on the steps when I heard Daddy yelling at you. When I heard you say we were broken into because of our last name, I asked him if it was true or not."

He nodded then rubbed his chin. "Oh. And what did he say about it?"

"He said that if it was, it was unpreventable, if it wasn't, it still was unpreventable. Then, he told me about my second birthday party before he got killed. He told me how Dad was working late that night, and how I was crying a lot, and no one could get me to stop, except him, when he picked me up. And he told me about how he tried to get me to play football, but I would just chew on the ball. So you would eventually give me the ball on purpose, so that Daddy, Uncle Joe and Uncle Jamie couldn't play."

Dad looked at me, then back at Grandpa and said, "Is that true Dad? Is that how Xavier would always end up with the ball, and we had to quit the game because of kid slobber?"

Grandpa laughed and said "I wonder how Joe figured that out."

I started to smile when I said, "He told me, that I was the last happy face he saw before he died. And that's why he is my guardian angel. Because I was always wanting to be with him."

Grandpa looked at the clock and said "Oops, come on Xavier, we are gonna be late for school." The clock read 7:55, and we were out the door. Dad picked me up, gave me a hug and kiss on the forehead, and buckled me in my car-seat in between Garrett and Grandpa. I looked out the window and saw Uncle Joe standing next to Dad. We had to ride in Grandpa's SUV when we went anywhere with him during work hours. We turned on the lights and sirens and got to school a minute before the bell rang.