"Sara."

Sara turned at the sound of the little voice.

"Hey Matthew." Sara picked him up. "How are you?"

"Okay." Matthew eyed up Ray. "Who he?"

"Matthew I'd like you to meet my brother Ray."

"Hello." Matthew said cheerily.

"Hello." Ray replied.

"Ray, this is Matthew Delaney one Nick's nephews."

"One?" Ray questioned.

"Thirteen nieces and nephews in total, eight girls, five boys. Nick has one brother and five sisters, all older. Who apart from Emily who lives in Houston, they all live around here. Most of them on the property. Matthew here is Maggie and Gibson's."

"That's a lot of people."

"You're telling me." Sara smiled. "But they're all good people."

"They sound it." Ray smiled.

"So Mattie, I don't think you're supposed to be in the barn by yourself."

"You're here." Matthew pointed out.

"But you didn't know that. You could get hurt. Why don't we see if we can find your Daddy or one of your uncles?" Sara suggested.

Matthew nodded.

"You're pretty good with kids." Ray commented. "Do you have any?"

"Not that I know of." Sara replied. "I've only been married a few months and Nick is fine with waiting until I'm ready."

"Hey Gib?" Sara called out. "Have you lost something?"

"That's where the little monkey disappeared too. Thanks Sara." Gibson came and took his son from Sara. "You know you're not allowed in the barn or the stables without an adult. You could get hurt."

"Sorry Daddy." Matthew apologised.

"Gib have you seen Nick?"

"Hang on. Hands over your ears Mattie." Matthew put his hands over his ears. Gibson let out a loud whistle. "Yo Nicky."

"What?" Nick yelled back.

"Your wife is looking for you."

"Hey." Nick said walking over. "What's up?"

"Ray do you mind staying with Nick for a while there are some things I need to take care of?" Sara asked.

"Okay." Ray agreed.

"Be nice and show him around." Sara whispered to Nick.

Nick showed Ray around the ranch.

"So you met my mother." Ray said as they leant against the fence.

"Twice." Nick confirmed.

"And got her sent back to jail."

"She turned up where we work in Vegas and wanted to see Sara. I was obligated to check she wasn't violating her parole by leaving California."

"Hey I have no problems with it. She should be in jail. My father was an abusive alcoholic drunk and I hated him, but he didn't deserve to die the way he did. No-one does."

"She's going to be in jail for at least another five years." Nick explained.

"As long as she stays away from my family I don't care."

"Did you ever try to find Sara?" Nick inquired.

"By the time I was sober enough and had gone through all the counselling and AA and NA meetings, I didn't think it was fair to bring it all up again. Besides which I didn't have the first clue where to start looking."

"My family came be a little pushy on mass but their hearts are in the right place."

"I'm grateful." Ray said. "She's seems to have done alright for herself."

"She's still the scared little girl, who lost everything inside." Nick replied. "She still thinks everyone is going to leave. But it's getting better."

"She seems to trust you."

"It took almost five years and it happened by accident. We started hanging out after work occasionally and it took us a while to figure out we were dating. But I don't think it would have work out any other way."

"Tell me about my sister." Ray requested.

"She's smart, did she tell you she got a full scholarship to Harvard, she's beautiful, she's a workaholic, she deals with her problems by focusing even more on work so she doesn't have to deal with them face on. She's great with my whole family, especially with the kids. She never dealt with what happened with your parents, she just concentrated on the science because it had answers and made sense to her. She's working through everything slowly. Having your mother jump back into her life didn't help much, but she's a strong person. You'll like her when you get to know her."

"I'd like that chance."

"Sara would like it too. Not that she talks about it a lot, and it took her a long time to tell me any of it, but I think out of all of it the thing she regretted most was loosing contact with you. She blames herself for that and your mother for taking you away from her as well."

TBC