"What do you think you're looking at?" Watson hollered, his eyes focused on Kristy.

Frightened, Kristy willed herself to run out of the kitchen, to become invisible, or to somehow know what she could say back that would make everything right again. None of this happened.

"Well?" Watson shouted

Kristy opened her mouth and then closed it. She wasn't sure if she would even be able to produce a sound. Hearing the commotion, Sam came running into the room. In the corner of her eye, she could see Stacey in the hallway holding back David Michael.

"I-" Kristy stammered.

Kristy looked pleadingly over at her mom, who had backed into the wall, with tears streaming down her face. It didn't look like she was in any position to help herself; much less Kristy.

Sam then walked up to Watson, and stood firmly in his path.

"You can leave now," he said firmly.

Watson's eyes lit up with anger hearing this. "What the hell are you talking about?" he yelled angrily.

Watson tried to push past Sam and leave the kitchen, but his balance was very unsteady, and Sam stood firmly.

"You need to leave," Sam said again, this time more forcefully.

Watson took a step back and surveyed the mess that he had created. He then walked, stumbling, to the door.

"This is my damn house!" he shouted. "Remember that!"

He then slammed the door to the garage. A few seconds later, they heard the car start and back out of the garage, hitting the garbage cans on the first try. No one said a word until the BMW had turned out of the driveway and into the street.

David Michael finally broke free of Stacey's arms, and ran to Kristy, burying his head into the fold of her SHS sweatshirt. Somehow, he knew that he couldn't run to his mom right now. She put her arms around him, but found herself unable to say anything. She didn't know how to soothe him. Stacey entered the kitchen too, going straight to Sam. He had his arms around her, softly stroking her hair.

Elizabeth took a few steps out from her position against the well. She was still crying, but didn't seem to be acknowledging this at all. She looked at the pained faces of all the children.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice almost a whisper. "I'm so sorry."

With this, she fled from the room, and Kristy listened to the soft footsteps that went up the stairs and to the room that she shared with Watson, which were intermingled with sobs. The sound was heartbreaking

Nannie entered the kitchen holding Emily Michelle. Emily was sucking her thumb, and was resting her head against Nannie's shoulders. Her eyes were red from crying. Stopping to momentarily rub Kristy's shoulder, Nannie reached out and took David Michael's hand, leading him upstairs.

As soon as David Michael was out of the room, and she didn't have to pretend to be brave for anyone, Kristy slid down to the floor. Her back against the counter, she hugged her knees to her chest tightly. She started to quietly cry.

Finally, someone broke the silence.

"What the hell was that?" Sam asked angrily.

"I heard them fighting last night," Kristy said softly. "They woke me up. Watson ended up leaving. I think that something is really wrong."

"Something better be wrong. He had no right to come here and act like that. David Michael and Emily Michelle must be scared out of there minds. And mom practically fell apart. She doesn't deserve this."

Stacey walked over to where Kristy was sitting and offered her hand. Kristy took it and stood up. They both walked over to Sam.

Sam looked over at his sister, and lightly punched her arm. "Don't worry Kristy. I'm going to call Charlie. He'll know what to do."

"Okay," Kristy said. She wasn't an adult. She wasn't going to even pretend that she had any idea of what to do.

"Come on Stacey, let's go up to my room," Sam said. He turned to Kristy. "Can you clean everything up?"

"Sure, I guess."

"Thanks," Sam said, leading Stacey upstairs.

Kristy set about her task of straightening up the kitchen. It felt good to have a purpose. She didn't quite know what she would do when she was done with this.

She finished putting away the leftovers from dinner, and straightened out the furniture that Watson had pushed around. Cleaning up the mess made her feel just the tiniest bit better about the situation, though this disturbed her as well. Anyone who walked in wouldn't have the slightest idea of what had just happened. The Thomas-Brewer's would be seen as just another happy family.

Maybe there was no such thing as a happy family.

As Kristy was wiping of the table, Nannie walked into the kitchen, surveying her work.

"You didn't have to clean up," she remarked.

"I know," Kristy responded, looking down at the table that she was cleaning instead of at Nannie.

Nannie came over and took the rag out of Kristy's hand, setting it on the table. "You shouldn't have had to see that, Kristy."

"It's not a big deal," Kristy mumbled.

"It is a big deal," Nannie said firmly. "Watson is having some problems right now, but I don't want you to worry about it. He is going to work them out. And your mom is behind him completely, and will help him in anyway that she can. This is going to get better. Things are going to be okay again.

"I hope so," Kristy said softly.

Nannie reached over and pulled Kristy in for a hug. "This is nothing for you to worry about. You need to focus on schoolwork and your sports. Got it?"

Kristy nodded her head slightly. "Yeah."

"Good," Nannie said. "David Michael and Emily Michelle went to bed early tonight, and I think that you should as well. I'll finish cleaning up in here."

Kristy took a step back from the table and headed upstairs. She stopped at the bottom of the staircase.

"Thanks Nannie."

"I love you," Nannie said. "And so do your mom and Watson."

"I love you too," Kristy said before she turned again to walk upstairs to her room.

As she reached the upstairs hallway, a feeling of overwhelming loneliness hit her. There were eight bedrooms on the second floor of this large house, and the doors to five of them were closed. The pen doors and rooms belonged to Charlie, Karen, and Andrew, and were more like empty testaments to the people who sometimes occupied them. Her house used to be so bursting with people that loneliness hadn't even been an option.

Kristy stopped outside the door to the closed door to her mom and Watson's room. She put her ear close to the door, but was unable to hear anything inside.

She knocked on the door.

"Mom? Are you okay?" she asked.

Kristy waited a few moments, but no response came from the room. Not knowing what else she could or should do, she lingered in the hallway for a few minutes, just thinking. She truly hated the idea that she didn't have any clue as to what to do next. She used to have so many great ideas.

In efforts to try to make the night good for something, Kristy headed to her room and started to work on her homework. Though her mind wandered frequently, she did get some of it done, which made her feel a little bit better. She was about to start working on her Spanish homework when Sam opened her door. Stacey must have gone home.

"Do you ever knock?" Kristy asked.

"Where would the fun be in that?" Sam responded. He took a more serious tone. "I just called Charlie."

"What did he say?" Kristy asked impatiently. All of her life Charlie had been a great older brother. He always knew what to do.

"He was as shocked as I was. Well, not really. He said that he's always suspected that Watson wasn't as great as everyone thought he was."

"But what are we supposed to do?" Kristy asked.

Sam shrugged. "Charlie said that he would come home this weekend. I figured that we would wait until then to do anything. I don't really think that there is much that we can do."

Kristy frowned. "I guess your right."

Sam grinned. "Of course I'm right. I'm your older brother."

"We'll have a meeting this weekend. Both of us and Charlie. Then we'll figure things out," Kristy declared. Being organized always made her feel more at ease.

"That sounds good," Sam said. "Good night Krusty."

Kristy threw a pillow at Sam, hitting him flat on the back. "Good night Slime."

Sam picked the pillow off the floor, and threw it into Kristy's shoulder, smirking as he walked out the door.

Kristy sat on the edge of the bed and smiled to herself. It felt good to have something to look forward to, despite everything that was on her mind.

When Patrick had left their mom, Charlie had been the one to take charge of everything. After all, he was the oldest, and some one had to run the house while mom was at work. And he had done a great job, despite that fact that he had barely been anything but a kid himself. Kristy knew that they would be able to count on him again. That's just the kind of brother that he was. Despite everything, her family wasn't so bad. At least she could depend on her siblings.

She busied herself with changing into her pajamas, packing her backpack for tomorrow, and getting ready for bed. So what if it was only nine o'clock? It had certainly been a long enough day.

Kristy pulled back the covers, and settled herself in bed. She wasn't by any means sure of anything that had happened in the past few days, but they had a plan. And with that came hope.