After they were done eating dinner, Shawn, John and Glenn worked on cleaning up while Matt watched Adam play with Cameron and Cheyenne. It was actually one of the most amusing things that Matt had seen in a long time. The three of them were actually playing Frankenstein. Cameron was Dr. Frankenstein, Cheyenne was Igor and Adam was the monster. "Is he properly strapped down Igor?" Cameron asked as he got ready to throw the imaginary switch.

Cheyenne nodded. "Yup. He's ready to go Dr. Frankie."

"It's Dr. Frankenstein," Cameron said, clearly annoyed with the fact that his sister could not say his name right to save her life.

She just rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She checked the jump ropes that were supposed to be holding Adam down before standing back. "Do it Frankie!"

Cameron threw the switch and laughed as Adam began making really loud groaning noises while pretending to have some sort of seizure. "He's alive! He's alive! He's--holy shit!"

"Hey hey hey!" Shawn yelled from the back porch. "Watch the language!"

"Sorry Daddy!" Cameron apologized as he and Cheyenne began running away from Adam, who was chasing after them while using the slowest, most lumbering walk that Matt had ever seen in his life. "You said you had him strapped down!" he yelled.

"I did!" Cheyenne said defensively.

Adam continued his lumbering walk, seemingly taking great delight in the fun the kids were having. "I eat your brains!" he announced loudly. "Brainzzzzz! Brainzzzz!"

Matt shook his head. "Frankenstein's monster wasn't a zombie sweetie. He was just a reanimated--"

"Shut up Matthew!" Adam grunted. "Zombies are cool. Frankenstein is a zombie now damn it!"

"Alright honey. Whatever you say." Matt wasn't going to argue with Adam about that. If Adam wanted to be a Frankenstein zombie, who was he to tell him no?

Adam spent the next half hour chasing Cameron and Cheyenne around all over the yard. He almost caught them several times, but before he actually got his hands on them, he either purposefully tripped himself so he would fall on his face or he would run into something, which allowed them to get away. It seemed like there was going to be no stopping the fun but then Shawn came out and had to interrupt the good time.

"Kids! It's time to come inside!"

Cameron and Cheyenne groaned. "Aw, but Daddy!" Cheyenne pouted. "We want to play more!"

Shawn shook his head. "You can play tomorrow. Both of you need a bath and then you need to start getting ready for bed soon."

Cameron looked ready to protest more but Adam stopped him before he started. "We'll play later, okay?" he said, ruffling both kids' hair.

"Okay," they both reluctantly said at the same time.

Shawn grinned as the kids went into the house. "You guys want to come in and have a couple more beers with me and John?" he asked Matt and Adam.

Matt was about to agree when Adam spoke up. "We will but uh…I have to talk to Matt about something real quick," he announced.

Matt raised his eyebrows. What is this about?

"Okay," Shawn said, looking just as confused as Matt was. "Just don't make us wait too long."

Matt watched Shawn go back into the house and then looked at Adam. "What do you want to talk about?" he asked.

Adam walked over to Matt and sat down on his lap. "Look, I know we haven't been together all that long," he said, sounding more than a little nervous. "I mean, just a few short months ago, I was stuck in my relationship with Dave and ready to kill myself because it was so bad."

Matt winced. He didn't like reminiscing about how bad things had gotten for Adam and how long it had taken him to notice it. "Adam--"

"Just let me finish," Adam said quickly. He paused for half a second to take a deep breath before continuing. "There's something that I've been wanting for awhile but I've been too scared to say it. Dave made it so clear to me that he didn't want anymore and given everything that's happened lately I haven't been able to find a good time to bring it up and plus I don't know how you feel about it--"

"Baby, why don't you just say it?" Matt suggested gently. He knew that if he let Adam keep babbling like this, the blonde was just going to keep getting more and more worked up. "Come on, you know you can tell me anything."

Adam nodded. "I know I just…umm…would you be weirded out if I told you that I want to have a baby?"

Matt sat there and just stared at Adam incredulously for a couple of minutes. It quickly became apparent to him that his boyfriend was completely serious about this. "Honey, I don't know how to tell you this, but you're a guy. You can't get pregnant."

Adam rolled his eyes. "I know that doofus. I know that we would have to adopt or have a surrogate and you are just looking at me like you want to put me in an insane asylum."

"I am not," Matt said quickly, trying to wipe the incredulous look off his face. It wasn't really working that well though because he was truly taken by surprise by this announcement. He hadn't even really thought about having children before, not even when he used to be with Amy. The closest the two of them came to having kids was getting Lucas and once he was in the picture, the thought of actual human babies to call his own hadn't popped up into his head until just that moment. "I just…you took me by surprise. That's all."

Adam raised his eyebrows. "You sure? You look like Jeff when we tell him we're out of Skittles."

Matt sighed. "Hey um…can we finish this discussion later? I mean, John and Shawn are waiting for us and they might interrupt once they start getting impatient." That was a bullshit excuse and not only did he know it, but he could tell Adam knew it too. But even though he despised bullshit reasons, he wanted to stick with this one for now. Normally he liked kids but just thinking about having some himself scared the crap out of him.

"Fine," Adam said. He was trying to act like Matt's reaction didn't bother him but he was failing miserably. "Let's just go get that beer then."

Matt watched Adam get off his lap and go into the house. "Fuck," he muttered. Kids….kids…kids are…no, I'm not going there. He stood up and went into the house too. Just because he was supposed to be the responsible Hardy brother did not mean that he was ready to even think about having kids. That was just one responsibility that he wasn't sure he would ever be ready to take.

…

Jeff found Mark in the living room watching TV with Cooper and Connor. But out of those three, Mark was the only one who acknowledge his presence. "Hey babe," he said as Jeff sat down on the couch with him. He frowned when he noticed the look in Jeff's eyes. "What's wrong?"

Jeff sighed and snuggled up to Mark. "I'm worried about James," he confessed. "He…he just rejected sex."

Mark looked completely taken aback by that statement. Even Cooper and Connor, who had been keeping their distance from Jeff when they found he was the reason James was stopping with the killing, looked startled. "Maybe he hates you now," Connor said with a shrug.

"Connor!" Mark growled as Jeff flinched at the words.

"What? It could be true." Connor didn't seem to grasp the impact of his own words."

Cooper shook his head and stood up. "Come on Connor, let's go watch this upstairs," he said as he grabbed his younger brother and pulled him up to his feet. "It's getting kind of crowded in here."

Jeff looked down at his hands as the two young men left the room. "They hate me," he said unhappily.

"They don't hate you," Mark said, even though he didn't even sound convinced by his own statement. "They're just…worried about James."

Jeff sighed and rested his head against Mark's shoulder. "Well I am too," he pointed out. "I just…I want to help him. I don't want this to be hard for him." He gave Mark a pleading a look. "We have to make this easier for him."

"I know we do," Mark said. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "I think we need to find him something else to get interested. You know, so his mind won't constantly be on the whole killing thing."

That sounded like a good idea to Jeff. "Well you stopped when you got into wrestling--"

"No no no, not that," Mark said quickly. "James isn't cut out to be a wrestler. I don't think we could trust him not to hurt someone if they really did piss him off. Besides, can you just imagine his promos? It would be "fuck this" and "fuck that" and "you crosskicking asshole I'll rip your intestines out and shove them down your throat". Shit, he'll get whatever show he's on thrown off the air so fast it would make our head spin.

Now that Jeff thought about it, he could see Mark's point. "So what should we get him interested in then?" he asked.

"I don't know," Mark said with a shrug. "But I'll think of something. Just trust me."

Jeff gave Mark a small smile before kissing him on the cheek. "You know I already do that," he said. "Hey um, do you uh…think I should try to win Cooper and Connor over?"

Mark thought about it and then shook his head. "No. Let them come around on their own. They might do it eventually."

"Might?"

"They're James's kids Jeff. They're just as stubborn as he is."

"Well technically Cooper's your kid…"

Mark rolled his eyes. "Don't let him catch you saying that. He wants nothing to do with me." He handed Jeff the TV remote and stood up. "Where's James at?"

"I think he went to go lay down," Jeff said. "He said he had a headache."

"Okay. Well I'll try to talk to him and see where his head's out. That sound good to you?"

Jeff nodded. "Thanks Mark."

"Any time Jeffro."

…

"You are going to get alcohol poisoning," Phil scolded as Randy and Jay downed yet another shot. "Are you aware of that?"

Randy rolled his eyes. He loved Phil to death; he really did. But there were times that he wished that straightedge man would just stop coming with them to places like this. He was always such a fucking buzz kill. "Dude, we know, okay?" he said in exasperation. "We've heard this speech a thousand times before. Can't you ever get new material?"

"Yeah really," Jay agreed. He wrapped his arm around Phil's shoulder. "Lighten up buddy. Alcohol is not the devil and you are not our savior. Get over it for two seconds."

Phil shook his head. "I wasn't saying that it was the devil and I sure as hell didn't tell you that I'm you're savior. I'm just saying that you two have drank way way too much already. I mean seriously, do you two even remember where we are anymore?"

Randy and Jay exchanged looks. They actually really didn't remember which club that they were in at the moment. But instead of letting that bother them, they just laughed it off. "Fuck, I really need to get laid tonight," Randy announced, letting his eyes roam the bar for a suitable fuck.

"Jesus Orton, is that all you think about?" Phil asked in exasperation. "Don't you think it's time that you actually try to have a relationship?"

Randy snorted. "I don't do relationships. And look who's talking! You're single aren't you?"

"Actually I think he's about to ask Mor out on a date any time now," Jay piped up.

"Well that's great," Randy said. "But that shit is just not for me." He grinned as he caught sight of something out on the dance floor. "Look at them," he said, pointing out what he saw. "Aren't they adorable?"

Jay and Phil looked and saw Mor, Ted and Evan dirty dancing together. "Wow," Jay said, nodding in appreciation. "That is hot!"

Phil frowned. "It is but uh…where's Cody?"

Randy tilted his head to the side and realized that the Code Man was not with their other friends. "I'll find him," he volunteered. "I don't see anyone here I want to fuck here anyway." He started walking back to the table they had originally been sitting at when they had first gotten to the club, openly leering at a few hot pieces of ass he saw on his way. Not bad…not bad at all. But not what I'm looking for either.

As it turned out, Cody was at the table they had been at earlier. "What are you doing here?" Randy asked as he stopped directly next to the younger man.

Cody shrugged. "I don't know," he said.

Randy frowned. Something was bothering his friend and he wanted to know what it was. "You should come dance with the rest of us," he suggested. "We don't want you to sit here all alone."

"No thanks," Cody said with a shake of his head. "I don't really feel like it."

That just perplexed Randy. His drunken mind could not understand why Cody did not want to come out and have fun with the rest of them "Are you mad at us or something?" he asked. "Cuz if you are then I'll kick Phil's ass for you. I don't know if he did it or not but we can just blame him for it."

Cody smiled just a little bit. "I'm not mad at anyone. I just…I guess I don't really feel like being here." He tried to wave Randy away. "You can go have fun though. I think I'll just go back to the hotel and sleep."

Now if it had been anyone else, Randy would have just let him go without a fight. But since he had a soft spot for Cody, he couldn't do that without feeling guilty about it later. "I'll go with you," he decided. He grabbed Cody by the hand and pulled him up to his feet. "We'll go to the hotel together."

Cody's eyes widened. "Randy no--"

"Yes Cody," Randy insisted. He was not going to take no for an answer. One way or another, he was going to make sure Cody had some fun tonight.