The following weekend - Friday

Tommy arrived at Jason and Kim's house battered, bruised and exhausted. Of course Mesagog would decide to send down a monster when he had a road trip to take. He knew that after a good night's sleep, he'd be fine. He pulled his bag from the back of the Jeep, headed up to the door and knocked. Moments later, Jason opened the door and pulled his best friend inside. Tommy found himself enveloped in a bear hug and couldn't help sucking in a breath. Jason released him immediately and looked at his friend carefully.

"Monster?" Jason asked, sympathetically. Tommy nodded and Jason took his bag and led him to a spare room. When Jason flipped on the light, it was all Tommy could do to keep from laughing - besides it would hurt. The room was decorated in wallpaper with pictures of teddy bears in pink, green and blue. On a corner shelf sat a large red teddy bear with a gold bow around it's neck.

"Um, bro?"

"Yeah?" Jason answered.

"What am I? Five?" Jason looked puzzled until Tommy pointed at the wallpaper. "Or do you have something to tell me?"

"Not yet. The wallpaper was here when we bought the house and Kim bought the bear a couple of weeks ago. It came to live in here for a while."

Tommy nodded and Jason pointed to a small door in the corner. "Bathroom. And dinner is in twenty minutes." Tommy nodded again and Jason left the room, pulling the door shut behind himself.

Twenty minutes and a hot shower later, Tommy made his way out to the dining room feeling better. Kim greeted him with a gentle hug and a kiss on the cheek, having been warned by Jason. They sat down to dinner and chatted lightly through the meal. As Kim got up to clear the plates, she said, "By the way, Billy and Trini will be here around nine or ten tomorrow morning with the pictures."

Tommy glanced at Jason, who suddenly seemed very interested in his hands. "Do they know that I'm here to see the pictures too?"

"Yes."

"And do they know why?"

Now, Kim wouldn't look at him either and Tommy's face reddened. "Oh, crap."

"Don't worry about it, bro. Have you ever know Trini and Billy to judge anyone?"

"No, but -"

"But nothing!" Kim jumped in. "Don't worry about it unless or until you have to."

"All right." But Tommy felt uneasy. The people at the wedding were all friends and family and co workers of the two couples. He had the distinct feeling that this was going to bite him in the butt.

Next morning - Saturday

Tommy rose feeling very much himself again. The smell of coffee was drifting into the room so he dressed and exited the room quickly. As he made his way to the kitchen, he glanced at his watch. He saw that it was only 8:15 and was pleased that he had managed to get up before Billy and Trini were due to arrive. He stopped short in the doorway in dismay. He had conveniently forgotten that the two were in a habit of arriving early wherever they went. Trini spied him first.

"Good morning!" The young woman rose and crossed the room to her friend. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." Tommy accepted her hug and allowed her to pull him into the room. Kim smiled at him.

"Coffee?" she offered.

"God, yes." He moved to where she pointed and found a mug waiting for him to fill it. He did and took his first sip gratefully. He then turned his attention to the two men in the room. "Morning, Jase. Morning, Billy."

Both men nodded in reply. Billy spoke next. "Heal up all right?"

Tommy stared. "A full sentence I didn't need translated? I think the question is - are you feeling okay?"

Laughter filled the kitchen. Trini pointed at a chair. "Sit there. I'm sitting on one side of you and Kim'll be on the other. That way if you find her, one of us should be able to identify her."

Red faced, Tommy did as he was told. Two hours later, they still hadn't found the mystery woman. Suddenly, Billy frowned. "Trini - have you noticed that my cousin doesn't appear to be in any of these pictures, either?"

Trini frowned and quickly flipped back through all the photos. "No, she doesn't."

"What's her name?" Tommy asked.

"Mary Jane" Billy replied.

"That name would certainly fit the girl I'm looking for - much better than Alexis."

Billy raised an eyebrow as Trini suddenly stood up. "Hang on. I'll be right back" she said. A couple of minutes later, she returned, flipping through some other pictures. Suddenly, she extracted one from the pile and held it out to Tommy. "Is that her?"

Tommy accepted the picture and stared at it - it was the mystery woman. Wordlessly, he nodded and then blanched as he realized that it was Billy's cousin he had slept with. He could almost feel the teeth marks already. Silence filled the room for a moment which was broken by Billy.

"Well, mystery solved." Everyone looked at him curiously.

"Um, aren't you going to threaten my life or something?" Tommy asked warily.

"Do you want me to?" Billy inquired calmly.

"Of course not, but -"

"She is a grown woman - able to take care of herself. This is not the olden days where family must fight for the honor of their women. Besides, the way Jason tells it, you have beaten yourself up over it quite a bit, so I don't need to."

"Um, okay."

"I am, by no means, overjoyed about it, but as for me expressing rage, it will in no way undo past events."

Everyone looked at Trini. "He's not happy about it, but getting mad won't change anything" she translated.

Just then, Tommy realized something. "She lied to me about her name! Why would she do that?"

Billy shrugged. "I am not privy to the workings and mental processes of her cerebral cortex."

Before anyone asked, Trini piped up, "He doesn't know."

Jason looked at his friend, exasperated. "Couldn't you just say that?"

"I did." Everyone laughed, except Tommy.

"I need to find her and find out why she lied to me" he said.

Billy and Trini sighed. Jason spoke up. "Why? Does it really matter?"

"Yes. I need to know why. She obviously didn't expect anything more, so why lie about it?" He turned his attention to Billy. "Does she even live in that house?"

Billy slowly shook his head. "She was house-sitting for her old roommate. She still has a room in that house and it just so happened to be the weekend of the wedding."

"Convenient" said Tommy. "So where does she live?"

Billy stood up, locked gazes with Tommy and spoke slowly. "Understand this - you are planning to go over there sober and therefore are responsible for your actions. If you hurt her in ANY way, I'll make sure you wish you were dealing with Zedd and Rita and the entire Machine Empire."

Billy waited for Tommy's nod that he understood and then looked at his wife and nodded. Trini pulled a small address book out of her purse, wrote the information on a slip of paper and gave it to Tommy.