"Alright guys, go take a load off," Jay told Mark and Shawn as they dragged themselves back into the house. The twins dropped their tourney gear next to the door and began walking, a rarity for them, up the stairs.

"Hey, your Mom doesn't like your stuff there, pick it up," Carlos called after them from the couch. Both of them groaned and came back and picked up the gear and began trudging it up the stairs with them.

Coach watched his boys from the couch where he and Carlos had been watching TV and just shook his head while smiling. "What did me and Liz do before you two got here?" he laughed.

"You two were outnumbered," Jay answered as he moved to sit in the chair that was adjacent to the couch.

"Outnumbered? There are two of them, and two of us."

"And I just spent the third day in a row trying to keep track of them," Jay responded. "I really think you have quadruplets and you're just hiding the other two. They're freaking exhausting. You need to heal up that ankle faster so you can help me with them," he told Carlos.

The Saturday before, when he and Jay had taken the boys out for their first tourney lesson with them, Carlos had twisted his ankle while practicing some defense with them. Luckily the school had a small cleaning crew on site so there were people there to help until the ambulance arrived. Within a half-hour Carlos was in the ER, Jay sitting with the twins, doing his best to reassure them that what happened to Carlos wasn't their fault. He actually felt something in him become moved at seeing the looks of fear and worry on their faces and the tearing up of their eyes since despite his efforts; he knew they were probably blaming themselves.

"Guys, accidents happen, especially when you play sports," he said as he stood them in front of the chair he was sitting in. "I've gotten banged up doing this, and amazingly, Carlos has gotten banged up playing. So look at me," he told them as calmly as he could, trying to use the same voice he used when trying to make Mal or Evie feel better when they got upset. "He's gonna be fine. He's even had a little worse than this." He explained to them, even lying a little bit at the end about Carlos' injury history.

It turned out, that while Jay wasn't completely wrong, he wasn't completely right either. Carlos had suffered a moderate ankle sprain that had left him confined to the house with his leg elevated to help the swelling. It would be at least another two weeks of therapy exercises before his ankle was fully healed, meaning whenever they left the house, Jay was the designated, and now sole, older brother figure when it came to watching the boys.

"It's healing as fast as it can, but still gotta stay off it," Carlos told him.

"Then call your girlfriend to come say a spell or something and heal it up completely," Jay ordered Carlos.

"Jane is not my girlfriend," Carlos countered.

"Could've fooled me," Coach laughed. "The way that girl was doting on you at the hospital; I mean Liz thought it was adorable," he added. Jay started laughing as he remembered back to that day the week before.

Once Carlos had made it to the hospital, Jay called the Coach and Liz to tell them what happened. The next call was to Mal and Evie to let them know that Carlos was hurt. Unsurprisingly, both girls told him they were on their way, though Evie would take the longer to arrive since she had to travel farther. When Mal arrived, Fairy Godmother and Jane were with her, and, in his opinion, Jane looked more worried that Mal did.

"How is he?" Jane blurted out before Mal could even open her mouth.

Jay told them that Carlos was in a lot of pain when they brought him in, but other than that, he was more or less alright. While they waited for the results of Carlos' x-rays, they were finally allowed to see him, and that's when the aforementioned doting began. Jane practically took up position next to Carlos' bed and made it her job to see that he was comfortable. All the young boy had to do was ask for something and Jane did her best to get, whether it be anything from a blanket, to an extra pillow, to a glass of water, all the way to asking the nurses if he could have something for the pain.

By the time Carlos was released, Liz wasn't the only one who was finding Jane's caregiving cute. Fairy Godmother had to hold back her laughter at the way Jane watched over Carlos, and she had to stop Mal from poking fun at dreamy way she looked at him when they talked. Even Jay had promised himself that he was going to give his friend some grief over the way he tried to seem like he wasn't in that much pain and that he was handling things better than he probably was for the sake of looking tougher in front of the pretty half-fairy.

Once Evie arrived however, all bets were off. She had no problem giving the two fourteen year olds some mild teasing, especially since she found their puppy love, her exact words for it, beyond cute. Even behind all the teasing though, she tried her best to actually get the two of them together that day, despite Mal trying to back her off so Carlos could get some rest.

"I'm surprised she's not here right now," Coach said as he took a quick turn at his drink from the coffee table.

"That's because she's grounded," Carlos said.

"Again?" Jay asked in genuine shock. He ran his fingers through his hair to get it out of his eyes before speaking again. "It's like all that girl's done since Mal moved in is get grounded."

"You didn't know?" Carlos asked him. Jay shook his head. "Mal's grounded right along with her this time, though."

Jay started to laugh and even Coach gave a small chuckle. "I thought the two of them were getting along again?" Coach asked.

"They are," Carlos answered as he reached forward for his own drink. Unfortunately, with his ankle resting on the couch, and he really unable to move it without some pain, the drink was out of his reach. Coach therefore reached over and handed it to him. "Thanks. Even though they're getting along again, they still fight over the bathroom. A couple of days ago, Jane said Mal was in the bathroom for like an hour and a half and Jane," he explained, starting to laugh a little bit, "Jane used a spell to give Mal a pixie cut to trim the time down."

Both Carlos and Coach began laughing, as did Jay, though he motioned that he didn't actually know what a pixie cut was. "It's a cut with hair shorter than Carlos'," Coach told him.

"Damn."

"Yeah," Carlos agreed. "Anyway, to get back at her, Mal actually turned Jane into a rabbit," he added causing the three off them to start laughing almost hysterically.

"Boss lady cannot have been happy with that," Coach said when he composed himself.

Carlos shook his head. "Jane said she grounded them both for a week."

"Well at least they're getting along again," Jay said.

The three of them watched some television until Liz finally walked back into the house, her arm full of bags of groceries. Jay and Coach immediately went to help her, leaving Carlos on the couch by himself. While Jay and Coach helped Liz, he felt the time was right to finally capture the TV for himself. It's not he hated watching sports but, unless Coach was watching the news, it was all Jay and Coach ever really watched. Carlos however, like to watch the more educational stuff every now and then.

He was just getting into a show about the past wars of Auradon when they both came back and Jay immediately went for the remote. Carlos did his best to keep it out of his reach, which led to the both of them getting into a small scuffle.

"Hey," Coach raised his voice at them to get their attention. "Boys! Boys!" he shouted when they didn't listen. Finally, the two of them stopped and looked over at him. "Jay, sit," he told Jay as he pointed back at the chair Jay had previously occupied. "Thank you. We'll let Carlos keep watching what he wants for a while."

Carlos smiled smugly at Jay and watched as Jay just glared back at him. a few minutes later, Liz came in as well after putting away the groceries and checking on the twins. "Jay, whatever you did to those two, thank you, it looks like they'll be out for a while," she said smiling before taking a drink of her tea.

"Just trying to help," Jay laughed.

The four of them continued to watch television until the show Carlos was watching was over and then Liz and Coach shared a look. After a quick nod to each other, they both decided to act on what they'd had planned for today. "Carlos, sweetie," Liz started, "can you turn off the TV, please?"

"Okay," Carlos let out slowly, already feeling a little confused. He looked to Jay, and got a shrug in response since Jay didn't know what was going on either. "Something wrong?"

"What did Carlos do and why am I in trouble for it, too?" Jay asked swiftly, figuring it was best to figure out quickly what was wrong so he could figure a way out of it just as fast.

"Nothing's wrong boys," Coach said as he saw their shared glances. "We just want to talk to you."

"You two have been here just over a month, and we wanted to see how you were feeling." Liz said. "So?"

Both boys just looked at each other, neither one really knowing what to say. In their time in Coach Jenkins' home, they'd only had a few conversations over that exact subject, usually when one of them was acting like they were restless, and most of the time, as much as he hated to admit it, it was usually Jay.

"I think…," Carlos began, nervousness in his voice, "Well, we've –"

"There's no we," Jay interrupted. "Carlos has been doing pretty well. I'm the one who's been – who had – trouble adjusting."

"Jay," Carlos started, but Jay silenced him with a shake of his head.

"Trouble?" Coach asked, a little shocked.

"Why?" Liz asked, sympathy in her face and tone.

Jay looked down at the floor, his face going vulnerable for the first real time in his life. He'd rarely let people in like he was about to do. He'd never let Carlos in this way; not even Mal or Evie had ever been privileged to seeing Jay let down his guard.

"On the Isle, things are different. Most of our parents are still so consumed with their past, their defeats, that they obsess over them. All we hear is, 'if it hadn't been for this', 'if so and so hadn't stopped me, we'd be living the life of royalty'. If you lived with my father, you'd have kept hearing about how he'd be the sultan right now, and Aladdin would be buried somewhere in the desert.

'And they constantly berate us to be better, because when we get off the island, and they all swear we'll get off once they come up with the perfect plan, we're going to need to be smarter, stronger, and nastier than them to take over. And if you're not good enough, then…"

"Bad things happen," Carlos finished for him.

"You don't think those things are going to be happening here do you?" Coach asked concerned.

Jay shook his head. "No, definitely not. It's just…I guess for a while, because of how I grew up, having to stay sharp or get punished for going soft, I was waiting for the shoe to drop."

"He's just now starting to get comfortable," Carlos informed.

"And what about you, sweetie?" Liz asked. "Jay said you've been doing a little better than him."

Carlos nodded.

"Yeah, well, when you have my upbringing, you kind of latch onto anything better. Remember what I was like when we came here?" he said to Jay, both of them laughing at the memory.

Coach and Liz looked at them questioningly.

"Carlos' mother didn't want to let him come. He practically threw his stuff into a garbage bag and made a run for the limo that brought us here. If it hadn't been for Evie blocking her way, I think she might've actually dragged him back home."

"She was afraid of not having anyone to fluff her furs, touch up her hair, or…or scrape her bunions," Carlos finished, shivering at the memory of his mother's gnarled, nasty feet. "If you haven't figured it out, I was more slave than son."

"Is he serious?" Liz asked. Jay nodded, and both Coach and Liz, more Liz however, felt their blood run hot at the sound of that. They wondered how anyone could treat their child like that, and then had the same though over Jay.

As much as they felt relief at what the boys had told them, that they had made themselves home here, as they should have, the conversation also shone some light into the way they were raised on the Isle.

"I think I speak for both of us when I say this," Coach began, "Whatever happened over at the island, is not happening here. There's no need to be looking out for another shoe to drop…"

"And you most definitely are not going to be slave labor here," Liz told Carlos. "All we ask is that if either of you ever feels like…like you need to talk, or to be reassured that you belong here, let us know, okay boys?"

Carlos and Jay nodded.

As they continued to sit, the television turned back on, neither of the boys' faces betrayed them, and neither did anything they said after that once the conversations started back on more normal subjects, but each felt like a weight had been lifted. Jay started to think that maybe could relax a little and give himself permission to breathe without the fear of being made to feel like he was losing his edge.

Carlos felt a feeling of confirmation. He'd practically felt at home the second he walked into this house, and didn't want to lose the first place to give him that feeling. He enjoyed being asked to do chores, not ordered. He liked that he didn't have to help maintain anyone's appearance other than his own. And most of all, he loved that nothing here was going to add to the small collection of scars that that his mother had given him.

As Carlos and Jay just sat in the living room, for the first time in their lives, they actually found themselves in a home that they wanted to be in. And as much as they thought their blank, stoic faces didn't betray them, Coach and Liz had a fairly accurate assumption that the boys were going to be okay calling this house, and their family, home.