Title: Elsewhere

Summary: It's an emotional rollercoaster, taking care of three little kids. Especially when they're not yours, and you don't know how long they're staying.

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Chapter Six

"When am I getting out of here?" Allen wailed.

"Daddy and I love you very much. Soon," his mother assured him.

Andy blinked. He was awake now. Whenever he started to go to sleep, that stupid boy would cry. "Be quiet," he murmured into the sheet. "Go away!"

"Did you say something?" Sharpay leaned over the railing of the bed and fixed the blanket. "Are you okay?"

"That boy," Andy whispered, "is a big baby."

"Yeah," Sharpay agreed, sighing. "He is, honey."

"He is?" Andy giggled. "You think so?"

"Uh huh." Sharpay stretched. "You are being very brave, though."

"That's 'cause I'm five," Andy agreed.

"That's really big," Sharpay assured him

"Yeah," Andy agreed. "But that kid is a big kid. Bigger than me. As big as Kevin, even." He smiled. "If he were here, he'd beat that kid up."

Sharpay grinned to herself. Kevin probably would beat him up.

"I WANNA GO HOME!" Allen bellowed. "I WANNA GO HOME!"

"I don't want to go home," Andy whispered. Sharpay took his hand.

"Don't worry about it."

For awhile, neither of them spoke. The next time Allen wailed, Andy sighed hugely, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.

Sharpay had to grin. "Don't let him bother you, Andy. Go back to sleep, honey."

Andy shook his head. "I can't. That boy is making too much noise."

Sharpay sighed. "I know, sweetie. Want me to tell you a story?"

"Mmhmm." Andy nodded, looking up at her eagerly.

Sharpay racked her brain. She'd have to come up with a story.

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"And so the astronaut in the rocket ship flew through space and he flew through the sky and the clouds and he came back home." Troy yawned. It was scarcely eight thirty, but all three of them were exhausted. He'd gotten Kevin and Zac both to take baths, put their pajamas on and get into bed. And then he got roped in to telling them stories. "And then he went home to sleep, because he was very, very tired." He stood up. "It's time for bed now, guys, for real."

"One more story?" Zac sat up and bounced up and down. "One? One more? Please?"

"Zac." Kevin bit his lip. "He doesn't have to tell you a story."

"Okay." Zac lay back down. He looked up at Troy. "But it would be nice, though."

Troy smiled. "Only one more? And you won't ask for anymore?"

Zac nodded solemnly. "No. No more. I promise."

"Well. . . okay, I guess." Troy sat back down on the edge of the bed. "What about?"

"I want Kevin to pick it," Zac smiled.

"Kev, you want to pick it?" Troy asked.

Kevin shook his head. "No. You pick it, Zac."

"You." Zac folded his arms across his chest. "You pick."

Troy glanced from one to the other. "Want me to pick it, Kevin?"

Kevin nodded. "Uh huh."

"Okay." Troy took a deep breath. "Once upon a time there was. . . What are you doing now?"

Kevin had crawled out of his own bed and was trying to sneak over to Zac without Troy's noticing. Because Troy was on Zac's bed, this was a physical impossibility. Kevin blushed. "I have to tell him something. . ."

"Okay." Troy waited while Kevin whispered something in his brother's ear and dived back into his own bed.

Zac grinned up at Troy. "I want to hear a story about a princess."

"About a princess?" Troy glanced over at Kevin. "Okay." He knew who really wanted to hear a story about a princess. "Okay, so once upon a time there was this princess and. . ."

"And the bad fairies who made her go to sleep for a hundred million years," Zac added.

Troy stifled a laugh. "And she was really a pretty cute princess, I mean like, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue material. . ." he continued.

"What's that?" Zac interrupted.

"I'll show you one tomorrow," Troy promised him, having no intention of doing so. "And she was really cute, but she was cursed. . ."

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"And so the grandmother said to the Big Bad Wolf, 'Have lunch with us if you're hungry.' And Little Red Riding Hood said 'Yeah, borrow my cape if you don't have any clothes.' And the Big Bad Wolf said, 'thank you, that's very nice.' And he stayed for lunch, and he borrowed her cape, and they all lived happily ever after." Sharpay took a deep breath. The only parts of "Little Red Riding Hood" she could remember had been really violent, so she'd changed a lot of things. Would he buy it?

Andy smiled. "That's a good story." He yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Have they found my mommy yet?"

Sharpay bit her lip. An hour and a half before, she'd gotten a phone call from Mary, the social worker. They had found his mother. Right now, she was in jail on charges of child abandonment and reckless endangerment. If she would agree to go into a drug rehabilitation program and counseling, Mary told Sharpay, Kathleen, the boys' mother, did have a good chance of getting them back. Intellectually, Sharpay knew that that would be a good thing. If she could get her life back on track, Kathleen deserved custody of her sons. Emotionally, though, Sharpay was fighting devastation. The one thing she'd been telling herself for the past few days was that she shouldn't become attached. She couldn't help herself.

What did she tell him? That his mother was in jail? Did she tell him they had found his mother, but leave out the jail part? If she left out the jail part, what would she tell him when he asked if he could see his mother?

Sharpay took a deep breath and looked straight into Andy's eyes. "They're working on it, honey. They do know that she's safe."

Andy gripped her hand more tightly. "Are you sure that she's okay?"

Sharpay nodded. "I wouldn't tell you anything that wasn't true."

"Okay." And Andy believed her.

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Troy had emerged from the guest bedroom after telling the final story (Zac had fallen asleep during it) and sprawled on the couch, waiting for Sharpay to call. He was too tired to open his eyes, and Kevin was quiet. It wasn't until Troy sat up to call the hospital himself that he noticed the little figure in the doorway.

Troy smiled blearily. "How long have you been there, buddy?"

Kevin shrugged. "I couldn't sleep." For the first time all day, his eyes met Troy's. "Have you heard anything at all about my mother?"

Troy swallowed. He'd gotten a phone call from the social worker that had been highly similiar to the one Sharpay had received, and it had raised the same questions in his mind. He thought for a moment, wondering how to phrase this.

"C'mere, Kev." Troy moved over to make room on the couch. Tentatively, Kevin sat down next to him, apprehensively intertwining his fingers. Troy felt overwhelmed. He decided he'd forget any 'I am an adult, you are a child, so you'd better listen to me even though I'm lying' pretension. He thought Kevin would probably see through it.

"I don't want to tell you this, Kevin. I think you need to know, because I don't want to lie to you, okay?"

Kevin stiffened. "Okay. . ."

"Because. . . " Troy sighed. "Listen, Kev, I will never lie to you. Ever. You deserve to know the truth about what's going on, and if I didn't think you could handle what I'm about to tell you, I wouldn't say anything to you. Okay?"

"Okay," Kevin agreed, hardly hearing what Troy was telling him. Oh my God, he was thinking. Something awful happened. She's dead or something.

"They found your mother," Troy told him. "She's all right."

"Thank God," Kevin murmured, before he thought the better of it.

Troy put his arm around Kevin's shoulders. "Yeah, that's the good news. But Kev? She left the three of you, and put you guys in a dangerous situation."

"We were okay," Kevin defended.

Troy didn't have it in him to argue. "Yeah, but most kids wouldn't be. So they have laws that deal with parents who go away and leave their kids. Kev, they had to take her to jail, and she'll probably be there for a little while."

Kevin drew a long, shaky breath. He didn't say anything.

Troy put an arm around his shoulders. "They're going to help her make a plan to get her life back together. So that she can take care of you guys. She'll probably have to go to drug rehab, and work with some counselors who'll help her. If she agrees to do those things, they'll let her out, and, after she does them, you can probably go back and live with her."

Kevin actually felt a bit relieved. At least his mother was off the streets. At least someone was keeping an eye on her. "So she won't be in jail for, like, the next twenty years?"

"Of course not," Troy told him. "They're going to help her, and maybe she won't feel like she has to leave again. Because when someone goes away like that, it usually means that they need help."

"My father left us," Kevin mused, half to himself. "Before Zac was born, even. And I don't think anything happened to him."

Troy didn't really know what to say to that. It was certainly a valid point. "I don't know why some people can get away with leaving, while other people can't."

"My father said he was coming back, though," Kevin told Troy. "When he left, he said he'd come back."

"Maybe he thought that he would." Troy chose his words carefully. He didn't want to instill false hope, but he didn't want to burst any of Kevin's bubbles, either. "It's hard to know why people go away." Shoot, he thought. I sound like Mr. Rogers.

"He said he'd call sometimes," Kevin continued, a faraway expression in his eyes. "Like on my birthday or something." He was quiet for a moment. "He never did, though."

"I don't cry any more," Kevin finally told him, his eyes dark and unreadable. "He's never coming back." He looked up at Troy. "If your father doesn't call you on your birthday, you shouldn't feel bad." He glanced down at his hands, thinking.

Troy held Kevin a little more tightly. He didn't say anything, waiting.

"You know, I was kind of hoping that he would call this year." A small, faraway smile played at the corners of Kevin's mouth, and Troy wondered if he knew he was speaking aloud. "I waited and waited all day, kind of thinking that maybe he'd remember this year. But he didn't." He took a deep breath, absently picking at a cuticle. "I thought maybe, if my father didn't call, my mother might come home. Or she might call, even, if she remembered that it was my birthday."

Troy nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

Kevin drew his legs up to his chest, his bare feet resting on the edge of the sofa cushion. He wrapped his arms around himself, resting his chin on his knees. "But she didn't. And I mean, not that it's important or anything, but I kind of wished one of them would. Because I knew I wasn't getting any presents or anything, and I didn't care about that. I just wished my dad would keep his promise."

"Yeah," Troy agreed. He was angry, all of the sudden, deeply saddened and filled with wonderment. Kevin didn't sound bitter about any of that. Just. . . wistful. God, Troy thought. No wonder he can't trust anyone.

"Anyway," Kevin finished, "A lot of people's parents forget about them." This fact was, Troy sensed, was supposed to be reassuring. "It probably wasn't anything they did. I mean, I know my parents left because of me, because I ruined their lives."

Troy was really angry now. "Who told you that?" he demanded, trying to keep the rage out of his voice.

"My mother," Kevin told him. "But I would have known it anyway."

"Why?" Troy asked.

"Because she had me when she was too young," Kevin told him. "And she didn't really love my father. And I was a mistake. So I pretty much wrecked her life."

"Is that what she told you?" Troy asked him.

Kevin nodded.

"She was wrong," Troy told him. "She was completely wrong, Kev. There's no such thing as a mistake."

"She didn't want me, though," Kevin pointed out.

"Maybe she didn't think she did," Troy told him, "but you were definitely one of the best things that ever happened to her."

"How do you know that?" Kevin asked.

"Didn't I tell you I would never tell you a lie?" Troy asked.

Kevin thought about this. "Yeah, but if she didn't have me, she wouldn't have had to live with my father, and have two more kids, and she wouldn't leave."

"Yeah. . ." Troy told him, "but she'd have no reason to come back." He squeezed his eyes shut, sensing the inadequacy of his answer.

Kevin bit his lip. "She says I'm too much like him."

"Like who?" Troy asked. "Your father?"

"Yeah." Kevin agreed. "She says I look like him and I talk like him, and that I'm probably going to leave as soon as I can. Like he did." He blinked hard a few times. "But I wouldn't leave, really." He paused. "Sometimes, though, I wish I could."

"It must be hard for you," Troy observed, wondering if he was helping at all.

"Don't tell anyone I told you that, okay?" Kevin asked. "Because I never really would leave. But sometimes I wish that I lived someplace else, and I didn't have all of these people who counted on me for everything all the time." He smiled. "Andy and Zac think I know everything. But I really don't."

"They really look up to you," Troy agreed.

Kevin nodded, still smiling that distant smile. "Yeah. The other day, we were walking down the street and there was this dead cat by the side of the road? Like that had been hit by a car? And, I mean, it was really dead. Really dead. And Andy said 'I wish we had a cat.' And I said, 'That cat's dead, you don't want it.' And then, he said that he really did want a cat, and Zac said, 'don't worry, Andy, Kevin will fix it and we can bring it home.' They both thought that it was a great idea, and they start saying 'fix it, fix it!' They didn't believe me when I told them that I couldn't. In fact, Andy told Zac that I didn't feel like fixing it because we didn't have any money to get cat food!" He grinned, remembering. "But I can't bring dead things back to life, not for real. And there are a lot of other things I can't do. But they don't believe me. It's like having two kids."

"That must get hard," Troy observed, gently.

Kevin blinked, confused. "No, not really."

"It doesn't?" Troy was a bit incredulous.

"Yeah. . . I just wish I knew what to tell them." Kevin began to retreat back into himself. "Because they ask so many questions, and I don't know the answers to most of them. And I really would fix that cat for him, if I could. We'd find some way to feed it, I guess. Because. . ." Kevin hugged himself more tightly, thinking hard. "Because I want to be able to say yes when one of them wants something. And I wish I could do so much more than I already am. I know that I could take care of us, even if my mom can't." He sighed hugely. "I wish people would believe me about that. Because grown-ups think they know everything, but they don't."

Troy felt helpless. "I know what you mean, buddy. Grown-ups don't always know as much as they think."

Kevin nodded, then glanced up at Troy and abruptly changed the subject. "I meant to tell you thank you for getting us those Ninja Turtles today."

Troy smiled, wondering what this meant. Did Kevin no longer see him as an adult? "Oh, you're welcome. It was a birthday present."

"Because. . ." Kevin thought for a moment, deciding whether or not he was going to say it. "Because nobody ever gave me anything that way before. And so it surprised me, kind of." He yawned. "Thank you."

Troy racked his brain, thinking of some way to express all that he wanted to tell Kevin. "You're welcome," he managed. "It wasn't anything big, really. It's nice that you're so polite about it, though." He grinned. "Maybe we should do it more often."

Kevin looked startled. For the life of him, he could not figure this Troy Bolton guy out.

"That's okay," he assured him. "I think one Ninja Turtle'll last me awhile."

Troy could have laughed, cried or hugged him. Instinctively, though, he knew that Kevin wasn't ready to be touched just yet. "We'll see," he said. "You might change your mind."

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I swear it, I swear it, there will be some Troypay in the next chapter. But the thing is, is that this story is more about what it takes to make a family and what family really means than Troy and Sharpay's romance. And if that's all you really want to read, then I'm sorry, but this is not the story for you. That said, I really hope everyone continues to read this, because I'm really proud of this.

Tell me what you think!

margaret