The Many Roads of Revenge

by BurrowsBoy92

Lincoln and Michael are free from the Company hands and decide to live normal lives. However, they are soon delved in the drama of saving a kid from the mafia. Please Read & Review! Criticism is welcome! :D

9. Chapter 17 through 20

Chapter 17: Alex's Time to Shine

My name is Alexander Mahone. I was the FBI agent who went after the Fox River Eight after being forcefully bribed by the Company to acquire and kill each of the members. I was successful in killing three of them, while one was set free. I became obsessed with catching Michael Scofield and his brother, Lincoln Burrows in that time. It brought me to so many places, New Mexico, Utah, Illinois, and even Panama, where I was arrested and jailed in the deadliest prison known to man, Sona. Since Sona, I finally realized that I wanted to get away from all of this, get away from the Company. But I knew that there was no way for me to get away unless I got rid of them. So I worked with the enemy I longed to kill, Michael Scofield. With me as the inside man, I got information out to him and together, along with Lincoln Burrows, Veronica Donovan, Sara Tancredi, Fernando Sucre, and LJ Burrows, we brought down the Company fully. I was exonerated of my crimes by the new President of the United States, President Emmett Cullen. Thanks to him, I managed to successfully go back to Colorado to see my family again and apologize for my actions. Michael Scofield, one of the greatest men of our time, was the one who had wished me luck. My family and I relocated to Chicago for a job that my wife was offered. I haven't told Michael or his brother, Lincoln yet. But I have been following their story. Now I'm involved in helping them from the inside yet again. It's my time to shine yet again.

*---*

It's been weeks since that first journal entry. I've been contacting my wife, Pam, back and forth, asking if she's holding up well in Chicago with Cameron, my little son. They've clarified that they're doing well and it's been killing me with this job I'm volunteered to do. But anything to help a good friend like Michael is worth it in my opinion and Pam thinks so too. I haven't bothered contacting him still because I know he has enough on his mind with taking care of that new kid, Jake Sienel, with Lincoln. It warms my heart to the fullest to know that Lincoln is trying to be a father to him as well as Michael, being the uncle.

"Hey! What are you doing over there Carl?" The man across from me asked.

"I'm just minding my own business here Kington. Go back to work. I'll be back to helping out soon. I'm still on my damn break." I said in a southern accent.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Jurell Sienel is the mob boss of the Kyubor "Insurance" Company. I know that there's something deeper behind the Kyubor Mafia. If I can just uncover something soon, maybe I can relay this information to Michael. I've been working with Agent Lang from the outside. She seems to like working under me since our time chasing after the Fox River Eight. I asked her about it and all she said was that she needed to work with someone with a lot of experience and that I could give that to her. I shrugged when she said that but I didn't mind. I liked Agent Lang. She's very dependable.

Of course, being exonerated and then working for the FBI again had its downside. Agent Wheeler and Agent Sullens have been on my ass since I've started working again. They've been waiting for me to slip up. I've paid no mind to it.

Researching on Jurell though, was pretty interesting. I have never felt weirder than the life he grew up with and then how he forcefully imposed it on his son and then got rid of his wife. Lang said that there was a Private Investigator, Archie Ryan. I couldn't help but laugh at the name because it was the same one that was on Lincoln's fake passport a couple months ago. Anyways, Archie has been working with Samantha Keeley, Jake's mother, and located Jake herself. Lang contacted Archie and asked for whatever information he had from Samantha. I had to same story that was told to Michael so there was no point in relaying the same information from him. It's been hard working for these people though. They're practical slave drivers. They said that it was what they were told to do by the head himself. So I guess being a total ass runs in the family, well I couldn't say the same for Jake Sienel.

Agent Lang has been keeping tabs on the situation with the boy. She talks with a man called Simon Tulley and apparently, they've been dating. I guess I'm glad that my agent is finding happiness with another man rather than me since I love my wife and I couldn't bear to love anyone else besides her and my son, Cameron. To get back on topic in my head, Lang said that recently, there was an attack on the school that Jake and LJ were attending. I was about to run in there until I heard from her again that Michael, Lincoln, and apparently, Sucre, were the ones who went into the school and rescued them.

After that, I heard news about Jake's disappearance yet again. I felt bad for the poor kid. Almost felt like running up to Lincoln and knocking him in that head of his for what he said to the poor boy. I only got the news from Lang, who got it from Simon. But I later got a report from Lang again that Lincoln located Jake, rescued him, and the two of them managed to get two more of the mafia arrested. Maybe I should hire Lincoln to work under me. But that idea is dim-witted since the man still hates me for killing his father, which I have regretted dearly since I parted with Michael. I want him to forgive me and bring up a stronger friendship between me and the whole family.

Since then, after that phone call to the police, I've been in that warehouse, trying to locate Samantha Keeley and rescue her while keeping myself hidden as one of the mafia workers. Finally its early morning and I knew that the police would act soon to surround the building, so now is the time, the time to shine yet again.

"Yo man! Come on! Get to work you lazy buffoon!" The boss of mine was yelling at me again.

I sighed and closed my journal. "Alright I'm on it!" I yelled back in a rough southern accent.

Acting is just terrible. It's easier to be myself, cool to be me flake. I chuckled at the thought and got back to work.

*---*

Lifting cargo is a pain in the neck, literally. My boss has been on my butt and I wonder what it would be like if he crossed paths with Agent Sullens. I could imagine it now, the two of them yelling at each other trying to tell one another to do something. I sighed and finally got my break again. This time, I'm going to locate Samantha now.

"Hold up!" Another one of the workers yelled. "We have a hostage that we need to bring in here!"

Yes! It was her! Finally! Maybe this'll be easier done than said for a change. I walked over to see who the hostage was. Everyone stopped what they were doing, even the bosses. They didn't care that no one was working. They wanted to see who the hostage was. These people were the true mafia, not the unsuspecting people who didn't know that they were working for the mafia.

They pulled out a chair with a woman strapped into it. She had blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and almost a face carved by the angels. She was gagged and her hair was a mess. I could see tears in her eyes and dreaded the fact of what these men are capable of. Everything went in my mind to the possibilities of what the mafia did to her. It ranged from rape to abuse and everything in between. All the men were cheering on the people bringing her in.

"Yeah! Hey honey! How about we have a little go in the bathroom?" A man with a rough voice yelled.

"Strip her off!" Another man yelled. Everyone was cheering them on and it was hard to keep my calm self down and not take out my gun and shoot these people.

They people bringing her in didn't listen to their orders as they had orders from above that no one could harm her or touch her. I was relieved by the fact that they did that. They brought her in and moved her up several floors in the warehouse. I tailed them quietly in the shadows, making sure no one saw me as I disappeared from my work.

*---*

Tailing the men wasn't hard, but keeping in the shadows to avoid being seen was a more difficult feat than intended. It was a good thing that I learned how to stay calm in situations from my training in the special ops. After reaching the floor they set her in; I looked around to see what they were wearing, the people who were guarding her. All of them wore black leather jackets and some wore sunglasses. Two men stood beside Samantha, guarding her while she put her head down to avoid showing any signs of pain or agony.

I stood in the shadows, waiting for an unsuspecting guard to walk by. It didn't take too long. A guard walked by and I grabbed him by the mouth and knocked him out swiftly. I've taken it upon me to not kill anyone because I didn't want it on my conscience anymore. Not that hurting anyone was any better, but I'd say it was a step down from killing. I took his leather jacket and his sunglasses. I put them on and fixed my hair a little bit so I looked different from the man who was supposed to be working downstairs.

I walked up to the two men guarding her. It looked like everyone around went on a break so that was a relief.

"Hey, why don't you two guys take a break? I'll watch over her." I suggested to the two men.

They shrugged. "Why not? I'm not being paid as much as I should be anyways so I'm going to take advantage of every break I can take." The guard without sunglasses on the left said.

The guard on the right looked at me. "You know, you look very familar."

Oh shit. I hope he doesn't recognize me. I prayed in my head and hoped to god that he doesn't put a finger on me. "Nah. There's no way you could've portrayed that Alexander Mahone guy." He chuckled and put his hand on my shoulder. "Relax man. You look like you're about to shit yourself."

I faked a chuckle. "Well you got me good!" I said in a cheery voice. Thank god they didn't really think I was who I was.

"Hey, let's go man. I want to get something to eat at Mickey D's (McDonalds)." The man on the left suggested.

"Alright, let's go." The two of them walked away, which left me and Samantha in the room.

Samantha looked straight at the ground.

"Your son is alive." I reassured her, breaking the silence.

Her head picked up and she stared at me. I took off my sunglasses and she instantly knew who I was.

"Alexander Mahone!" She yelled in excitement.

"Shhh." I hissed. "Don't be so loud. You'll blow my cover." I whispered.

"Sorry." She whispered back.

I went back and cut the ropes that held her. She stood up, fixed her hair, and then looked at me again.

"Thank you." She whispered back. "Now Jake is really alright?"

"Yes he is. I have an agent on the outside who's working with me. She's been keeping tabs on Lincoln and his family. Jake is still with them. I won't go into details. We need to get out of here. There will be another set of guards coming back soon."

She nodded and followed me to the stairs. We started walking down the steps and her legs started trembling. We only got down one flight of steps when I suggested that we needed to take a break to calm down her nerves.

She chuckled and took the suggestion. We sat on the turning point of the flight of stairs.

"So, why are you helping me out?" She asked in a curious tone.

"Well. After my family and I relocated to Chicago, I was trying to find out where Michael was currently residing. Then I came across the story about what they were doing. They got involved against the mafia thanks to that son of yours."

Her eyes narrowed at me. I was stunned and quickly said "not that your son did anything bad." I put my hands up in the air and acted defensively.

She laughed and I couldn't help but join in. "It's okay. I was kidding. But how is he doing?"

"Well thanks to what his father had his people do, Jake's left leg has been casted for two to three months. That explosion in the school nearly killed him and LJ." Her eyes started to despair. "But they're okay for now. The school is totaled but it'll only be a matter of time before it goes back up."

"Thank you." She said. "Thank you for helping me and letting me know what's going on with my son."

"I'm just curious." I started. "I already know that Lincoln loves Jake like another son, but how are you going to deal with him being around you all the time and-"

"I already told Lincoln I'm not getting in the way of their custodial hearing."

I was dazed by what she said. Why would she just hand the reins over to someone else? I mean I haven't been in Cameron's life for awhile until now, well not really now since I haven't been home in weeks, but still, I couldn't begin to fathom why she would just let someone else have her son.

"I know what you're thinking. But it's for the best. Jake would be able to be with the family he loves the most, but I'll still be able to be in his life. That's not exactly as I planned it. But it's a plan nonetheless. I just want him to be happy and I know he'll be happy with Lincoln."

Not as reassuring as I hoped, but I knew how serious Lincoln took his family. He would go to the ends of the Earth to protect them and I could probably say the same about Michael. I sighed. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah. I'm better now." She smiled and then stood up. We started walking down the stairs for a few minutes when the alarm went off.

"Damn it!" I yelled. "Come on! We need to get down to the first floor as quick as possible." She gave me her hand and I took it. We got to the bottom of the stairs and I shoved open the door. I noticed that we weren't on the first floor, but on the third floor.

"Is this the first floor?" Samantha quickly asked.

"No. But I know the way down. Come with me!"

We rushed across the floor until someone spotted us. I was edging for my handgun but then I stopped myself. My conscience was getting the better of me and I felt like that was a blessing. We ran as gunfire was shooting behind us. We managed to get to the other stairs and we dashed down this swiftly. We avoided hanging on the inside of the stairwell. But the time things passed, we were on the first floor.

It didn't take awhile until we were surrounded. Our hands were up. I could feel the stress going to my head and the only way out of it was to use my handgun. I was about to reach for it until I heard a familiar voice from behind me. In a second, everyone else was surrounded. We were safe.

"Put your hands up and don't move." Lang said coolly.

All of the men surrounding us were disarmed almost immediately and I was relieved that I could live another day without killing another man.

*---*

I was outside with Agent Lang. We were hanging around the area for a bit before we decided to depart.

"So… how much information did you get this time?" She asked.

I sighed. "None. But I managed to get Jake's mother out of there."

"Yes you did. Uh…" She started. "I really have no idea how to break this to you… but…"

"But what?" I was bemused by what she was trying to say. What is it that she could want to tell me? "Did something happen to Pam or Cameron?"

"No sir… but…" She was overwhelmed by her thoughts. What I would do to be able to read minds.

"Come on Lang. Out with it." I demanded.

"Jake is on his way here. With Lincoln Burrows and Michael Scofield."

My eyes widened. The thought of running into the brothers again was petrifying. I stood there with my eyes opened, wondering what could happen now.

"I'm sorry Alex. I tried to explain to them that they should wait until she was in the hospital. But Lincoln wouldn't budge. One thing led to another and I yielded. Do you want to get in a car and drive away before they get here?"

Should I run away? Should I get away from meeting with Lincoln? Meeting with Michael again was one thing that I really wasn't afraid of, but what about Lincoln? Was revenge still on his mind?

"Sir?" Lang waved her hand in my face. "What do you want to do?"

"I'll stay here and confront them."

She smiled as if she was happy that was the choice. Then her face straightened. "Alright then." It was silent between the two of us until Simon came around.

"Hello Mr. Mahone. Glad to see you made it out in one piece." He said in a casual tone. He takes his hand out.

I shook it. "I'm glad that I can finally go home to my family now that my job here is done."

"Not quite."

I was exasperated by how he said those words. "What else do I have to do? I've been away from my family for weeks. I mean I volunteered for the damn job but I want to go home and spend some time with my son and my wife." I tightened my fist.

"Whoa. Take it easy. You can go home to your family. It's just that we're going to need you to actually show up at the hearing this Saturday. We need you to present the evidence against the Mafia along with Sammie-"

"Sammie?" Lang asks.

"She likes being called Sammie. I heard it from Lincoln or someone."

I sighed. "So we represent the evidence and that's it? I can finally go back to my family and not worry about this?"

"Yes."

Well that was a relief. Just a single hearing and I'm finally off the hook. Now there's just one more thing to take care of.

*---*

It didn't take awhile for them to show up. I was standing right next to the medical van Sammie was being treated in. She sat there next to me.

"I can see that you're worried."

I looked up at her.

"It's easy to tell what a person is feeling for me. I can tell when they're lying most of the time. I can also tell if they're telling the truth. It's a talent I picked up from over the years. And I know you're worried about meeting Lincoln. But pay no mind to it. He'll forgive you, especially since you rescued me."

"How do you know?" I was wondering how well she could read people. I know that you can read people from body language most of the time. I've analyzed body language thoroughly, but sometimes there are things I missed. I wonder how good she was at that.

"Well it doesn't take much to know that someone has a good heart. Lincoln would probably be willing to look past whatever you did in the past. I'm betting he will."

"Well then I'll bet against you."

She smiled and then I smiled. There was something about her. It was like she also brought out the good side in me like Pam did. I could tell that she and I would be good friends in the future.

It didn't take too long until I heard an unfamiliar voice yelling "Sammie!" We both turned in the direction of the voice and we saw a boy in crutches dashing as fast as he could towards us on them.

"Jake!" She jumped off the van with wide open arms. The kid rushed into them and hugged her. She was crying tears of happiness. I smiled for her. She was happy at least. It reminds me of what Cameron did when I came home to Colorado after being exonerated.

-Flashback-

I let out a sigh of happiness as I walked to the front door of Pam's home on a Saturday afternoon. I was hoping that they were home because I never wanted to go back to mine. There was just too many bad memories there, memories that I wanted to expunge from the every corner of my mind.

I took my bags out of the taxi cab trunk and paid him what I owed him.

"Hey, thanks bro! I hope you get what you're looking for here!" The Mexican driver waved to me and drove off.

That son of a bitch reminded me of Sucre, except I actually liked Sucre's company rather than his. During that car ride here, he was just asking question after question that I couldn't help but answer them. I couldn't seem to keep my mouth shut either. Maybe I had an affinity for Spanish speakers these days. I could probably thank Panama for that.

I took a few strides towards the front door of the house. I scrutinized the front yard of hers. It was beautiful. She had rose bushes growing under the windows, green grass, and perfectly trimmed hedges. I was hoping that my obsession for the yard in the past didn't get to her now. The yard reminded of how I wanted to be with her forever. I was apprehensive if she would forgive me for my actions in the past, for what I did to her and Cameron. If she didn't want me to come back, I would leave forever, never looking back.

I sighed then rang the doorbell as I held my luggage in my hand. Here we go…

I waited about 10 seconds and then rang the doorbell again. I was eager to see Cameron and Pam so much that every second felt like hours. Just when I was about to ring the doorbell again, the door opened. And there she stood, my Pamela.

"Alex." She said with a surprised tone. Cameron came running around the corner.

"Dad!!" He yelled with excitement. He dropped the toy in his hand and rushed out the door into my arms. I dropped my luggage and lifted Cameron into my arms. I spun around in happiness as he giggled in my arms. I couldn't help but laugh along with him. I was happy again. I put him down on the ground again but he hugged my leg. Little ankle biter.

"Dad! I missed you so much! Don't leave me again!" He said in his cute, innocent, but happy voice. I picked Cameron up in my arm again and then looked at Pam. She had a straight face. I couldn't tell if she happened to play poker in my absence and was using a poker face.

"You know, I've been tired of waiting for you to come home." She said and then smiled. I put Cameron back down and Pamela rushed into my arms. We kissed on the front porch, pulling away to take short breaths. It was passionate. My lips caressed her lips softly and it never stopped.

"EWWW!" Cameron groaned. Pam and I broke off our lip-locking session as we look down at Cameron. We all laughed and I was glad that everything was going back to normal. At least I hoped it was. But there was that one phrase Michael told me when I was worried about how things were going to go before we parted ways.

"Just have a little faith." He told me. I guess that's all you need in the world these days, faith.

-End Flashback-

Watching both Jake and Samantha embrace one another was one more heartwarming experience for me. But then came the hard part that brought an end to the energy. Michael and Lincoln were standing across from me. I had no idea how Lincoln was going to react and I could bet that Michael was going to give me a "welcome back to Chicago and nice to meet you again" handshake.

Michael approached me first and stood in front of me. He gave me his hand and I shook it.

"Nice to meet you again Alex. And welcome back to Chicago." He smiled and I was feeling relieved that I knew someone else who would be residing here. And I also felt good to be right in my assumptions.

Then it was quiet. There was almost an ominous feeling to the air when Lincoln and I first locked in one another's vision. What was he planning? What was he going to do? Is he going to give me a beat-down for killing his father? Michael forgave me for that, at least I think he did, or he looked past it, but Lincoln hasn't come close to forgiving me. I guess I do deserve to get beat up. I'll just have to make sure no one arrests him.

Michael, Samantha, and Jake were looking at the two of us. Lincoln walked over to me. It was completely quiet, almost as if everyone was watching. But it couldn't have been that quiet since there were a lot of people moving in the background.

We looked into each other's eyes for a moment. I couldn't tell if Lincoln was trying to find something, like a fault in me, something that he could use as an excuse other than the death of his father to argue with me. I didn't know if I could flinch at all. Then all of a sudden, he took his hand out. I was skeptical about shaking it, but I did anyways. He half-smiled.

"Thanks Mahone. You saved Jake's mom and I'm grateful for that. But don't think that I've forgiven you for killing my father just yet. That's something that's going to take some time. Michael may have forgiven you-"

"I haven't forgiven him for killing Aldo, Linc. But I'm looking past that at the man who is capable of being a good friend to us." Michael interrupted as if he was trying to defend himself from what Lincoln was saying.

"Yeah, okay Michael. Anyways, consider this a mutual friendship. No bad energy or anything. Maybe, just maybe, I'll forget the past. But don't hold me to it. I'm still angry that you killed him, but I won't be angry at you anymore. So consider this a blessing and count it." He said with a straight face and tone. I knew he was no longer angry at me and he didn't beat me up, so that was a blessing indeed.

"Looks like it's a tie Alex." Samantha said from a distance. Lincoln walked over to her and Jake and started talking. Michael approached me.

"So, how did everything go with your wife?" He asked rhetorically like he knew that everything was alright.

"Everything's great Michael. Pamela forgave my erratic actions in the past and we're living together like a happy family again. We've relocated over here to Chicago because she had a job here as the journalist for the Chicago Newspaper. Cameron attends Wentworthville Elementary School."

"That's great man." Michael said with a low, cheery voice. "So why are you involved with the whole mafia case? I mean I'm assuming you are since you rescued Sammie."

"Well, to tell you the truth, I've been sort of following your guys' story through Agent Lang, Archie Ryan, and Simon Tulley. I knew that there was a problem rising with the Kyubor Insurance Company so I got involved and found out a lot of things. I pretty much know as much as you do, except I know how they treat their workers."

"So you knew that Lincoln is going to adopt Jake?"

"Yeah. Samantha-"

"She likes to be called Sammie." Michael interrupted again.

"Right, Sammie. I first questioned the reason as to why she would literally hand over her 14 year old son over to Lincoln. But then she told me that she didn't feel like she had the right to as she never was in his life that much. Lincoln was in his life more and she felt that he was the one who would be better for Jake. I'm still baffled as to why she'll still handle him over to Lincoln, not that there's anything wrong with Lincoln. But I could see what she means." Both of them look over at Lincoln and Jake. They could see that they were getting real close like father and son, just as it was with Lincoln and LJ. They were laughing and talking with Sammie as she went through the funnier parts of her life for the past 14 years. Lincoln kept his hand on Jake's shoulder and Jake put his head against the side of his chest.

"Lincoln would be a great father to Jake. Sammie would still be involved in his life too. I'm assuming that that's her plan."

"That is her plan. She wants Jake to be a Burrows, but she still wants to be involved in his life. She loves Jake and she knows that his happiness lies with Lincoln and LJ."

I chuckled at the thought of Lincoln taking care of another teenager. I knew Jake was graduating the same year as LJ but I also knew of Jake's capabilities. He'd be indispensible to the government for his talents. I looked at them again and I could see such a similarity in Jake to Lincoln and Michael. "Unbelievable."

"What?"

"I can see such a similarity between you and Lincoln with the kid. It's almost as if he never was a Sienel or a future mob boss. He looked more of a Burrows and Scofield. Brains, partial to good looks, strong mind, and even courage to do things that's right. So much like the two of you. If I didn't know his back story, I probably couldn't tell that Lincoln adopted him."

Michael laughed. "Well you probably got that one right again. You remember LJ right?"

"Yeah I do."

"Well Jake and LJ are too alike in many ways. Almost as if LJ met his long lost twin from another part of the world. You see, LJ is smart and also has the Burrows charm. He also has the traits that you described about Jake. The only big differences I could see in those two are the age difference, and maybe which one gets in trouble more."

"Oh right. LJ was arrested for the possession of pot and Jake was arrested seven times for stealing food, plus one more arrest for hacking into the government database. I was more surprised that the Company didn't get him when he did. Kid's lucky to have you guys and you're even luckier to have him."

There was a silence between the two of us until Michael decided to break it and join the conversation between Sammie, Jake, and Lincoln. I followed because I was interested in what the three of them could be laughing about. So I listened for about a good five minutes, laughed at some parts. It felt damn near uncomfortable with me and Lincoln laughing at the same parts. It was like two people of the same polarity near each other and pushing one another away. I guess it would take some getting used to with me and Lincoln. But at least he and I are trying.

"Hey Jake." I broke the conversation up for a bit. Everyone was silent and then looked at me.

"If you're ever looking for a job after graduating, I'd be glad to take you under my wing if you're willing to work for the FBI. Your talents in computers and all could be indispensible for my team."

Jake was surprised and his eyes opened wide. I guess he wasn't expecting that the FBI would hire a juvenile junkie. I could already tell that he'd have a hard time getting into a college or finding a job for that matter. Wiping the record clean is a tough thing, although everyone who was with us that day in front of the president was lucky to be exonerated of our crimes and our records be wiped clean. It was a brand new slate for us and we didn't want to screw it up.

"Uh… well…" He started to stagger in his sentence. He chuckles out of embarrassment as his face blushes a slightly red shade. "I'm sorry. I wasn't really anticipating that I'd get a job with the FBI after I graduated college with my record and all."

I could tell that he's finding it hard to take in everything all at once. The FBI would be more confused as to why I would hire an eight-time convicted juvenile junkie. I knew it'd take some explaining to do but it would be worth it. The kid is good.

"I think you should take it." Lincoln suggested. I was surprised Lincoln actually agreed along with me. That felt good on my back.

"Are you serious though? I mean my track record isn't exactly squeaky-clean. I already knew I was probably going to get a whack job after school ended." Jake asked as he was bewildered.

"If you really think I'm lying, how about I hire you now?" Jake's eyes widened more and then I had to resist laughing otherwise they'd think that I was a joke.

"Well… uh…"

"He'll take it Alex." Lincoln said for Jake.

"What?"

"Look kiddo, you're only get a once in a lifetime chance like this. Take the job. At least you'll have something to do rather than sitting around the house with LJ playing video games. The both of you would be hogging the TV when there could be a good game running on it."

Michael laughed. "So you're telling us that you want Jake to take the job because you want to hog the TV in case a football game comes up?"

"Well there's more to that. Maybe LJ might get bored and find a job to stall himself as well. But speaking of jobs… will this actually conflict with school and sports?"

"Nope. Not at all. School comes first. We can probably compromise a bit on the sports and work though. I'm a little bit easier now these days since, well, you know."

Lincoln smiled. "That's great man. Thanks." He shook my hand again. I guess that pretty much bridged some distortion between us. Not to mention that I finally have a better computer expert on my team along with Agent Lang and a few other operatives. I wonder how bad I'd get it from the guys up. Oh well. It couldn't be any worse than what I had to endure from the past four months.

*---*

It was approaching night again as I parted ways with Michael and Lincoln again. Sammie was taken to a nearby hospital, the Swedish Covenant Hospital. It was the very one that Jake and LJ were admitted to several times in the past. I gave my address and number to Michael, Lincoln, and Sammie. I also gave Lincoln the address of my new office. Jake looked pretty excited that he's getting a job with the FBI. So I'm great that that's happening. But now it's time for me to join my family again.

I drove into the car garage of our new home. It was a good thing that our house was sort of on the outskirts of Chicago. I wouldn't have wanted Cameron to have to walk to school in the city. The very thought of that made me want to actually get him his own chauffer to make sure he would get to school on time and home safely. But he gets to catch the school bus so that's one worry off my back.

It's been three weeks since I've been home and I'm wondering if Pam is thinking that I'm ditching on the family again. God I hope not because I couldn't stand not being here day by day.

I walked up to the front door and then knocked on it. It took only a second this time because I saw Cameron looking out his window when I walked on the pathway. I could hear his footsteps rushing down the steps.

"Cam, slow down!" I yelled from outside. "I don't want you hurting yourself bud!"

I knew he ignored me because by the time I finished yelling, he pulled the door open and rushed into my arms again. I kissed him on the forehead as he giggled in my arm. Pam put down what she was cooking and ran to the front door. She let me through and I put my briefcase on the sofa. We kissed passionately again but it was shorter this time. She had to get back to cooking. I went upstairs to our room and put my briefcase on the desk and then took off my jacket.

After doing so, I walked back downstairs to help Pam with the cooking. She was making spaghetti this time, Cam's favorite.

"I had a feeling you were coming home today so I knew that maybe I'd cook Cam's favorite in celebration that you're coming home since you've been away for three weeks."

"Ah, so you've been watching the news."

"Actually, I've asked Lang to tell me everything since I knew that you'd be undercover or something. She was happy enough to comply and give me the story. I didn't bother writing it down because I knew that it would be bad to actually put this in the newspaper. But she called and told me that you were off the hook already and that you just had to go to a hearing on Saturday to present some evidence with the victim."

"So do you know the whole story or just what news about me?"

"Uh just about you. Why?"

I took the time to explain everything that I knew from the first day of the week that I had to go to the end of the three weeks. I brought up Michael and Lincoln's part in this as well as their family.

"Oh wow. I didn't know that all that happened this week." She was surprised as she started putting the spaghetti on the plate. "That poor boy. I'm really glad that he's with…"

"Lincoln."

"Right, Lincoln. So that means you ran into them today?"

"Yes. And Michael and I got back to being good friends and I think I became friends with Lincoln. Not too sure after the whole story I told you about in New Mexico. But he seemed to be glad that I offered to take his son under my wing for the FBI."

"I hope you know what you're doing Alex. Wait, that was stupid of me. Of course you do! You're hiring someone who could help you with everything."

I chuckled and then kissed her on the lips. I took the plate of spaghetti and let Cameron help me set the table for dinner.

*---*

Dinner was great and I was happy being with my family again. I helped Pam wash the dishes after eating and we talked a little bit more before she got tired and went to sleep. I followed her to the room about fifteen minutes later and saw that she was asleep. I went into the bathroom to wash my face off and change into nightwear and morning clothes. I sat on the bed for a bit and then lied down. Things are finally going back to normal and I'm glad too. I haven't seen normal for days and I think I've earned it. I sighed and then drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 18: The Hearing

On Friday, Lincoln took Jake to Alex's work place to begin his internship as the junior computer technician; the job Alex had promised him the day they found Sammie. It was unnerving for him to be there, surrounded by so many feds that had, for so long, been working against him. It was uncomfortable for him, to say the least, feeling as though their eyes were always trained on him; waiting to arrest him for some heinous crime he hadn't committed.

But he continued going around Alex's place, wanting to ensure Jake was safely with Alex before he left him for the day.

Jake was feeling more than a little nervous on his first day, afraid he may stuff up and give Alex reason to regret hiring him. However, after Alex had him show off his skills to the rest of the team in his office, his fears subsided and his confidence soared. He could see how excited Alex was as he showed off his skills to the rest of the team, who had been more than a little skeptical with his arrival.

Alex was laughing from the inside as Jake put his computer team down in the ground and in shame, teaching them a thing or two about computers when they thought they knew it all already. He could see, too, how much Jake enjoyed being there; enjoyed putting his talents to use and showing those people who'd been highly trained in that area of expertise that he was good enough to be there. There were still people who were wondering, however, what Alex was going to do with Jake and how he'd be able to get it past the people ranked higher than him to hire the boy and keep him on. But Alex didn't bother worrying about that, knowing once they'd seen the abilities Jake possessed, they'd be practically begging him to join the team. And so he watched on silently, all the while a huge grin plastered across his face as though his very own Cameron was the one in the hot seat and not Jake.

After Lincoln dropped off Jake, he went back home and sat with LJ; the two of them watching the Olympics together, cheering every once in a while and yelling at the box. Michael and Sara had been called down to the bank again. They had no idea what was going on but Michael had a huge feeling that it was for the firm he was setting up. He had his plan about letting Lincoln and Sucre in so that they'd have a job to their name as well as pay. Sara also went along because she was still looking for a job at certain hospitals. One of the ones that came up was the Swedish Covenant Hospital, where Nikki was. The only problem with the job was it was a little way across town from where she and Michael had decided to live. She didn't dismiss the offer entirely, having not yet to found a hospital or even a medical centre that had offered her a job better than the one the Swedish Covenant had.

Veronica went back to her law firm to tie together the last of the loose ends for the hearing against the mafia. Alex and Sammie went along with Veronica to officially present their evidence against the Kyubor Mafia and sign the documents that would ensure Jurell be put away for the crimes he'd committed. Jake was also taken along, having more recent information about the mafia and also because Alex had promised Lincoln not to leave Jake alone in the office no matter what the reason. He had a feeling the computer techs weren't too pleased being outsmarted by a teenager, and so that too had a hand in the decision to bring him along.

Lincoln stopped by them with LJ for a while so that they could work some more on the custody hearing for Jake and so that he and LJ could were on the same page when it came to the custodial hearings. It didn't take them more than hour to compile the testimonies and Lincoln was more than confident with their chances of gaining custody of Jake.

After that, during dinner, Lincoln and Veronica both agreed to having their friends over at the apartment for fun and to reminiscence in the friendships they've gained and the good things that have happened recently and in the past. More friendships and bonds were created that same night. Veronica, Maricruz, and Sara all got to know Alex's wife, Pamela, and Sammie well. LJ and Jake played around with Cameron who was a crazy little ankle biter.

Although Alex had to pull him away from hugging Jake's casted leg frequently; Cameron loves hugging legs for some reason. Alex and Sucre became fast friends as they explained their motives in the past and why they did the things they did. Lincoln and Alex also chatted about what went down in work and Lincoln couldn't help but laugh at his worker's expense. Alex told him how he was considering firing his computer team and then keeping Jake because no one would be able to keep up with Jake.

When the night was getting late, everyone decided that they'd go for a walk before heading out to go to sleep for tomorrow's big day. Jake was talking with LJ as they walked ahead of everyone. LJ felt a little jealous that Jake was already being useful, but he paid no mind to it when Alex said that he wanted LJ to work under Lang to be an agent. LJ laughed at the idea, but decided that it might be a good thing to be a good agent and also to be there if Jake needed it. So Lincoln would have to take the two of them to and from work. But he didn't mind. That means that LJ and Jake would both be working diligently because he knew he was going to have work soon with Michael and Sucre. Sara, Veronica, Maricruz, Sammie, and Pamela were all debating what they should call Maricruz's baby. They all decided that if it was a boy, it would be Fernando Jr., and if it was a girl, it would be Florina. But the way these girls were talking was as if they were in high school again. The guys had a hard time keeping up with what they were saying and they eventually gave up and went to talking to one another. Cameron, on the other hand, raced ahead with LJ and Jake to go on the swings in the park. They had fun until the rest of the group caught up.

After the walk, everyone went back to their own homes, leaving the Burrows and Scofield family to clean up the mess in the apartment. The younger boys went to bed early to rest their bodies and to be up early in the morning for the hearing. The rest of the family followed soon after.

*---*

Everyone woke up early in the morning and ate accordingly. After that, it was a pretty smooth hour with everyone going in and out of the bathroom to dress up. Jake was the last one to come out and he looked irritated at best.

"How in the hell do you guys stand wearing these suits? It's too nice for me. I thought I was just going in a polo and a pair of Dickies." Jake sounded nearly exasperated as he fixed his tie in the mirror. Michael came to stand behind him, helping him adjust his tie and straightening out his coat so that it was presentable.

"I don't even like wearing my suit either." Lincoln said. "But I had to multiple times when I had to go to those court hearings. It sucks."

"I look snazzy in a suit!" LJ cheerfully said. Jake walks up behind him and whacks him in the back of the head with his hand.

"Yeah… don't get trying to change my mood." Jake said in his still exasperated tone. LJ snarled and was about to hit him in the back of the head as well when Michael and Lincoln pulled them away from each other.

"Alright you two, break it up." Lincoln said.

"Come on Jake. You should be happy about what's about to happen for you!" Sara said. "You're going to be a Burrows."

"Sorry, I'm a little pessimistic when it comes to things that are partially based on chance. And I still hate this suit. Can I just go in a polo and a pair of Dickies?" Jake whimpered.

"No, you can't go in a polo and a pair of Dickies, Jake." Veronica said in her suit that she wore every time she went to her law firm. "This is how you're supposed to dress for hearings and that's how it's going to be like until after the hearing is over. You need to show them that you really do care about what's going on and part of that is to dress accordingly."

Jake groaned. "Okay can we go and get this over with? I want to change out of these already."

Lincoln chuckled. "Alright, let's go before he decides to go werewolf on us and rips his suit off."

Everyone besides Jake laughed. "Haha. Very funny dad. If I do become a werewolf, I'm targeting you first. So don't you forget it." Jake sarcastically said.

After Jake's comment, everyone went out and piled into the car. This time, Michael drove because the courthouse that they were heading to was a different one than the one Lincoln was held in. The hearing would take place there and the jail that held Jurell was transporting Jurell there for the hearing. Alex took off from his family as well for the day and Pam would be taking Cameron to the park soon. Her neighbors had children as well and they wanted their kids to meet with their new neighbors. Alex would also drive to pick up Sammie since the location of the courthouse was on the way to Sammie's.

Everyone who was Michael and Lincoln's friends would be there, except for Pam, Agent Lang, Simon Tulley, and Nikki Cordell. Agent Lang and Simon both had a date planned for the afternoon and the hearing would last about a half hour max from 12 noon and another half hour from 1 in the afternoon for the custody hearing.

*---*

The hearing against Jurell did indeed last half an hour. Sammie and Mahone went first to present the evidence and their testimonies that ended up revealing the Insurance Company as the Kyubor Mafia. As they presented, there were news reporters and you could hear gasps and shocks of awes in the crowd inside the court as they listened to the horrific events that led to Sammie losing her son after she'd uncovered her husband's secret.

After they presented their evidence, LJ and Jake presented their testimonies and to also get Jurell imprisoned for a long time, Jake presented the scars, the bruises, and the injuries to the judge. Lincoln had to pull the reporters off of Jake because there were up close, trying to take pictures of the injuries. Sucre, Michael, and Alex all forced the reporters out of the area with the help of the bailiff. They only kept a few reporters inside, the tame reporters.

Jurell received a 60 year sentence in Fox River. He was not eligible for parole at all due to him being a mob boss. The judge took the same precautions as he did with John Abruzzi. If he gets parole, he can get his mob back together. Now they were half an hour from the custody hearing. So in order to spend the time, everyone sat about chatting and laughing.

"Agent Lang is going to go awol trying to teach me how to be an agent." LJ explained to Jake.

"I'll bet on that. But yesterday I was busy doing what I can on the federal cases that Alex needed me to figure out."

"Speaking of the case… did you find the guy?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. Pinpointed his location and everything. I tried to go slower in acquiring his location to give you other workers a chance but I failed. I ended up going faster than I wanted to go slower. I also pinpointed several locations that he could possibly run to."

"All that, huh?" Alex asked. "You know, Lincoln, I'm probably am going to have to get the guys to pay him a salary. He's technically no longer interning as I intended it. As a matter of fact, he can be a mercenary. A well paid mercenary."

Lincoln laughed. "You better pay him for what he's worth. Hell, you better pay me for just being the dad." It was hard to hate the man after awhile. Even if he killed dad, he's been trying to make amends. I can't help but not like Alex. He and I are almost alike when it comes to protecting the kids.

"You probably would've spent it at a strip bar or on beer, Linc." Michael pointed out. Oh why did I say that? Veronica started to glare at Michael and Lincoln.

"Looks like someone got busted." Sucre mocked. Everyone laughed. They were almost oblivious that there were reporters still there, watching and recording everything. The ex-convicts were a good story to the papers; their lives, how they act in public. They were practically celebrities.

"Anyways, before the custody hearing begins," Maricruz started. "I want you all to know that Fernando and I are going to get married soon after the baby is born."

Jake groaned. "Does that mean I have to wear more fancy clothes? I can barely stand being in this suit." He pulls on his coat.

Sara and Veronica sighed. "Yes, Jake. It's appropriate wear to go to in a wedding." Sara irritably said. "You can't just go in a polo and a pair of Dickies."

"But-"

"No buts." Veronica interrupted. "Look Jake, you're going to have to get used to this."

Michael had his own plans, but he was glad to support the wedding. "So what's the plan for the wedding?" He asked curiously.

"Well, I still need a best man and Maricruz is looking for a maid of honor."

"So…" Michael sounded as if he was trying to tell Sucre that he was okay with being the best man. I know Sucre. He doesn't have a plan yet. I bet he was waiting to ask me to be his best man.

"I was hoping you'd be my best man Michael." Sucre said as he looked at Michael.

Aha, I knew it. "Of course I'll be your best man Sucre. So how else are you two planning it?"

"Well, we're planning on having it in a church over here in Chicago. And I'm going to have to ask…" Maricruz looks between Sara, Veronica, and Sammie. "Pamela to be my maid of honor."

"What?!" Sara, Veronica, and Sammie all shouted out of surprise.

"You all can be my lady's maids." Maricruz said to avoid hurting more feelings.

"Why Pam?" Alex asks.

"Because you two got remarried and I want someone with more experience with weddings, meaning Pamela."

"I guess that's pretty reasonable." Alex admitted and he shrugged.

"Ahem." Everyone looks at the judge. "I think it's about time we get ready for this." She said in casual tone.

"Uh, yes your honor." Veronica said nervously. Lincoln, Jake, Veronica, and Sammie were all brought to the front. No one was defending.

After five minutes of reading the case file, the judge, Alice Cullen, sister-in-law of the president Emmett Cullen, looked at Lincoln.

"Now I know that with your credentials, meaning your prior arrests, that you are not fit to be a foster father. And also that Samantha Keeley is the rightful mother of Jake Sienel."

"Excuse me, your honor," Sammie interrupted. "But I already told them that I have no claim on Jake. I'm not standing in the way of Lincoln getting custody of Jake."

Alice was flabbergasted by her comment. Her eyes were wide open, but then she knew that this would've happened. "Why are you going to give your blood son to a man who was convicted several times in the past?"

Sammie looks at Lincoln. "Because he's a much better parent that I will ever be. And that is the truth of it all. I haven't been in Jake's life since he was a baby and I tried to find him before. That was when I saw how happy he was with Lincoln and his son, LJ, as well as the rest of his family. I won't take that away from him."

"Hmm… Can't say I didn't see this coming because I did. Well, Mr. Burrows, you know that in the past, you've stolen things, got into trouble, and were even framed for a crime you didn't commit. But when you broke out with your brother," Alice stops and thinks. Another thing I saw coming. Damn it Jasper. You and your ways of making me feel happy for bad things even though you knew it was the right thing. She was deep in thought and everyone was waiting.

"I'm sorry, your honor but as you were saying?" Veronica interrupted.

Alice snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh right. Sorry. As I was saying before I completely went off and daydreamed, wait, where was I?"

"You were talking about Lincoln breaking out, your honor." Veronica answered. Is she even a judge? I mean she may be a sister to President Emmett Cullen…

"Oh yes, of course. When you broke out with your brother, you committed several crimes in your wake and of course after helping exposing the Company and then helping the government take them down, you were exonerated of those crimes. However, that still doesn't mean that we'll overlook the things you did to this country."

Lincoln started to despair. Well looks like I blew it… again.

"But, in the end, your actions this past week speaks for itself." Alice smiled. "You showed that you cared for Jake and your family. You blatantly disregarded the police and ran into a burning building to save your sons; you got Jake to medical care almost every time he was injured; and you even managed to save him again after he ran away."

How did she know I went into the burning school? How did she know about Jake's disappearance? Everyone thought besides Alice, who was taking a look at them. She saw looks of marvel upon every face.

"You have to believe me, I… have my connections." More like strong intuitions. And spies. Thank you Emmett. Those are the main reasons why I'm a judge.

"So in this case, the custody of Jake Sienel will go to… ALEX MAHONE!" She points out to Alex who then drops his mouth in a silent o and his eyes open wide.

It took everyone a couple of seconds to realize what she said. "WHAT?!?" They all yelled.

Alice sat in her seat, laughing. "If you people haven't noticed, I haven't banged my gavel yet."

Everyone started to glare at her. "That was not funny!" They yelled in unison. "Your honor." They said in a calm, velvet voice.

"Well, she sure was a funny judge." Jake whispered in a nonchalant voice.

"Alright, alright. I rule in favour of Lincoln Burrows, granting him full custody of Jake Sienel. Case dismissed." As the gavel hit the small wooden block, a sense of shock swept through them. It felt surreal to be hearing the words. Happiness quickly replaces the shock they're feeling and wide grin spreads across his face. He turns to face Jake and finds the boy next to him, his arms coming to fold across Lincoln's middle. He hugs him back tightly and they pull apart as LJ comes to join them.

"Oh my God Jake I can't believe this, it's awesome." The two of them high five and suddenly LJ is dancing, his arms and legs flaying around as he belts out a tune that makes no sense to anyone but his happy self.

Then Jake, sensing his happiness, joins him, bopping his body and moving it as much as his casted leg permits so out of sync to LJ's tune they look like two out of tune dancers at a club, but they don't care. The happiness moves through them and they lose themselves in the emotion; the laughter coming from the rest of their family but a distant beat to the music in their ears.

Lincoln's legs seem to take on a life of their own as his feet begin to first tap against the wooden floor, following the beat of his sons' music. He watched on with a goofy smile before pulling Jake back into him for another hug.

"I love you, dad." He heard the muffled sentence from Jake's lips and hugged him tighter to his chest.

"I love you too, Jake."

Jake laughed. "I broke that promise I made to myself." He looks up at Lincoln who was suddenly baffled by the sentence. He raises his eyebrows in suspicion. "I said I wouldn't want to hug you for a week. It's only been two days. But let's just say that it's a promise that should be broken." Jake smiles at him and Lincoln hugs him tight.

LJ ceased his solo dancing and joined his father and brother in the hug. "Hey, welcome to the family, little bro." He smiled at him, patting his back the way his father and Uncle had done so many hugs.

"Hey don't forget me!" Michael jumped over and joined in the hug.

Everyone was watching and reporters were taking more pictures.

Lincoln looked around. "Well come on everyone, join in!"

It didn't take them a second to think about that command. Alex, Sucre, Maricruz, Sara, Sammie, and Veronica joined in the group hug.

"Alex!" Pam yelled from the door with Cameron in her arms. Alex pulls away from the group hug. She could tell that Lincoln got the custody over Jake. "You won!" She rushed over with Cameron and she joined in the hug.

The reporters were still taking pictures, but they were smiling as well as some tearing up in happiness.

Jake pulled away from Lincoln and the rest of his new family to face his mother, the only link left to his past life, his father not counting for anything. She watched him with tears in her eyes and he pulled his arms out and closed them around her.

"You'll always be my mother." He whispered, causing her to hold him tighter to her chest. He pulled away from her, tears in his own eyes falling down his cheeks.

She reached out a hand and swiped the tears from his face, keeping her palm enclosed over his cheek. "I'm so sorry I couldn't find you sooner Jake." Using her thumb, she wiped at the single tear that fell from his eyes. "I love you, Jake, and I'll always be a part of your life for as long as you want me."

"Forever." He whispered, smiling at her.

She smiled back and took him in her arms again; the feeling of her so close to her and so happy caused more than happiness to course through her body. "Then I'm not going anywhere, ever again." They pulled apart after a moment, cognizant of the scores of flashing bulbs around them as the media went wild with the image before them.

Ignoring the cameras and hubbub of the media, they turned back to the rest of the family. Jake was snagged into another hug by Sara and Veronica and as Samantha watched them doting on him, she didn't realize Lincoln was by her side until his arms encased her. She was shocked for but a moment before she responded, bringing her arms to wrap around his torso.

"Thank you for trusting me to take care of him." He told her, not relinquishing his hold on her. "I promise I'll do everything I can to protect him and keep him safe."

"No, Linc," she pulls out of the hug but his hands find their way to her shoulders as she speak. "I'm the one who should be thanking you. You saved him and for that I'm forever indebted to you. I can see how much you love him and there's no one I'd rather have him with than you and your family. You'll take better care of him than I did. I know he's safe with you but most importantly, he's happy with you." They both turned to watch Jake amidst the chaos of the courtroom. He was laughing at some inside joke he and LJ had going on, the happiness in him shifting his whole demeanor.

The battle to save Jake from his father and the future he damned into was over and they all couldn't be happier. As Sammie moved away to thank the rest of the family for their support of her son, Veronica made her way to Lincoln's side, his arm covering her middle and holding her to him. They stood side by side and watched their now extended family.

"Two sons now, Linc." Veronica whispered, causing him to look down at her smiling face as she herself watched his. "Who knows, maybe someday we can add a daughter to the mix." He bent over and took her lips in his, knowing that someday, they would add to their family and that nothing would make Lincoln happier.

"Well, let's get out of here!" Michael cheered on. "We should celebrate!"

"We already did, Uncle Mike. Yesterday. Remember?" LJ tapped his head. "I don't think we have the money or the food to actually party for awhile."

"Let's save up for Christmas, Michael." Sara said as she cradles in Michael's arms. Michael smiles down at her and takes her lips in his as well.

"Ah, yes, Christmas. Oh and Linc, Sucre, you both have jobs with me. My firm is finally up and our office, which by the way is sort of small, is located about a two miles south of Alex's Office. So it'll be rather convenient for the two of you."

"Oh sweet! Carpool time!" Sucre shouted as he shoots his arm up in the air.

Lincoln picks up Jake in his arms again. Jake narrows his eyes to send him the message to put him down. "Oh come on. Just one more time for old time's sake?"

"Alright. Just this time. And no picking me up anymore after that unless I really can't walk." Jake said grudgingly. But he smiles.

The reporters were still taking pictures as the group walked out the door into the bright, shining light. Although that light was just flash photography, it was still a light nonetheless.

Chapter 19: Laughs, Surprises, and more Laughs

It's been four months since the court hearing for the Burrows family. A lot of things have changed in the four months, but the friendships and bonds that the Burrows and Scofield family had ties stayed the same and grew stronger. The newspapers that went up the next day about the hearing made front page and brought good publicity towards the ex-cons. A lot of people began to see that they were just regular people, not the cons who escaped or were involved with the Fox River Eight. Though some people still had their agendas against allowing people who were exonerated of crimes to walk along the public in the sidewalks or the streets; they still believed that they belonged in prison.

LJ was also hired as a Junior Agent as he works under Agent Lang. She trained him with guns, procedure, and even gave him a lot of tips on how each case goes. Of course, she went through hell trying to get LJ to stay working because he simply kept getting distracted watching Jake and his fast fingers on the computer. He was really intrigued by how he managed to pinpoint and locate every fugitive the team was after.

Jake also became an agent, but he wasn't in the field as much as LJ was when he was with Agent Lang. He was better suited off in Alex's office to give a play by play. After a couple of weeks of working, he started receiving big paychecks from the FBI for his computer expertise. Every case he was given he gave 110% for Alex. He wanted him to look good to his superiors and Alex also helped him solve the impending puzzles that were brought on the team. He was also off his crutches and his left leg and received a full recovery.

Lincoln and Veronica's relationship grew stronger than ever. They loved each other with the heat intensity of a thousand suns. Whenever Veronica was at work, Lincoln would always pay a visit for lunch and they would go out and eat wherever. Lincoln had work with Michael as well, but Michael didn't mind if Lincoln went out for a lunch break, as long as he was back within 45 minutes otherwise he would dock part of his pay for that day. That kept Lincoln on time patrol every time.

Michael's firm completely soared the moment he, Lincoln, and Sucre helped the community rebuild the school. Of course his firm wouldn't have taken such a leap from nowhere to somewhere high if it weren't for Jake's secret use of stealing the old blueprints of the school in the FBI database that he didn't have to hack into. His security clearance was high enough for a lot of things because Alex's superiors did not want to restrict his abilities. So with the blueprints, Michael, Lincoln, and Sucre joined the community in rebuilding the school. You could nearly say that this was America's Extreme Home Makeover show with the parents of the students as well as the staff all working together to rebuild the school to its formal glory.

Michael and Sara loved each other as much as Lincoln and Veronica did, possibly more. The two of them had won the bid for the house and earned the ownership of it. Sara wanted to do the furnishing of the house more than anything with some input from Michael. She drove everyone, Lincoln, Alex, Sucre, Jake, LJ, and Michael to the point where even a nun would crack. Her bossiness as well as perfection in the new home meant everything to her. So they all held their tempers until they got home, where they unleashed hell on their pillows. But they still loved Sara and her bossiness.

Sara had found a good paying job at Lincoln Park Hospital. It was extremely close to where she lived so all she had to do was walk. This would allow her to sleep a little more and not rush around when she needs to get up and head to work. She also giggled every time she walked into the hospital because it had Lincoln's name in it. To her surprise, a lot of nurses and doctors kept admiring her for what she did in the past and also felt sorry that she lost her father, the governor Frank Tancredi.

Maricruz is now eight months pregnant. It was only a matter of time until the baby would be born. She hasn't done much but worked around the apartment that she and Sucre lived in. Sucre did most of the work in the house and she pretty much anything she craved. Sucre, on the other hand, went to work every day when Lincoln drove by to carpool with him and Michael. This saved money on gas.

Alex, Pamela, and Cameron lived a happy family life. Pam became the front page journalist of the newspaper. All of her stories that were published hit the front page so she loved her job very much. Cameron continued to go to school, but instead of going straight home, he goes to Alex's office so Alex can take care of him. He also continuously kept running up and bothered Jake and LJ, although they didn't mind because they loved having Cameron around. He was like a little brother to the two of them. Alex continued working, but he was more devoted to his family and friends than to his work. He had to fire a few members of his team for blatantly trying to hurt Jake out of jealousy when he was working, although Jake really didn't care.

Sammie bought a small apartment about 10 blocks away from the Burrows' residence. She visited Jake every other day and found work in a flower shop. Maricruz asked if she could do the flowers for the wedding and she accepted. She and Jake were close as mother and son again. Although she did repeatedly get calls from Jurell in the prison; she picked up a few times because all she heard were pleas of forgiveness. She felt bad for him, but she couldn't tell if he was faking or not. She really wasn't about to put hers and Jake's life at risk again.

Now it was approaching Christmas Day and today was Christmas Eve. School is out for the Winter Break and the Burrows family is planning something for the family and friends.

Lincoln, Veronica, LJ, and Jake sit around the table, eating and then deciding on the plans of where to go for the party and who to have catering it.

"How about this dude right here?" LJ asks as he points at the caterer's name, "Corny Calman."

"Who the hell is Corny Calman?" Jake asks callously.

"No way. We're not having him cater our party. That guy is one of the crappiest caterers in this city." Veronica said as she scratches off his name with a black permanent marker.

Lincoln hums for a bit as he looks at the phone book. "How about…" He puts his finger down on Connie Fermin's name in the phone book.

"No!" Jake immediately yelled. "She's been known to be a rip-off and scam artist. Alex actually had us arrest her yesterday. Well at least LJ and Lang went there to arrest her with a few other agents."

"Yeah, that's true dad. We arrested her yesterday." LJ calmly said to soothe the bad air out.

"Wow. Didn't know that happened yesterday. Then again, I haven't really been asking you two what you have been doing in the FBI to begin with." Lincoln said as he takes a bite out of a chocolate chip cookie.

They spend five more minutes looking through all of the phone books for caterers. "What the hell is this?" Jake points his finger at a name. "It says "The Purple Teletubby, Tinky Winky is gay. He has a handbag, catering service.'"

Everyone looks up for a moment and then they immediately burst into a hysterical laugh. It took them a few minutes to calm down. Veronica worked to turn the page as she laughed.

"Haha! Oh man! That made my day!" Lincoln brought his laugh to a chuckle.

LJ couldn't stop laughing every time he thought of that. "Jeez. Who came up with that name for a catering service?"

"Probably some Polish person." Jake stereotypically said as he stopped laughing.

"Jake, it's not nice to stereotype people." Veronica punishes Jake for the comment.

"Sorry."

They take a look for another two minutes and made some calls as they looked at the catering service names. All of them were booked for Christmas. "Well, we could always turn this into a potluck." Lincoln said as he felt that it was nearly inevitable that they'd find a caterer in time for the Christmas Party.

Everyone sighs. "This is what you call poor planning on our part." Veronica said gallingly.

"Wait." Lincoln said as he looks down. "How about this one? The two names in here also have a place where they can cater fully to our needs, at least that is what this ad is saying." He puts his finger on a name and number.

Veronica was skeptical. She sighs but then looks at Lincoln's faithful face. "It couldn't hurt to ask." She then picks up the phone and dials the number. She gets picked up immediately.

"Hi, my name is Veronica Donovan and I was just wondering if you're booked for Christmas."

Everyone could hear muffling coming from the phone. "Oh, you're not? That's great!" She yelled cheerfully. LJ and Jake give each other a high five.

"How many people are going to attend the party?" Veronica asks again out loud. Lincoln gets the list and counts down the names.

"11, babe." Lincoln said.

"There will be 11 people, but make room for 20." Veronica says into the phone.

"Why 20?" Lincoln asks.

"You never know when you have unexpected friends Linc." Veronica replies.

Jake and LJ see that this is going to turn out well. They take a look at the time. It was 11 in the morning. "Oh shoot! Sorry dad! Jake and I have to go to practice!" The two of them grab their duffle bags on the chairs. Jake was the Running-Back and also the playmaker of the Varsity Football team and LJ was the point-guard of the Varsity Basketball team.

"Oh right! Jake has Football Practice and you have Basketball." Lincoln takes a look at the time. It was 11:01 AM. "You two better get going before you coaches eat you up for being late."

"My coach wouldn't eat me up considering I'm the one who ends up saving them during the game anyways." Jake mutters quietly.

The two of them walk out the door. "Bye dad!" LJ and Jake yelled one after another as they close the door. They hit the elevator button to go down and the elevator stops right on their floor. They go in.

"You're going to stay at school later than usual and then lie again, aren't you?" Jake asks.

"Of course. I'm not ready to tell them about that yet." LJ said as he shuffles his feet.

"You do know you're going to have to tell them someday. You can't hide it forever. You two already have been sneaking around. It's starting to look suspicious both ways." Jake explained thoroughly.

"I just don't think that now is the right timing." LJ defended. I don't want them to judge her severely.

"Look, if you two can lie easily to your parents about secretly dating, then you shouldn't have a problem in getting her parents to come over to a Christmas party. Dad just wants you to be happy. But he doesn't want you to do anything insensitive to anyone in order for you to achieve it. The point is that you need to bring her to meet dad and everyone that is going to the party. That's where the timing is."

"Can we talk about something else please?" LJ asks. I hate it when he bothers me about that. It's my life.

Jake sighs. "I can't always cover your ass, you know. Do you want to know how many times I had to come up with some heinous excuse as to why you didn't come home with me? I even used the some of them twice! I'm running out of excuses here and dad and Uncle Mike are starting to get suspicious. I don't want to be the one they look at when they're angry."

The elevator reaches the bottom floor and they walk out into the streets. They talk and head towards the school.

"Just drop it. I'm not bringing her and that's final. You're just going to have to put up a different excuse this time when I come home late tonight."

Jake sighs again. Well this sucks. "Fine. But you owe me big time for all the times I covered for you."

"Yeah yeah." LJ ignored the comment.

*---*

Veronica and Lincoln were at home, making out on the couch as they watched an old romantic movie that they didn't pay any attention to. Lincoln kissed her softly on the lips and Veronica moaned. She loved Lincoln so much and they were happy that things are going to work out for the Christmas party. They pull away for a second to take a breath and then embrace each other once again.

Veronica pulls away after a minute. "Well that was lovely." She said as she catches her breath. She smiles.

"You haven't seen anything yet babe." Lincoln smiles.

"Oh I think I've seen it all already. Don't forget what happened years ago when I graduated from college." Veronica finally catches her breath and relaxes. She starts to watch the movie.

"Why did we pick this movie? I'd rather watch something else."

Lincoln moves for the DVD/VHS player and takes the video out. He examines the tape. "Wow, why did we pick this movie? This movie was a terrible movie recommended by Derek."

Veronica chuckles. "Find something while I go get the-" The phone rings. "Well now I go get the phone." She walks over to the phone while Lincoln runs through the DVDs in the drawers of the TV stand.

She picks up the phone and answers. "Hello?"

"Hey Veronica." Michael replied.

"Hey Michael." Veronica replied back.

"Sara and I were wondering if you guys were all free for dinner. There's nothing else for us to do here because Sucre is busy with taking care of Maricruz and Alex is busy with work tonight. Pamela is also with Cameron at his school for a small children's play tonight. I knew that Jake and LJ had the day off and since our firm has nothing to do until after New Years, I figured we could spend some time together for old time's sake. It's been awhile since we actually ate together."

"I don't think two and a half weeks constitutes as awhile Michael."

"Hey, who is that?" Lincoln asked as he walks over with a DVD in his hands.

"It's Michael, Linc." Veronica replied to him.

"Oh Linc's there?" Michael asks.

"Of course. Where else would he be?"

"I thought he was going to do something with the boys since they're out of school for only two weeks."

"Nah. Jake and LJ had to head to school for sports practice. We aren't doing much here except…" She cuts herself off. Better not let the surprise slip. "Watching movies."

Michael laughed on the other end of the phone. "Well I won't interrupt your 'movie time' anymore. But can you guys come over to our home for dinner? Bring LJ and Jake too. I want their opinions on a few things. Well Sara wants their opinion, but I have a few things as well."

"Can we go over to Michael's for dinner, Linc?" Veronica asks as she covers the speaker end of the phone.

"Yeah, of course." He said as he slapped the DVD in his hand. "They'll be back by one this afternoon."

"We'll be there by 6 tonight Michael." Veronica answered Michael's inquiry.

"Alright, that's great!" Michael said excitedly. "Sara should be calling me to pick her up soon so I have to hang up now. Love you Veronica! And tell Linc that he needs to stop falling asleep at work."

"Love you too Michael and I'll be sure to get Lincoln for that. See you two later!" She hangs up the phone, sighs, and then turns to Lincoln. Her eyes revealed disappointment.

"What happened?" Lincoln asks oblivious to the glow in her eyes.

"Linc, stop falling asleep at work. That's how you lost your last job before you know what happened." Veronica wanted to avoid bringing back the bad memories. The memories that happened in the past will always be there. The only thing that they could do is go on with life and forge better memories to attempt to replace the bad ones.

"Sorry. I've just been so tired lately. But enough about work. Let's watch this movie, in the dark." Lincoln swiftly dims the light in the room and he pops the DVD in. Veronica sits next to him on the sofa.

*---*

It was one in the afternoon and Jake and split off with LJ after his football practice. LJ went to another friend's house to do something. Jake regretted the decision of lying to Lincoln to cover for LJ. He didn't want to keep doing that to his new dad. He sighs and then opens the door.

Veronica suddenly looks over to the door, sees a silhouette, and then screeches in a high pitched voice. Lincoln covers his ears while Jake hits the floor and shoves the door close.

What the? Why is it so dark in there and why did Veronica scream? Jake gets up and starts to think if he should open the door again. He stands up and this time, the door opens and Lincoln was standing there in the light, rubbing his ears.

"Sorry about that." Lincoln said apologetically as he continued trying to rub his ear.

"God she scared me dad. What the hell are you two doing in there anyways?" Jake thinks for a second. "Oh my god… I'm going to Uncle Mike's." Jake picked his stuff off the floor and starts to walk back towards the elevator. Lincoln stops him before he makes it there.

"Please, don't feel bad for me. I don't want to interrupt whatever you two are doing in there." Jake said as he doesn't look behind his back.

"Wait, what are you thinking?" Lincoln asks.

"I don't think you need to know what I'm thinking because you know what I'm thinking."

"No, I don't know what you're thinking."

Jake sighs. "You and Veronica are getting… you know."

Lincoln ponders on the thought. What could he mean? Oh. He laughs out loud and then brings Jake towards the apartment room.

"Look, I don't want to-" He looks at the TV screen. "What the? Why are you two watching the Grudge?"

"We needed to watch something so I pulled out the Grudge."

Veronica was rocking back in forth in the couch, biting her nails. "He's in the room! HE'S IN THE ROOM!"

Lincoln and Jake started to laugh. "You dimmed the lights to increase the scare factor. Haha! Gold!"

"Shut up! You're grounded!" Veronica yelled at him.

"Now, now Veronica. Calm down. It's just a movie. There's no such thing as a ghost child coming back to haunt whoever sleeps in a home." Lincoln said as he held Veronica.

Jake shakes his head. "Dad, don't let her watch anymore. You're barely halfway through and she's going to bust our ears if she keeps screaming at this rate. Next thing you know, she's going to keep you up at night and you're going to fall asleep at work again."

"How does everyone know that?" Lincoln asks.

"Who doesn't know that? Anyways, I'm going to head into my room to relax."

"Hey, where's LJ?" Lincoln asks.

Jake stopped in his tracks. Aw shit. I should've headed to my room faster. "LJ is at his Roy's house. They're playing… basketball."

"Wait, LJ said he stopped talking to Roy after what he did to him in school? Why would he go back to being friend's with Roy so soon?"

"Because LJ doesn't hold grudges?" Jake said quickly as another excuse.

Lincoln was starting to really wonder why Jake is coming up with excuse after excuse when LJ isn't home. "What's really going on Jake?"

"Uh…" Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit! I'm screwed now. LJ's going to kill me unless… "LJ is… LJ is…" Jake covers his mouth and makes a mad dash for the bathroom. "I'm going to be sick!" He yells from the other end of the door. He pretends like he's about to throw up, making gagging noises and sounds a person does when they barf.

Lincoln runs up to the door and tries to open it, but it was locked. "Jake? Are you alright!? Let me in!" He knocks on the door.

Jake clears his throat. "I'm fine. Just a little sick from the food I ate today after practice." He flushes the toilet then takes a small cup to fill with water to wash his mouth out with, all in an act to cover for LJ.

"Are you sure?" Lincoln asks. "Because I can take you over to Sara right away."

"No. I'm fine dad. Just… need time to rest." Jake manages to make himself look pale with some of Veronica's makeup and then walks out the bathroom, holding his stomach. He walks into LJ's room, where they bunked him and LJ in, and lies down on the bed. Lincoln follows in soon after to check in on him. He sits down on the bed beside him.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take you to Sara?" Lincoln asks as he touches Jake's forehead with the back of his hand. "You look absolutely pale."

"I just… need some time to rest. I'll be fine after a nap." Jake struggled to say. If he ever catches me lying to him, I'm so going to kill myself.

Lincoln checks his forehead again. "Well at least you're not running a fever. Okay then, take a good rest Jake. If you're not better by five-thirty, I'm cancelling on Michael."

"Wait, what are you doing with Uncle Mike?"

"Sara and Michael wanted us to come over for a Christmas Eve dinner. You know we haven't been there in two and a half weeks."

"That's because the last time we went there, Sara had us move more furniture around." Jake said as he shuts his eyes.

Lincoln chuckled. "It wasn't that bad compared to the first time we had to move the furniture in."

"Please don't go there. That was just plain ol' hell on wheels." Jake stifled a hard laugh and brought it to a mere chuckle.

"Heh, alright. Go rest. I'll wake you around five to see if you're feeling better." Lincoln messes with his hair. He gets up afterwards and walks toward the door.

"Dad?"

Lincoln stops and turns around. "Yes?"

"In case I do something bad to you sometime in the future, I want to say I'm sorry."

"You're not going to do anything bad to me. I know that for truth." Lincoln walks out the door and closes it.

You'll see what I mean... soon. Jake closes his eyes and rests. He was actually more fatigued than he realized after the football practice.

*---*

It was 4:30 in the afternoon and LJ came home. He unlocks the door and sees that the lights are dark. Veronica screeched again and this time, LJ just walked in carelessly and turned on the lights.

"Hi dad! Hi Veronica!" LJ cheerfully said, ignoring the screech from Veronica. "Watching a scary movie in the dark again?"

"Yep. The Grudge. I finally got used to Veronica screaming though." Lincoln nonchalantly said. "Hey, where have you been?"

"Oh I was at… the mall with some friends." LJ lied. Damn it. What did you tell them Jake?

Veronica was quiet again but this time, she turns and looks at LJ. "Jake got sick a couple of hours ago. But he's resting now. I think he might be up right now."

"Cool. I'll go check him out." LJ starts walking for his room.

"Oh wait, there's something else. Michael and Sara want us over for dinner tonight. Not sure if we'll go unless Jake is feeling better, so ask him if he is." Lincoln requests as he sits next to Veronica on the sofa.

"Do they need our opinion on something or do they want us to move more stuff? Because I think I'm going to get sick if I move more stuff for Sara again."

"Just an opinion. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to do that to you guys again. Although you never know."

"If she asks me to move something, I'm going to act like my shoulders are sore and you're going to agree with me dad."

Lincoln shrugged. "We'll see. Anyways, go check on Jake. We have an hour and a half to get ready."

"Kay." LJ walks into his room and shuts the door behind him. "Hey, are you alright man?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be? Besides the fact that I'm still lying for you." Jake gets off his bed and stretches.

LJ lets out a light chortle. "So you were sick earlier?"

"Nope."

"What?"

"I ran out of lies so I had to get out of telling them something. Basically I played out the whole sickness and throwing up in the toilet thing out."

LJ laughs. "Man you really are a trip. Well, it looks like you're better. We need to get ready to head to Uncle Mike's."

*---*

It didn't take long for everyone to get ready to walk over to Michael's home. It was approaching 6 PM so everyone took off and started walking. The distance was about two blocks so it really didn't take them too long to get there. As they walked through the snow, LJ and Jake decided to have a snowball fight as they ran ahead. Lincoln and Veronica joined in and all of them had a little bit of fun while walking. Lincoln knocks on the door and Michael opens it.

"Hey Linc. Hey Veronica." Michael hugs his brother and Veronica.

"Hey, what's up man?" Lincoln replies back.

"Hey Michael." Veronica greets.

"So where's…?" Michael trailed off when he looked behind Lincoln and Veronica. "Ah, there they are!" Michael hugs LJ and Jake. "So, how are the teams?"

"LJ's basketball team sucks while mine is shining." Jake sinisterly smiles.

LJ knocks him on the head. "Yeah… hard to believe that when my team is winning by a large margin in our games while yours is… wait yeah. We suck compared to your team."

"So that smack on the head was for no reason?" Jake said as he rubs the back of his head.

"There are a lot of reasons for that. One being-"

"Okay you two, break it up." Veronica said. "You've both been at it since you started working with Alex. When is it ever going to end with you two agents?"

"Actually, Veronica, I'm the agent and LJ is the junior agent." Jake said for clarity as he points his finger at LJ.

"Loser." LJ retorts.

"Trash." Jake retorts.

"Nerd."

"Worthless."

"Dumbface."

"Idiot." By this point, LJ and Jake were face to face. Lincoln and Veronica pulled them off of each other.

"OKAY ENOUGH!" Lincoln yelled in his deep, terrifying tone. "LJ, Jake, no arguing or fighting until we're at home, understand?"

"Yes dad." LJ and Jake both said with their heads down.

"Well, that was… interesting. Anyways, come in. You guys must be cold out there." Michael ushers everyone to get inside. Sara walks out of her room, looking extravagant today.

"Wow. Sara. You look… wow." Lincoln was at a loss of words. Sara was wearing a beautiful red dress. It fit her body perfectly, getting all of her wonderful curves and it was strapless. LJ and Jake walk in after talking with Michael about his question about what they should do for the New Year's Party. They stop to stare open mouthed at Sara.

"Oh." Jake started.

"My. LJ continued.

"God." They both finished. The two of them continued to stare with their gaping mouths and wide open eyes.

"What? Is it that bad?" Sara asked as she checked the dress herself.

"No." The three Burrows boys replied. They continued to stare.

"Okay, let me answer that question for you Sara." Veronica stepped forward. "These three here are just dumbstruck. That dress looks absolutely beautiful on you Sara. But what's the occasion?"

"Someone from work has a rich friend that wants me to meet him. Michael and I are going and I needed your guys' opinion on the dress. It looks like I got what I needed on that." Sara said happily. "Well, I'll be right back. I'll change into something more subtle." Sara walks back into her room.

"Uh. Any other opinions Michael before these boys stop drooling?" Veronica asks with a hint of joke on her tongue. The boys snap their mouths shut and then stand straight.

"Oh yes, well first, let's get dinner started on the table and then we can discuss some of the important matters."

*---*

It didn't take Sara long to change into something a bit more restrained. She wore a simple white blouse with blue sweatpants. Sara didn't feel like pondering too much on what to wear for a simple dinner evening with the family she loved.

Dinner was also pretty simple. Michael decided to go Chinese for the night and ordered hot, fresh, Chinese food that tasted like it was delivered five minutes before the Burrows family had arrived. After everyone had finished eating, they stayed about, chatting and then Michael brought out the reason they were there.

"Okay, for the main reason why you're all here is that Sara and I have been, well, have you looked at Sara's left hand yet?" Michael starts off. The setting of the room was like a conference meeting of a business. Sara brings her left hand to the table and everyone stared at it. It was an engagement ring!

"Congrats bro!" Lincoln happily said first.

"Congrats Michael! I'm happy for you and Sara!" Veronica also said right after.

"Congrats from the both of us!" LJ and Jake said. "I guess that's why you wanted us over. You wanted us to discuss wedding plans." Jake said.

"I knew you'd catch on first." Michael appraised Jake, smiling widely at him.

They ushered the family into the dining room, Michael retrieving his laptop while Sara set about making coffee and hot chocolate for everyone, bringing out the mud cake she'd baked earlier that afternoon. The moment she placed the dessert on the table, LJ and Jake were all over it, attacking the dessert like they'd never been subjected to such a thing before.

"Hey, piglets!" Lincoln called, causing them to stop, their mouths full of cake with both their hands holding onto the next piece. Lincoln looked at them, shaking his head at his two boys. "Wanna try breathing a little? You're gonna make yourselves sick."

LJ shrugged his shoulders, chewing and swallowing his mouthful. "It tastes so good!" He smiled at his father, revealing his chocolate stained teeth. They couldn't help it, the all burst into a fit of laughter, LJ oblivious to the chocolate coating his front teeth.

"You got chocolate in teeth, bro." Jake laughed at him, in turn causing LJ to laugh as he spotted the chocolate marked on Jake's teeth. It took them a few minutes to settle down, both boys licking the chocolate off before diving into the cake again, devouring a few more of the rich chocolaty dessert before both sitting back, holding their stomachs and moaning in pain

"Ugh, I think I ate a little too fast." Bringing his hand to his mouth, LJ shot up in his chair and ran to the bathroom, Jake not thirty seconds behind him.

Lincoln watched his sons dash to the bathroom, shaking his head at them with a smile on his face. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I warned them, but the piglets wouldn't listen to me, and now they're chucking up in your bathroom." He looked up at his brother and Sara, an apology plastered across his face. "Sorry 'bout that guys."

"Don't worry about it." Sara reassured him, taking the empty dessert plate to the sink and returning with a plate of choc-chip cookies.

"So before Piggle-Dum and Piggle-Dee ate themselves sick, I believe we were discussing wedding plans." Veronica said, dunking a cookie in her coffee before taking a bite out of it.

"Yeah, what have you guys organized so far?" He reached out for his second cookie, taking a large bite out of it. "Damn, these are good Sara." He told her, literally licking his lips.

"Well there's plenty so go for your life." She smiled at him, winking at Veronica as she said, "the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, apparently." He eyed her out, shrugging before his hand took up the last of the cookies on the plate. This time, Michael got up to refill, returning to find the boys back from the bathroom.

"You guys feeling better?" He asked, to which they both silently nodded. He went back to the kitchen and brought two glasses of water, placing one in front of each boy. They mumbled their thanks and drank a little, welcoming the taste of the refreshing liquid.

"Well, we've set a date already." Mike continued their conversation as though they'd never steered off topic.

"That's great! When?" Lincoln asked.

Michael and Sara shared an apprehensive look before Michael told him the date. "May the eleventh." Lincoln's eyes grew wide with shock, as did Veronica's and the two boys'. LJ started choking on his cookie and Jake slapped him hard on the back. He wanted to hit LJ so that was his excuse.

"Are you being serious?" He asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. They silently nodded and he shook his head. "Why, of all the dates in the year, would you pick the date I was meant to die, as the date for your wedding?"

"That's exactly why, Linc." Sara replied, taking hold of his hands that were resting on the tabletop. "May eleven was the date of you execution, it was forever going to be a date that was tainted by that horrible fact. So we decided that we wanted it to mark a happy occasion, one that we could celebrate rather than try to forget about.

We weren't being insensitive; we all know it's not so simple to even try to forget something like that, but we just wanted to take away from that wretched memory and make that day a happy one and not one we'd all rather forget about." She squeezed his hands gently, waiting for him to say something, hoping he understood that they only had the best interests at heart with this decision.

"I, thanks guys." He smiled at them, knowing he never should have doubted his brother would have a valid explanation for the choice of date. "I think that's a great idea, I really do." He released his hands from Sara's grip and picked up his coffee mug, holding it up slightly. They caught on quickly and raised their mugs as Lincoln made a toast. "To a happy May eleven; for next year and all those that will follow. Cheers."

They clink their mugs together and took a sip of their beverages. No more was said on the date of the wedding as they moved on with the preparation. Michael didn't so much ask Lincoln as tell him that he was going to be his best man, which Lincoln had already decided was going to be the case when he heard his brother was getting married. And it only made sense for Sara to have Veronica as her maid of honor, having grown extremely close to her; the two of them were practically sisters.

Sara disappeared for a moment, returning with a stack of bridal magazines with bright tags poking out of them every which way. She'd clearly spent a lot of time marking off some dress ideas and what not, and she and Veronica lost themselves in the pages, commenting a hundred different styles, some they liked, some they loved, and some they found embarrassingly hideous

While they did that, the guys focused on finding the perfect reception. Sara trusted Michael's judgment enough to leave that detail up to him, but she knew already he wouldn't decide anything for certain before consulting her.

They talked wedding for a few more hours before they realized it was nearing midnight, and they had to get going, the day ahead proving to be a long one already. They hugged their guests as they left, thanking them for their help and with the promise of seeing them all tomorrow.

She cleared the table of her magazines and placed the mugs in the dishwasher as Michael took his laptop back to his study. He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her middle and holding her to him. She turned her head slightly, welcoming the kiss she knew was coming.

After a moment, they pulled apart, and she turned in his arms to give him a proper hug. "Hmmm, do you realize how happy you make me just with your arms around me like this?"

He squeezed her just a little tighter and kissed her forehead. "Yeah, I kind of do, because it's the same feeling I get when you're around." She pulled away from him slightly, stretching up a little to kiss him, full on the lips.

"Merry Christmas, Michael." She smiled up at him, noticing the clock hanging behind Michael had just struck twelve.

"Merry Christmas babe." He replied, planning another kiss on her lips. "And here's to many, many more." They smiled lovingly in each other's eyes before he turned around and led them to the bedroom.

Tomorrow was going to be a busy day for them all, but there was no denying the excitement that coursed through each of their veins as they anticipated the first Christmas they'd be spending as a family, all of them together in the same room, with everyone they loved and cared for surrounding them.

Chapter 20: The Christmas Party

It was Christmas day and everyone was up happily in the morning. Michael and Sara woke up early for this day and even came over to the Burrows' residence to spend their Christmas day there. Even Sucre and Maricruz dropped by since they don't have anyone else besides each other to spend their holiday with. Sammie was also there in the morning. Everyone stood in front of the Christmas tree and a load of presents stood before them all.

"So…" LJ started. "How are we going to do this?"

Jake stood there, staring at his presents. "I don't know. How did you guys do this before?"

"Forget this." Lincoln snarled. He dashes for his presents and started ripping them open. Michael followed after that with Veronica and Sara close behind. Sucre, Maricruz, Sammie, Jake, and LJ were just staring and watching the four adults open their presents like little kids.

"Wow…" They said in a pathetic tone. The four of them stopped and looked up.

"What?" The four of them asked, oblivious to their actions.

"Never mind. Let's just open our presents." LJ said. Lincoln and Michael were at loss as to what they did. Veronica and Sara blushed at their actions.

*---*

Lincoln had received a softer pillow as a joke from both LJ and Jake since they knew he would fall asleep at work and he could use that to get a good sleep fix. But they also gave him a serious present. He got a new gold Citizen watch that had LJ's, Jake's, and Veronica's names written on the inside of the watch band. Veronica gave him a necklace that said "I'll never give up on you." Lincoln loved those gifts from his family and he hugged each of them and kissed Veronica with a deep, hot passion. And also, Veronica received a golden bracelet from Lincoln that said 'I will love you with all my heart'. She cherished it and wore it immediately.

Michael had given Sara a beautifully, crafted ceramic rose to replace the paper one that he gave to her months ago. It represented the love he had for her and Sara knew it was the greatest present that Michael had ever given to her. Sara had given Michael a ceramic building she built by herself in an art shop.

The remaining presents were mostly clothes for everyone, everything new to wear, to change their looks for the coming year. Except Lincoln and Michael both chipped in to buy Jake a new laptop and LJ some new sports gear because Jake had too much superstition with replacing his old gear for new ones.

*---*

It was approaching four in the afternoon in Chicago. Lincoln finally gave everyone an address and told them to be at that address at six at night. He also allowed them to invite a few friends, but nothing too big as he wanted to keep this a small party between him, his family, and his close friends.

Lincoln and his family had to go to the place they reserved for the Christmas party to make sure everything was in order. Veronica had suggested that they go check things out because she wanted to make sure everything was going as planned, even though they were last minute. They loaded into the car and headed out to the party venue a little before the clock struck four.

"Well, I'm going to feel heavily embarrassed if the place turns out to be a wreck." Veronica stated.

"Yeah… I don't think the guys will trust me to do anything unless I do it way ahead of time." Lincoln agreed.

"I would've checked myself on my new laptop but I felt like surprising myself. Now I'm starting to regret it." Jake said as he stared through the windshield.

"Well there's nothing we can do about that now." LJ said as he stared out the right window. "We're either going to love it or hate it."

Lincoln drives to the address down by Lake Zurich but he was having difficulty spotting the house at the address they'd been given.

"Do you think that's it there?" Jake asks as he points to the house on the plateau.

"It couldn't hurt to check." Veronica suggests. Lincoln maneuvered the car and drove up the long driveway leading to the large house that stood alone on the small incline.

"That's a really nice house dad." LJ stated; his eyes on the four story house looming in the near distance. "I wonder why they're free for Christmas."

Veronica was having the same thoughts as she watched the beautiful house grow closer as they drove slowly towards it. She spotted a fountain in the middle of the front yard; an angel pirouetting with two doves on either shoulder. The mouth was not producing the stream of water it would have in the warmer months, but the white granite structure was beautiful regardless. Around the fountain, a bed of pink-white hydrangea flowers were still blooming. She noticed also the driveway had been lined with evergreen trees; their leaves covered with a light sprinkling of snow and red and silver garlands encircled each one.

When they reached the top of the driveway, he drove around the large fountain and parked the car in one of the two parking garages on either side of the house and the family stepped out of the car, appreciating the beauty of the large house before them.

The three story structure was covered in an immaculate white cladding; with two steep pikes on either side of the roof. There were four large windows on the topmost floor facing the front of the house alone, and Veronica couldn't help but wonder how many more there were around it. A soft brown colored balcony ran the length of the top floor. The middle floor was much the same as the one above it, and the ground level had two large windows situated on either side of the two-door entrance, and a balcony which circled the perimeter of this bottom level. The door was the same brown as the balcony and had an antique brass colored knocker. To the left of the door stood a life-sized Santa Clause, the tip of his hat lighting periodically and his arm moving up and down as though waving at the guests.

The house was covered in a foray of decorations. Fairy lights lined the three balconies, turning on as the day grew darker and headed towards night. They noticed, too, that the roof was lit with the image of the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh across the sky; a "Merry Christmas" message above that. The same red and silver garlands were also wound around the balconies and other bits as well as other bits and pieces around the house.

"Come on guys," Lincoln called, making his way towards the door, "Let's get out of the cold." Veronica walked up beside him and LJ and Jake followed close behind. Reaching the door, he was about to bang the brass handle against the door when he the sound of a doorbell rung out from within.

He turned to Veronica and saw the buzzer beside her. "It may be an old house but they know what technology is, Linc." She smirked at him. He wrapped his arm around her waist and chuckled at her remark. Not a moment later, the door opened.

"Hi, welcome to Bella and Edward Cullen's Catering Service. I am Jacob Black and you must be the Burrows' clan." The man at the door smiled a toothy smile, exposing his perfect white teeth. He was about four inches taller than Lincoln and his black hair was scruffy in almost untamed manner. He wore a suit with a green and red striped tie to commemorate the holiday. "You're a little earlier than we were expecting but that doesn't matter. Come on in." He stepped aside, opening the door wider to allow room walk through.

They stepped inside the foyer, the inside of the house more beautiful than the outside and it too was decorated with ornaments of the holiday. The round foyer was brightly lit with stairs to the left curving their way along the wall up to the no doubt gorgeous levels above; over their heads hung large a golden chandelier. There was an entrance to the right which Jacob led them through and they found themselves in the lounge room. Veronica spotted the large Christmas tree in the corner by the fireplace as the gang took a seat on the beige sofas.

"We just wanted to check the place out." Veronica stated as she continued to look in awe around the lounge room, loving everything she had seen thus far. "It's just that everything was organized last minute and we don't really know your place well at all."

Jacob flashed them another one of his smiles. "That's alright; I was just about to give Nessie a bottle but I'll give you the tour first."

"Nessie?" Lincoln asks.

"It's Renesmee, Jacob." They turned at the sound of the woman's voice behind them. She was petite, much shorter than Veronica; Lincoln guessed she stood at around five foot four, five foot five tops. She was absolutely beautiful; her black dress accentuated the pale white of her skin and hugged her body perfectly. Her brown hair was pulled up in a loose bun on top of her head with a few curls hanging around her face.

"Hi, I'm Bella Cullen." She smiled as she stuck her hand out, shaking both and Veronica's hands. "It's so great to meet the family who actually booked us for today."

"I am not seeing any problem as to why you aren't fully booked for three months?" Lincoln comments. "This house is… wow. And I'm assuming your food is just as good as your house."

"Well we've actually just opened and I think your party's review may help us get started. Of course if you do review, we'll always have an opening for you." Bella smiled. "It's our way of saying thanks."

"Our?" Veronica asks.

"My husband, Edward. He's also a chef like me, but he works part time as a DJ. Jacob here is one of my closest friends. I honestly don't know how I would've gone through life without him and Edward by my side."

"Must've made quite the fight to be her wife." Jake whispered to LJ.

"Actually, these two were fighting for my love, but in the end, I went to Edward. But Jacob promised to be there for me and he figured that he would love to help me out with this whole catering business." Bella clarified for Jake who she managed to hear.

"By the way, what are your names?" Jacob asks.

"I'm Lincoln Burrows." Lincoln introduces himself with his hand moving towards his chest. He then grabs Veronica closer. "This here is the love of my life, Veronica." And then he moves to the side, allowing Jacob to see Jake and LJ. "And these here are my sons, LJ." He points to LJ. "And Jake is my adopted son." He points to Jake. "Jake has quite the story as to why he's a part of our family."

"Wait a minute." Jacob suddenly was smiling. "LJ and Jake Burrows?"

"Yeah?" The two boys replied.

"Oh my god! Wow! I can't believe I'm meeting the two of you for the first time!" Jacob elatedly said.

Everyone was puzzled by Jacob's reaction. "Uhh…" LJ said.

"I've been talking with your coaches for quite some time. They said that you two were the best things that happened to the football and basketball teams this year." Jacob answered. Suddenly, both LJ and Jake grew excited.

"Wait, are you the Jacob Black? Star fullback and shooting guard for the Wentworthville High Trojan Warriors?" LJ asks.

"So the coaches still talk about me, huh?" Jacob asks as he smiles. He was pleased to still be famous to the school.

"Wow! Holy crap! Dude, you're a legend!" LJ said with enthusiasm.

"Thanks. But your coaches are so grateful that you're on the varsity team for both football and basketball. I want to know how you guys do it!"

Bella chuckled. "Okay, how about I give you two the tour of the place while Jacob gets to know your two boys?"

"He's not going to do anything to them, is he?" Veronica asks. She looked at Jacob again; his frame almost monstrous compared to the two average sized teens beside him.

"Well he's probably going to bring them to the entertainment room since he gets bored and plays games on there. Edward tends to join him while I spend time taking care of Renesmee." Bella reassures them. As she said that, the three Wentworthville High sports stars disappeared from view.

*---*

Bella took the two of them through the big house, showing them each of the rooms. Since it was just the four of them, the size of each room was generally larger than the average room of a middle-class working citizen. Almost every room was slightly larger than the regular size of a master bedroom. And, contrary to the numerous windows the house had, there were only four bedrooms; one for Bella and Edward, one for Jacob, one for Renesmee, and a guest room. But the living room they had been sitting in earlier had room to fit sixty people at the very least, and it was there they'd be holding the party.

Lincoln and Veronica were pleased with the arrangements for the party so they went to take a look at the food and what they saw was a table about 25 feet long with food all aligned on it.

"I hope I didn't go overboard love." Edward said as he walked around from behind the table. He was wearing a white apron but also a black suit. He had pale skin, and brown hair like Bella, but it was in a messy, almost undone fashion.

Bella kisses him on the lips. "Well, maybe. What do you guys think?" She turns to Lincoln and Veronica.

"That should be enough. What did you cook by the way?" Veronica asked piqued by curiosity. She didn't know what type of food this couple catered.

"Well since we really didn't get what you would like, we went for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hawaiian, Australian barbeque, American, and…" Edward had a long list going from the top of his head. Lincoln and Veronica were just wide eyed and in surprise at the food they cooked. "And Mexican." He finished, knowing there'd be at least one thing everyone would enjoy.

The only word that Lincoln and Veronica could shoot out is "wow." Bella and Edward smiled at the comment.

"I hope you all can finish that, presuming you have more than 20 friends coming." Edward commented.

"Lincoln and the boys tend to eat a lot when the food is delectable. Not sure about the rest of the party though." Veronica answered.

"Well I guess Jacob can eat as well." Bella sighed. "He can eat like there's no tomorrow. I was going to ask him to stay away from the food. But if there's leftovers, I'm pretty sure he'll-"

"Yeah I'll eat it!" Jacob yelled as he ran through the door, hauling both LJ and Jake under his arms.

"What's going on?" Lincoln asks as he hinted Jacob to drop his boys. He smirked before he placed the boys back on solid ground.

"Jake kicked Jacob's ass in the football game we were playing on the Xbox 360." LJ pointed his thumb backwards. "And it was Jake's first time playing that kind of game."

"Coach Ruder was right about Jake. I didn't think he was that good though at strategizing. Heck, I gave him the crappiest team and he still beat me."

Lincoln smiled and then nudged Jake. "That's my boy."

"I got tired of being beat so I put in the basketball game in and LJ took over. He beat me… actually he thrashed me. He knows how to play this game and the positions a lot better than I do."

"Maybe you just suck at games, Jake." Bella chortled.

"Huh?" Jake asked out of misunderstanding.

Edward hummed. "It's going to be confusing with these two here." Everyone turned to look at him. "Jacob's nickname is Jake. And your son's name is Jake. And we usually call Jacob 'Jake'."

"Okay Jake Burrows needs a new nickname!" LJ mashed his hands together. "How about…?"

"No." Jake quickly interrupted.

"What?" LJ threw his hands up in the air. You didn't even-"

"I'm not going to allow you to give me some whack alias." Jake said. "If I'm going to have to use a nickname, I'll take the one my teammates call me."

"And that is…?" LJ motioned his right hand in a circle for Jake to continue on.

"It was… forget it. You're not going to know what they call me." Jake quickly said. "Dad?" Jake was hoping Lincoln had a nickname.

"How about we just call Jacob 'Jacob'?" Lincoln suggested instead. "Thinking of a nickname to call Jake would confuse everyone else."

"I guess for this one night it'd be alright." Jacob shrugged. "But I'm taking care of Nessie!" He grabs Nessie from Bella and cradles her in his arms. She giggles in his arms and touches Jacob's cheek.

"She's so cute!" Veronica said in a high pitched tone as she smiled. She started cooing and pointing her finger in front of her.

*---*

It was approaching six o'clock and everyone who was invited started pulling into the driveway. They were completely dazzled by the size of the house and more so with Jacob and Lincoln standing at the front door, greeting the guests as they arrived. Edward worked his way to the living room to set up his disc jockey station while Bella stood at the tables to guide people to the food selections they had. While Edward was setting up the speakers, Jake and LJ took the opportunity to help him out. They were done fixing up two while Edward worked on his one. So the two boys switched to the last one and by the time they finished that, Edward finished his. Veronica stuck around with Bella to help with whatever she could.

By quarter to seven, everyone was there, along with a few extra guests who hadn't originally been on the guest list. Michael actually brought His and Lincoln's old friend, Derek. Sara invited Katie for being such a good friend and Katie even brought along C.O. Patterson, who she was now dating. Sucre and Maricruz didn't want to invite their family because Maricruz knew how her family felt about Sucre and Sucre no longer was attached to his cousins. Alex brought Agent Lang and she brought Officer Simon Tulley. Those two were inseparable. Sammie brought Archie Ryan, who she was also dating and even brought Nikki. The party started to gradually grow as friends kept bringing more friends.

At 7, everyone was crowded at the table, grabbing food to eat. LJ and Jake actually had a few friends come along but LJ kept his distance for the time being. He was outside while Jake chatted with his football mates and LJ's basketball mates. They were also talking with Jacob, who seemed more interested in the team than they were with him. He began to realize that the team pulled together once the two Burrows boys were involved. He smiled and was glad that Wentworthville High would have two stars that would be remembered.

At 7:30, LJ finally came back, with a girl and two adults following behind her. Jake noticed immediately and smiled. He was happy that LJ finally came around. LJ brought the girl and the two adults to Lincoln and Veronica.

"Dad. There's something that we need to tell you about."

Lincoln turned around with his plate in his hand and the beer in the other. Once he saw the brown haired girl, who was roughly LJ's height, but rather albino skinned and in a simple white blouse and blue jeans, he immediately knew what this was turning into. Veronica came as she started to see a commotion. Even Michael and Sara got involved. Everyone was out dancing and partying. Jacob knew a good place to spy so he brought Jake to the spot and they could hear exactly what they were saying.

"Dad. This is Chanelle Corlon." LJ introduced his girlfriend next to him. "We've been dating for two months now. And we've hid it from all of you."

"I can't believe you've been dating a convict Channelle!" Her father yelled at her in consternation. "You know better than that!"

"But, dad-" She started, trying to plead with her father, but he wasn't having a bar of it.

"But nothing! I don't want you to have anything to do with these felons!"

His wife started tugging at his shoulder. "Come on. Give them a chance, dear." She endeavored to change the air.

"I will not have my daughter dating some son of a convicted felon!" He was beyond furious.

By this point, Lincoln was already angry that someone would dare say that in front of his family. Everyone grew quiet as the Lincoln and Mr. Corlon exchanged words. They were yelling, at each other's face. Sucre and Michael tried to pull the fight apart but Lincoln was already breaking through. Alex had to help as well as Edward and Simon.. But upstairs, Jake and Jacob could hear exactly what's going on.

"Wow. Didn't expect that to happen." Jake said without sympathy.

"Didn't even know your brother was dating. Why aren't you dating?" Jacob asked.

"Because I don't want to trouble myself with a girlfriend until I'm completely set."

"Old fart." Jacob chortled.

"Shut up!" Jake whispered as loud as possible. "I need to hear this!"

"Hey, what are you two doing up her alone?" An innocent, little, but cute voice came from Jacob's side. They both turned and then jumped. It took a moment for them to recompose themselves as they looked at the little girl who was staring at the two of them. "You two are funny!" She started laughing.

Jacob and Jake shammed a chuckle. "Who are you?" Jake asked.

"My name is Megan Corlon. I'm Chanelle's seven year old sister. My daddy's name is Korbin and my mommy's name is Mia." She said with a cute smile. "What are you two doing?"

"We were… spying." Jake had to use simpler words than his regular vernacular.

"Oh! I want to spy!" She jumped up and down on the floor in excitement and all of a sudden, they heard a crack.

"Shoot! I forgot about the unstable floor!" Jacob yelled.

"What?! WHAT UNSTABLE FLOOR?!" Jake asked. All of a sudden, the crack sounded louder and it wasn't coming from under them, but under Megan, who was jumping up and down excitedly. "Oh crap!" Jake dived and pushed Megan away from the crack and then slammed into the floor, breaking it and causing him to fall through the hole with the debris.

"Crap!" Jacob yelled. He goes to check Megan first. There were a few bruises, but nothing too major. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." She said in an unhappy tone. "Is he going to be okay?" She began to cry now. "It's all my fault!" She yelled as tears trickled down her face.

Jacob tried to calm her down. "It's alright. He'll be fine. Come with me." He held her hand and brought her down with him.

Lincoln, Michael, Sucre, Alex, Derek, Simon Tulley, and Archie Ryan were pulling the debris away to get to Jake when he fell down with the floor. It took them a few minutes to get it out and get to Jake. When they finally pulled the dust and dirt away, Lincoln immediately checked if he was breathing and then Sara and Nikki both went to help.

Lincoln smacked his face a lightly. "Come on. Wake up!" Sammie came from behind him.

"Is he alright? Tell me he'll be alright." Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke.

"Dad, is he alright?" LJ came with Chanelle. They held hands and she caressed it, trying to tell him everything's going to be alright.

"Don't worry LJ. Jake is strong." Chanelle smiled. She knew that everything was not fine, but she could only comfort LJ in his time of need.

"He's breathing. He'll be alright." Sara said as she checks his lungs. Jacob finally reached the bottom of the stairs with Megan. He was approached by Edward, who was incensed.

"What the hell Jacob?! You knew that floor was unstable! Why the hell did you bring him and the girl upstairs?"

"I forgot that the floor was unstable. But Jake and I weren't jumping until the girl came up here jumping excitedly after we told her we were… eavesdropping." Jacob rubbed his head. "The floor cracked as she jumped and Jake pushed her out of the way before the floor completely went under."

"Wait, my daughter was up there?" Korbin asked.

"She went up there and she scared the both of us."

"And Jake actually saved her?" Mia asked.

"Yes. If he didn't push her, your daughter would be the one down there right now, slowly breathing." He looked at Lincoln who was worried. "Sorry." Lincoln went back to check on Jake. "He saved her."

Korbin was just amazed. Maybe I was a bit too harsh on them. I probably shouldn't have judged them by their actions in the past. He goes with his wife to pick Megan up from Jacob.

"Are you alright, Megan?" Mia asks. She holds her close to her chest as Megan cries.

"It's all my fault mommy. The boy pushed me to save me from falling." She started crying more. Korbin and Mia started patting her back telling her to shh.

"It's alright, Megan. He'll be fine." Korbin said in a supple tone. "It's okay. Just relax." They took her to the couch to sit as she continued to cry.

*---*

Everyone was calm and back to normal in 15 minutes. Jake had awoken from the fall. He had a slight head injury, but nothing too serious. This was a huge load off of everyone's back, more for Jacob, who was in trouble with Edward. Jake was breathing fine but he wanted to know if Megan was alright and Korbin and Mia had approached him and Lincoln.

"She's fine. She's actually sad that you got hurt for saving her." Korbin answered for him.

"Oh. I see. I'll be back. Where is she? I want to let her know that I'm okay." Jake knew that Korbin and Mia wanted to start over with Lincoln and his family so he needed an excuse to get out.

"She's with Chanelle and LJ." Mia answered with a smile which meant she said 'thank you.'

"Thank you!" Jake dashed off as quickly as possible.

"Hey, Jake! Slow down! Don't hurt yourself!" Lincoln yelled from behind him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jake yelled back without any care at all. He quickly snakes through the crowd to the couch.

Lincoln shakes his head and Veronica grabs him by the arm, wanting to dance with him during the slow song. But they were stopped by Korbin and Mia, who looked a little more apologetic than usual.

"Mr. Burrows, before I want to say this, although it's probably killing me from the inside." Korbin then sighs. "You have no idea how hard it is for me to actually go in a whole different direction now."

"Actually, I understand completely." Lincoln reassured him with a smile. "Look, I'm sorry I got mad. It's just hard to stand by and have someone insult my family. Or hurt my kids."

Korbin chuckled. "You should've let me go first man. I wanted to say sorry for my actions as well and that I'm sorry that my little girl nearly caused you to lose your son today."

"Hey, it's alright." Lincoln put his hand on his shoulder. "By the way, I wanted to speak to you about Chanelle and LJ." He pulled him away from Veronica and Mia, who were watching as the two of them chatted about the whole boyfriend, girlfriend situation.

"I can't believe all this happened tonight." Mia said as she stared at Korbin and Lincoln. "Our daughter is dating and we get invited to such a great party. And now my husband's found a new friend."

Veronica chuckled. "LJ dating was one that I expected, but I wasn't expecting it to be so soon. And to tell you the truth, this one planned at the absolute last minute. We were lucky to come by such great caterers."

Bella walks behind them quickly. "Thank you!" She said and quickly dashes up to Edward's DJ station.

Mia and Veronica laughed together. "I can't believe the story you guys went through. I mean I read the newspaper about the hearing for Jake. I knew that Lincoln, Michael, Fernando Sucre, and Alex Mahone weren't bad people. But Korbin has been so protective of his daughter dating that she's been finding it hard trying to find a date who will actually stand up to her dad."

"LJ's a great kid and he's too much like Lincoln."

"Wait, you're not married to him yet?" Mia asked.

"Well, not yet. But I know Lincoln's working on it. It's been three months since we came back and nothing too serious-"

"Besides the Kyubor Mafia."

Veronica smiled. "Right. Besides the Kyubor Mafia. Happened."

"Hey, let's pull our boys back and bring them to dance. I'm not wasting this wonderful opportunity to dance to this slow song!" Mia suggested. Veronica smiled and the two of them raced and grabbed their boys to dance.

Everyone who was coupled was on the floor. LJ with Chanelle, Lincoln with Veronica, Korbin and Mia, Michael and Sara, Sucre and Maricruz, Alex and Pam, Bella, Renesmee and Edward, Agent Lang and Simon Tulley, Sammie and Archie Ryan, and Jacob and Nikki. But the cutest couple on the floor by far was Cameron and Megan. Jake sat down on the couch and laughed as he hung out with some of the football team who didn't have dates for this party as well as some of the basketball team. Then Lincoln asked Edward to get everyone quiet and to listen to him and Michael.

"Alright. So I know everyone's been enjoying the party so I wanted to say that we should give a great round of applause to Jacob Black, Bella Cullen, Edward Cullen, and their baby, Renesmee Cullen!" Lincoln said into the microphone. Everyone clapped their hands for them and they bowed down graciously. Bella quickly took Renesmee to her room because it was time for her to sleep. She came back down almost immediately.

"Okay. So to tell everyone the truth, Veronica and I decided to throw this a week before Christmas Eve. And I'll admit, doing stuff like that last minute was the stupidest thing that I've done in my life." Lincoln said into the mike and he smiled.

"So getting sent to prison wasn't the stupidest thing you've done yet?" Sucre joked. Everyone laughed.

"Yeah, it wasn't. But for you, Sucre, you still can't spell 'passion' correctly." Lincoln joked back.

"So how did you spell it?" Michael asked. "Oh right! It was 'P-a-s-h-i-o-n'" Everyone then laughed at Sucre and he blushed.

"That's cute, baby!" Maricruz said as she kissed him on the lips.

"See! She said it was cute!" Sucre said after he pulled out.

Michael chuckled. "Okay so for the main reason we wanted everyone to be quiet was because Linc and I have two final gifts to give to end this Christmas gift session."

"You mean it didn't end with you and dad as well as Sara and Veronica ripping open your presents like little kids this morning?" LJ asks, causing a snicker to ripple through the crowd.

"No it didn't end LJ." Michael said. "But to go on, our two gifts are for LJ and Jake."

"So come on boys, come on up here on the stage!" Lincoln ushers them to come and they run up to the stage.

"Now if this is a prank, remember this. What you both come up with Jake and I can come up with something ten times as worse." LJ grins evilly.

"No it's not a prank." Lincoln pulls out an old watch. "This is my dad, your grandpa's old watch." It was golden but there were parts where it was partially rusty. The time on it had roman numerals but inside was a design of a diamond. The hands were set at 9 PM.

"He gave it to me before he disappeared on us. Now I know that Alex is feeling bad right now, but I forgive you man. Really." Lincoln smiled and Alex felt better.

"Anyways, I've had it for awhile, but now I'm giving it to you LJ. From me. It's a precious heirloom to me and I feel that you deserve it now." Lincoln passes the watch to him. LJ puts the watch on his wrist and it actually latched around like a perfect fit.

"Thanks dad. I love it." LJ smiled and hugged his dad tight.

"Okay now my turn." Michael pulls out a necklace that had a flawlessly cut Sapphire attached to it. The chain looked completely new. "Jake, this is something that Linc and I had from our mom for such a long time after she died. We always looked at it whenever we needed to be reminded about her."

"Now shouldn't you also give that to LJ? I mean I'm not even blood." Jake closed Michael's hands.

"Just because you aren't blood doesn't mean that you're not a Burrows, kiddo." Lincoln said.

"He's right." Michael approved. He opens his hands again. "By heart, and I know mom is watching us now, you're a Burrows. And she and our father would agree if they were here. This gift is yours and you definitely belong with us."

Jake was nervous, but he took the necklace anyways. It slipped out of his hand and he caught it as LJ put his hand out to catch it as well. The gem collided with the face of the watch and then the time got fixated on 3 PM.

"What the hell?" LJ wondered what just happened. Lincoln looked at the watch and then took it back to fix the time.

"Damn thing must be ancient. I wonder when dad bought this." Lincoln passes the watch back to LJ and he puts it back on.

"That happened before, always would point to 3 PM when this necklace touched it. Not sure why." Michael scratched his head. "Well, to end this, these are your gifts! I hope you two enjoy them from us!"

"We will Uncle. We will." LJ smiled. He and Jake both hugged Michael and Lincoln and everyone went back to dancing. The last song they played was the Electric Slide.

Outside though, someone was watching them.

"Yeah. They're all in there. And it looks like they still have them." The mysterious man said into his phone.

"Make sure to keep track of it. Those boys won't go down easily." The sound of a woman's voice came from the other end of the phone. "After all, there are more ways to get this to work."

"Are you sure you don't want me to charge in there right now?" This time it sounded like a man with a southern accent. "Because if not, my buddy is waiting for me because he's hopelessly lost."

"Let them be happy for now. Because soon, and I mean soon, that happiness will come to an end." The lady hangs up the phone.

"Are you sure this will work?" Another woman asks her in her office.

The blonde haired woman turns around in her chair. "Of course. And we both know how much you hate that man. I hate him as well and it'll all turn out for the best now that we've managed to work your marriage off."

"Good. They're going to pay dearly for what they caused me." The black haired woman grinned.

"All we need is time. And I'm sure he will compensate for that time."