I walked down the main road, so thankful for the peaceful street. When I say peaceful, it was actually filled with hustle and bustle, noise everywhere, people shoving into shops, out of shops, talking on their phones. Just how it always was. I was usually a quiet guy, but all the hours stuck in the flat made me realise how much I missed it. Out of everything, it stayed the same, unlike my life right know. In fact, my life always. My life changed constantly.

Let me start with Peaches. Cutest, cleverest, sweetest baby I've ever seen. But hey, I'm not exactly in charge of a nursery. But in the first few months of her life, I wished I was in another country.

When she was annoyed, angry, hungry, needed a poo needed a wee, thirsty and for a whole load of other reasons, she screamed. And cried. And screamed a whole load more. In those months, I couldn't guess for the life of me why Ellie and Manny wanted a screaming bundle of chubbiness. Cute chubbiness, but still.

Thank God babies grow up. But no thanks to God for giving Ellie and Manny the idea that they needed to buy a house. I mean, what's wrong with their flat? And because of that brainwave, I was now a co-babysitter.

First couple of weekends, it was fine. Buck and I always found a new game to play. But then the weirdest thing happened. Peaches made me think of the last baby girl I'd seen. They have the same smile, same sense of humour.

No, if you were thinking it, was the last little girl mine. This little girl was a girl when I was a little boy; she was only a couple of months younger than me. And that memory led me to the memory of her twin, and they were my partners in childish crime. And that led me to all my childhood right up to when I was eighteen.

I had worked hard to bury all those memories. It wasn't so hard in Soto's gang, where I had to bury every emotion I had apart from anger and revenge. I did just that. I was a seasoned memory-forgetter even in Manny's 'gang' so even where I could show feelings, they never really bothered me. Until Peaches was born. And now that I was a permanent babysitter, everything I worked hard to lose came flooding back, and it wasn't nice at all.

Now, even Buck had had noticed despite the bubble of insanity that surrounded him and his crazy little world. It's true, and even I, as his fellow bachelor who longed for adventure have to admit.

Probably 'cause I never spent any time with my one and only niece. Probably 'cause I spent every evening staring at her.

Memories scare me. Especially when it's all I have of the first chapter of my life.

I was engrossed in my thoughts. It was like I was listening to music with the volume turned up 50 notches, with my $300 with high definition sound and noise cancelling that I now kept in a box on top of my wardrobe so Peaches wouldn't drool all over them, apart from I couldn't' hear a thing. Suddenly, I walked into someone so hard we both fell over.

"Oh, sh….Sorry…" I trailed off. The guy I'd just knocked over was looking at me like my face had just turned bright orange. And I think I was looking at him the same way. He was tanned like me, had browny-amber eyes, and was tall-ish and muscular. Not as tall as me, but still looked pretty sturdy.

"Do I know you?" he asked. His voice was husky, and weirdly familiar.

"I don't know."

"What's your name?"

"Mommy told me not to give my name to randumos I knock over in the street.." I said, and got and held out a hand to him. He laughed, took it, and got up too.

"I'm Roddy."

No way. Roddy? No, it can't be. Oh please Diego, there's probably six hundred Roddys in the world.

"Fine then. I'm Diego." He gave me the funnies look in the world.

"Surname?" I groaned inwardly, but hey, what harm could it do?

"Espartana."

"Oh my holy cow." Roddy said. "Diego? Diego Luis Espartana? Don't you remember me?"

Oh man. i knew I did.

"Rodrigo Lopez Cruz. What the hell are you doing here?"

"My man Diego!" he cried and crushed me in a bear hug. Damn, I didn't need a reminder of his enthusiasm. But god, I'd missed him. My childhood and teenage best friend. We had stood up for each other, took the blame for each other… That ultimately became why I was carted off with Soto.

After petting time was over, we started question time. well, he did.

"What are you doing?"

"Where do you live?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No? oh well. Are you in a new gang?"

"Are they sabres?"

I only had three questions. What was Roddy doing in Boston when our, well, their HQ was in New York? It wasn't a holiday, I was sure of that.

And how were….

"Diego?" Roddy and I turned around. One of the two remaining questions were answered, in part at least.

Author's note; Ok ok, so Espartana isn't the most realistic surname, or anything to do with sarcastic saber-toothed tigers with amazing eyes at all, but it is a surname, and it fits in with the story later on.

Next time: Who is this newcomer? And why did Diego leave for Soto's gang? Please R&R!