You guys! I totally forgot it was Friday! Here's your chapter. Please don't hate.

Also don't hate because I may or may not be able to post a chapter next Friday. I'm traveling hither and yon for the next three Fridays/weekends, so my timing may be off. But this is such a boring section of the story, what does that matter? ;)

Thanks for reeeeaadiiiiiinnnngggg!

The car proceeded down the road. It was quiet for a moment. Sevvy's breathing had returned to normal, but slow tears still leaked from his eyes. I hugged him and kissed his temple.

"Cosima," Teo said, and my stomach dropped even further. I looked at him.

"This isn't just… minor drug or immigration charges, is it?" His voice was both gentle and full of dread. I could see from the sweat popping up on his brow that he was struggling not to react further.

"Teo, I…" Tears swam across my eyes. "No. But, it's complicated. I—"

"I want to trust you." Michael's voice, despite his keeping his eyes locked on the road, held a timbre I'd never heard before from him. "We're going to get Severo home and then we'll talk. Is there any problem with that?" I stared at the back of his head, feeling like I'd ruined his voice somehow, like he had never spoken in such controlled menace before before, but I'd broken him. I'd broken all of us.

My phone buzzed.

I immediately grabbed it out of my bag and fumbled with it, ripping off the back cover without even looking at the to caller i.d. I quickly yanked out the battery and sim card. We rolled up to a red light, and I opened the door.

"Hold on," I told them, with more command than I'd expected. I threw the phone against the asphalt and grunted as if stung when it bounced, only a small part breaking off. Frustrated, I ran forward and placed it under one of the front tires, the leaped back into the car.

Everyone was looking at me like I was an alien.

"Go," I exhorted, meeting Michael's eyes in the rearview.

"But what if—" Teo began. I glanced forward and up.

"The light is changing. Drive."

There was a pop and crunch as the car rolled over the cell phone, shattering it. My mind whirled. Should I have them drop me off someplace inconspicuous? My hand clutched my wallet and I squeezed it, trying to recall what was in there. It might be enough... but, if we were being watched, that might be a bad idea. I couldn't know how true the words on that terrible letter might be.

"What—" Teo began, but stopped again to watch as I rolled down the rear window and chucked the sim card into the back of a passing pick-up truck. Two points, my mind dizzily informed me, on the edge of delirium. I took a breath.

"I'm going to talk to you when we get back to the house, when Sevvy has nap time," I told him. "I'll explain to you what I can, but I'm gonna need a burner phone as soon as possible."

"A 'burner phone?'" Teo asked, only able to keep his voice normal after taking a glance at Sevvy. Before he could say anything else, we all lurched rightward when Michael took a sudden left.

"Teo, you get it." Michael's volume was normal, but you could tell it was an order. "I'll drop you off at Kingston. You can catch the UCAT back." This time Teo's wide eyes jerked to his husband.

"The bus?" he asked, voice rising in tone and volume. Michael gave a swift nod.

"It should come by at about 1:30, so you'll want to jog it. I'm going to take Sevvy and—" he glanced in the rearview at me, and his lips compressed into that taut line again, "—us back to the house. I don't trust you driving when you're this upset, but maybe you won't be noticed this way," he addressed Teo again. "I will keep an eye on our son and make sure he's safe. When you get back, I'm sure Cosima will tell us what's going on." Another implicit command in a tone that wouldn't scare our child, this time aimed at me.

Teo actually paused with his mouth open for a moment.

'Do you really think we should separate?" he husked. We all exchanged glances, but something in Michael's demeanor made Teo shut his mouth and and nod.

"Okay," he said, and touched Michael's shoulder. "Okay." He turned to look at Sevvy in the back seat, and patted his knee.

"Alright, mi alma, Papa's going to take a quick shopping trip while Daddy takes you and Cosima home." His eyes flitted to me and I winced, realizing I wasn't Mommy or Mama, now. "I'll be back by the time you finish your nap."

"We never take the bus," Sevvy pointed out, but quietly, muffled, his cheek pressed against the safety seat headrest.

"I know, but today has been different, and Daddy wants to get you home safe right away, while I have to do this thing."

Sevvy's eyes rolled toward me, the whites showing, signalling his alarm. He was rattled, but trying to be good. I inhaled deeply, pooling all my reserves of calm.

"Listen," I said to him, "I know things have been kind of weird today, and pretty scary. Sometimes things don't go how we expect them. Remember the time that raccoon knocked over the trash?" He nodded weakly, but solemnly. "That's good. What did you learn then?"

"All noises aren't dangerous," he mumbled, then spoke a bit more clearly, "but animals can be dangerous so treat them with… caution and respeck— respect. And… you and Daddy and Papa look out for me, and protect me… and to keep a cool head and ask y-you when I am scared." I worked hard to keep my lower lip from trembling. He was so good, so smart — and he could tell how upset we were. Because I had endangered him.

"That's right," Teo reassured him. "Sometimes we adults get nervous, but we're not mad at you. We just need to talk with the police about that man who gave you the note, because he wasn't supposed to do that. So, you're going home, and I'm going to do something to help us." My son's eyebrows scrunched a bit skeptically, his lower lip protruding in a tired pout, but he nodded.

"Just be chill, Cookie Man," I told him, placing my palm on his soft, ruffled hair. My grin was small, but, I hoped, reassuring. "You have some lunch and rest, and we'll take care of things. You'll most likely feel a little better when you wake up, okay?"

Michael pulled the car into the grocery store parking lot, just as if it were a regular shopping day. I felt a tiny bit better when I saw Teo's lip reflexively curl into a sneer as we faced the Chipotle. There was something so normal about it, that he could still register disgust despite the whirlwind we were in. But I could see his eyes mist up as he leaned over to kiss Michael on the cheek. Like a true retired actor, though, he put on his game face and turned back to Severo.

"Te amo. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Bye, Pa." Severo gave him a little wave.

Teo took one last look into the car, and I suddenly remembered something.

"If they have a flip phone or a brick, just get that. I don't need wifi or bluetooth or SB. Uh, they may be easier to find in the big, cheap chain stores than the phone companies' stores."

"Cos," Teo huffed, and just hearing him use the diminutive gave me hope that I hadn't lost his friendship, yet. "What do you think? I have seen The Wire, before. And 'El Silbón'

used one once," he added referring to his most famous television role. He shook his head and closed the door.

I didn't move to switch to the front seat.

We pulled out and drove for a moment in silence.

"That, uh, was a pretty good idea about the phone and bus and stuff," I awkwardly ventured.

"It seems pretty obvious to me," Michael responded, words clipped, then mumbled "although I'm not the expert here." I didn't know what to say. I could barely even think coherently at that point.

Some more road went by. Sevvy started whisper-singing a song from one of his kids' shows. There was so much I wanted to say, and so much I probably should've said, but I couldn't do it now, in front of our child. Our child. And now when I was finally trying to be a constant in his life…

I closed my eyes and breathed. I felt like "be here now" wasn't gonna cut it when the present felt so tense, so I tried to be silent, think of nothing, be nothing, just observe the stabs of emotions and memories that came to my head without holding on to them.

Sevvy seemed to be winding down. The peak of the excitement had passed, and the car's motion over the familiar, almost bucolic roads was soothing him towards sleep. I opened my eyes and looked at him while his eyelids fluttered open, half-mast, shut. I knew that soon I'd have to explain things, but maybe more importantly I needed to contact my sisters.

And every fibre of my being was crying out that I really, really needed Delphine.