A/N: Sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. My job had me working overtime which left me no time to write (or even knit). I'll be getting the next few chapters out quicker.

Chapter 2

A Day With The DeSotos

Johnny pulled up in his white Land Rover and parked behind Roy's dark blue pick-up on the driveway in front of the DeSoto house. Joann's station wagon was missing, and not seeing Roy's beloved Porsche, Johnny figured it was in its usual place inside the garage.

He stretched his arm into the back seat foot well behind the passenger seat and snagged the six pack of Miller High Life he had bought on his way over. This Saturday was for relaxing. No Honey-do list. No construction projects. No car repairs or tune-ups. Just stretch out on the back deck, watch the kids play and forget that the rest of the world existed.

Whistling to himself as he walked up the path to the front door, Johnny thought he heard cursing coming thru the front window as he stepped onto the porch, but that couldn't be right. Today was a day for relaxing, not cursing. He knocked on the door. He waited. He listened. He was about to knock again when he definitely heard cursing this time. Shrugging, he knocked the first part of shave-and-a-hair-cut and stepped back half a step.

It was a slightly disheveled and damp Roy who opened the door. Not to be discouraged, Johnny held the six-pack aloft, grinned and said cheerily, "Hey, Roy! Howzit goin'?"

Blue eyes rolled as Roy stepped aside for his friend to come in. Johnny looked altogether too upbeat for the aggravated homeowner right now. He knew this was supposed to be a relaxing day and he wasn't going to take his problems out on his partner. But he was glad that Johnny was here. Aggravation shared is aggravation lessened.

"Where's Joanne?" Johnny called over his shoulder as he walked across the living room to the kitchen. Then he noticed how quiet the house was. Putting the beer in the fridge, Johnny glanced over his shoulder and out the kitchen window to the empty backyard. "And the kids?" Then he noticed the sink had no faucet.

As he closed the refrigerator door, he found Roy standing and looking at him. "Joanne took the kids to Ralphs."

"Took the kids? That's brave."

"Yeah. She told them that if they were good and helped her shop they could each pick out a candy bar at the check-out. She went to get some steaks for us and burger meat for the kids to grill up later." Roy saw Johnny's eyes drift to the sink. He pointed in its direction and answered the silent question, "The faucet broke."

"I was wondering what happened to it. Ya need some help?"

"Yeah. I know we were supposed to be relaxing today…"

"Hey," Johnny said magnanimously, "you can't help it when stuff breaks. Don't worry about it. I'll help ya fix it. No problem."

Roy gave his enthusiastic friend a worried look. Any time Johnny said "no problem" Roy worried. With good reason. Images of burning TVs and disassembled motor bikes flitted thru his head.

The faucet was laying on the counter next to the sink. Johnny picked up the handle, which was no longer attached to the rest of the fixture. "Now, I'm no plumber," he said with his empty hand splayed out on his chest, "but I believe this may be your problem." Held by forefinger and thumb, he dangled the broken part in front of his partner's face.

With a glare of mild exasperation, Roy grabbed the offending item out of Johnny's hand. "Ya think? It broke off in my hand-"

"Man don't know his own strength," Johnny muttered under his breath.

With a look of harrumph, Roy continued, "-when I went to wash the breakfast dishes this morning. And before you say something, yes, that's the other reason Joanne left the house."

Johnny looked innocent. "I didn't say anything. So, do you have a new handle? Or is there a trip to the hardware store happening?" He peered down the hole where the faucet should be so Roy couldn't see the gleam that came to his eye at the thought of a trip to the hardware store.

"Naw. I've got a whole new faucet in the garage."

Johnny looked up in confusion. *Who keeps a spare faucet, of all things?*

"It's kind of fancy, it was on sale, and I hadn't got around to putting it on yet."

The younger man grinned. "Well," he gestured to the lever still in Roy's hand, "there's your round tuit."

One hour, two bruised knuckles, several colorful obscenities and a bandaged finger later, the boys were ready to turn the water back on and test out their plumbing prowess. One last glance at each other and Roy bent down and reached under the sink to give the valve knob a twist. Fingers crossed, he raised the faucet lever to start the flow into the sink.

They weren't prepared for the water spray that hit them mid-stomach. Both men jumped back about a foot. Then they realized that the water was still on, and was now getting on the floor. They both jumped forward and slammed the lever down to "off".

Johnny was the first to recover. "What the hell?" he burst out. The lower half of his shirt was soaked and the top of his jeans were damp. He pulled the shirt out of pants and wrung it out. Only a few drops fell, but it made him feel better. He looked at the palms of his hands for some reason, they were lightly tinged maroon. "Aw, hell." He moved to wipe his hands off on the thighs of his jeans, then thought the better of it. For a moment he was lost for what to do. Then it hit him. He grabbed a couple of paper towels, wiped his hands off on those (for all the good it did him), and then dropped the towels on the floor and stepped on them to sop up the water there.

For his part, Roy ignored the water soaking into his clothes and was instead staring at the large, flat, black, rubber oval with the holes cut out that was sitting on the counter next to the sink. "Johnny", he elbowed his distraught friend. Ignored, he tried again. "Johnny", he said a little louder, this time elbowing and pointing to the rubber gasket that wasn't supposed to be there.

Looking up from his feet, Johnny grunted, "huh?" Then his eyes followed Roy's arm and traveled to where his finger was pointing. He saw. He closed his eyes. "Shit."

"Yeah. Let's get it fixed before we clean up. It shouldn't take us too long."

Johnny returned to Roy one of those looks that his partner had given him over the years. It was the look that his best friend gave him every time he came up with a great idea, or wanted to try doing something new. Johnny had so many of those stored up that he was sure Roy would appreciate getting one back.

Johnny was wrong. Roy recognized the look and replied, "Shut up. At least we know what we're doing this time."

Brown eyes began to roll again until their owner rethought trying to give his friend another one of those looks. It just wasn't worth it. Instead, as he bent down to shut the water valve off again, the junior paramedic imagined their captain smacking the back of Roy's head. The pipes were treated to a satisfied smile.

Thirty minutes, and no further injuries, later, they had the water running thru just the spout of a brand new, fancy, faucet. It was a thing of beauty. The rest of the kitchen, not so much. They hurriedly sopped up the water from the floor with many more paper towels. Then they finally washed the breakfast dishes, Roy washing with Johnny drying, and wiped down the counter. When all was done, Johnny stepped back while Roy gave the kitchen one final inspection. Big sigh of relief as he deemed it wife-ready.

Finally able to, Johnny started unbuttoning his wet shirt. "I think I've still got some t-shirts in the guest room. At least I hope I do."

"I think you left a pair of jeans here, too. Should be in the dresser," Roy said as he left the kitchen to change his own wet clothes. "Just throw the wet stuff in the dryer when you're changed."

Finding a few shirts to choose from in the dresser in the room his partner's kids called "Uncle Johnny's Room", Johnny also found the jeans that were in there, though John couldn't for the life of him remember leaving a pair of jeans behind. And these were one of his good pairs, too. No holes, no rips, no stains. *Well, that explains it. Nothing memorable about 'em.*

After he'd changed into dry clothes, Roy found Johnny sitting at the kitchen table in dry clothes of his own. Opening the door next to where John was sitting, he walked into the storage room where the washer and dryer were and tossed his own wet clothes into the open and waiting machine.

"So what are we gonna tell Joanne if she asks why the dryer's running or why you changed your shirt from when she left?" Johnny wondered as Roy stepped back into the dining area, closing the door behind him and muffling the knocking sound of the dryer he just started.

"Whaddya mean 'what are we gonna tell her'? The truth. That's what."

"The truth!" Johnny yelped incredulously, jumping up and following Roy to the kitchen. "You can't tell her the truth! What's she gonna think?"

"What she already thinks. It doesn't matter. I'm not going to lie to my wife."

"Well," Johnny backtracked, "you don't have 'ta lie. Just don't tell her what all when on."

Roy gave his partner his usual semi-resigned look that he had when talking about his lovely wife. "Why not? She's gonna find out somehow anyway. She always does. Lying just makes it worse."

Giving up on what was obviously a fruitless endeavor, Johnny just shook his head and said, "Boy, makes me glad I'm not married."

Roy shook his head as he turned from John and opened the fridge. Grabbing two bottles of the Miller his best friend had stowed in there when he'd arrived, he reached back with them as he closed the door and said, "Here, take one. Let's go sit out back."

Carefully extracting a bottle from Roy's fingers, Johnny grinned and started singing under his breath, "If you've got the time…we've got the beer…" Roy just rolled his eyes and headed outside.

The best friends sat on the back deck in companionable silence drinking their beers and recovering from the unexpected excitement of earlier. Lounging back in a pair of Adirondack chairs, the men surveyed the backyard and enjoyed the quiet. A quiet they knew would soon be shattered when Joanne and the kids got home.

Johnny took a long pull off his beer. Resting the bottle on the arm of the chair, he looked back at the patio door. "Hey, Roy? Haven't they been gone for an awfully long time?"

Looking at his watch, the father of two shrugged. "I have a feeling Joanne found a few other 'errands' to run before hitting the Ralphs. I'm sure she wants to make damn sure she gives me ample time to fix that faucet and calm down before getting back," Roy responded. He snorted thoughtfully, "Knowing Joanne, 'me' includes you."

"Heh," Johnny chuckled in agreement, "no doubt."

Roy tipped the bottle to his lips for another swallow. Without looking at the dark-haired man next to him, Roy began what he felt was going to be the hard part of the afternoon. Talking to Johnny. "So, how long's it been since you've even talked to your folks?"

With a sigh, Johnny quietly responded, "I dunno. A few months maybe?"

"Your last birthday?" Roy guessed.

The younger man thought for a second and had another sip of beer. "Yeah. I guess."

Roy shook his head in confusion. "I don't get it. I thought you had a good relationship with your family. It really surprises me that you aren't on the phone with them regularly."

Johnny looked down and wiped at an invisible smudge on his belt buckle. He cleared his throat and said, "Yeah, well, long distance isn't cheap, ya know." Gathering steam, John looked over at Roy, "And with the two hour time difference by the time the rates go down here it's the middle of the night out there. And they get up early. It is a working ranch, remember."

"OK. Fine," Roy accepted his partner's excuse. "Have they invited you back out and you said 'no'?"

"No."

"'No' what? 'No' they haven't invited, or 'no' you didn't say 'no'?"

Another, harder sigh, "No, they haven't invited me back out. And before you ask, it isn't because they don't want me. It's just that there are others that probably still don't."

Auburn eyebrows knit together as their owner slowly turned his head to look at his partner. "What? Why? Who?"

With a laugh, John interrupted "Now you're starting to sound like me."

Roy waived his nearly empty bottle at Johnny. "Never mind that. What are you talking about? Why would people not want you to come back home? What did you do?"

"It's not what I did, Roy, which is nothing. It's what I am."

Roy didn't get it. Still confused he asked, "What you are? What's that supposed to mean? They don't like that you became a fireman?"

Johnny appreciated his friend's inability to see what he felt was obvious. Even after the crap he took from Chet's joking around at his expense and Roy defending the jokes, his partner truly didn't see any difference between himself and Johnny, or Marco or Doc Morton for that matter. It was one of the things he liked about working at Station 51 (Chet's narrow-mindedness aside), and about working with Roy in particular. So different from when he was a kid back on the rez.

"No, Roy," Johnny replied with great patience. He sat up and twisted himself so he could lean with both forearms on the arm of the chair and stare directly at his friend. "They don't like me because I'm half white." With that, he drained his bottle, clicked it against Roy's and said, "Finish," as he stood up.

Roy drained the last of his beer and placed the bottle in Johnny's outstretched hand. While his partner took the two empties into the kitchen to exchange them for fresh ones, Roy contemplated what it would be like to live in a community of people who didn't like you just because one of your parents was a different race from the rest of everybody there. It was something he'd had no exposure to growing up in Pomona. Even though everybody he knew as a kid was white, it was the one thing his parents did right; raising him and his kid sister to be without prejudice.

In the kitchen, Johnny chucked the empty beer bottles into the trash. As he spun around on one heel to grab the refrigerator handle he heard the front door being opened. With a smile, he turned back to the sink and rapped a knuckle on the kitchen window to get Roy's attention. Then he stepped into the dining area and turned to walk into the living room to greet the family.

"Uncle Johnny!" came the chorus of voices from the two monsters that came running through the living room towards the object of their enthusiasm. Johnny barely made it to his knees before they launched themselves at their favorite uncle. Even at 8 years old, Chris DeSoto still got excited to see his "Uncle" Johnny and wasn't the least embarrassed about giving the man a hug. Six year old Jennifer DeSoto thinks the best thing in the world is to wrap her arms around the neck of the man she's known as uncle since she was two and have him scoop her up into a big hug.

There was a big smile on his face as Johnny was nearly knocked over by Roy's kids. He looked up to see Joanne DeSoto walking through the living room towards him carrying a paper grocery bag from Ralphs on her hip and a shopping bag from JCPenny's in her other hand. He let out a slightly strangled, "Hi, Jo."

Roy's wife smiled at her husband's partner and at the reception he was getting from their children. "Alright now, you two," she said as Roy walked in from the deck, "let your Uncle Johnny go so he can breathe again." As the kids loosed their grip, she said to the paramedic getting up from the floor, "Hi, Johnny."

Roy met his wife with a kiss on the cheek and relieved her of her grocery burden. As he went to put the meat that he knew was in the bag into the refrigerator, he asked his wife, "Whatcha get at JCPenny's?"

"Oh, I passed by on the way to Ralphs and saw they were having a sale," Joanne explained. "I took a chance that they had summer clothes in and stopped. Chris has grown a little since last summer and I figured that his shorts are probably a little too small on him now. So, two new pairs of shorts for Chris, and a package of new underwear. Oh," she said as an afterthought, "and a new summer dress for Jennifer."

Turning from the cabinet under the sink where he stored the now folded up grocery bag, Roy walked over to his wife and peered in to the shopping bag she was still holding. "Hmm," he said into the bag and then looked up at his wife with a smile and raised eyebrows. "And a new purse for Mommy, I see."

Joanne blushed a little, then defended her purchases. "Well, don't worry. Everything was on sale. 25% off all children's clothing and 30% off all select women's accessories," she said, quoting the signs in the department store, "of which the purse was one."

Roy planted another kiss on his wife's cheek. "Don't worry about it. I'd never deny my wife a new purse." Joanne gave him one of those "don't patronize me, you man" looks, then shook her head and left to put the things from JCPenny's away. Roy wasn't concerned about his wife's spending. He knew she was acutely aware of how tight their budget was. He also knew that if you didn't splurge a little on something frivolous every once in a while you'd begin to lose your inner sense of fun. Even tightwad Johnny understood that.

Speaking of Johnny, he had in the meanwhile taken the kids out back to play in the yard. Jennifer had roped him into pushing her on the swing set that he and Roy had erected in the backyard last summer. Chris swung himself, being too big to be pushed by anyone anymore. Or so he proclaimed when Johnny tried to push him, too. When Joanne left the living room, Roy had turned to see the three of them playing together. He stood by the patio door for a few moments to just watch his best friend spend that kind of time with his children. It warmed his heart to see that this childless bachelor that he had welcomed into his family loved his kids so much. He'd never admit it, not even to himself, but it was one of the things that made him love Johnny as if he were his own brother.

When Chris saw his dad step out onto the deck he yelled out to his father, "Hey, Dad! Could you come push Jenny so I can play Pong with Uncle Johnny?"

Jenny screwed up her face at her brother as she swung past him. "That's not fair!" she announced loudly, "Uncle Johnny's mine. You go play Pong with Daddy."

Chris scowled at his sister from the top of his swing arc. "I always play Pong with Dad," Chris said. The boy had stopped using "Mommy" and "Daddy" when he turned 8 seven months ago. He decided that 8 years old was too old to use baby names, as he put it, for his mother and father. "I wanna play with Uncle Johnny now." Chris jumped off his swing as it started its upward trajectory again. This elicited stern cries of "Chris!" from Johnny, and "Chris, how many times have I told you not to jump off a moving swing?" from his dad.

"Aw, Dad. I'm not gonna hurt myself," Chris said, trying to sound both defiant and repentant at the same time.

Roy walked up to his son and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked down at the back of the child's light brown haired head as Chris looked at his own feet. "Christopher James," Roy began, and Chris was glad he hadn't used his last name, too. That would have spelled real trouble. "I don't care if you think you're not gonna get hurt. I want to make sure of it. And as long as I'm your father you're going to do as I say. You got that, young man?"

Quietly, Chris said, "Yes, sir," to the ground.

Roy was about to tell him to look him in the eye and repeat it, but decided the infraction was too small to warrant what his son would interpret as true anger. In truth, Roy was only a little upset that his son was still doing something that he had told him not to do because he didn't want Chris to hurt himself. Instead, he continued to address the back of his son's down-turned head. "And you're not going to jump off swings anymore, right?"

"No, sir."

"Good. Now, take your Uncle Johnny inside and go play Pong." Roy patted Chris's back and gave him a slight push towards the house.

Chris looked up into his father's face. "Really?" he said in slight disbelief. "Awright! C'mon, Uncle Johnny!" the boy yelled, beckoning with his hand to his father's best friend, then turned and ran into the house.

"Sorry, kiddo," Johnny said to Jenny as gave the auburn haired little girl one last, good push. "But Chris gets a turn with me, too." He clapped Roy on the shoulder as he walked back to the house and Roy started walking toward the swing set.

Johnny found Chris sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV. He had already pulled the Tele-Games console down off the top of the TV to the floor. He was leaning forward, busy turning the knob to channel 3. He looked up as he saw Johnny enter the living room.

"Uncle Johnny, could you reach in back and flick the switcher?" Chris asked, referring to the TV/Game adapter hooked up to the back of the TV.

"Sure thing, Sport." He leaned his lanky frame over the large, mahogany cabinet and did as asked. The TV screen flickered and Johnny joined Chris on the floor as the Tele-Games logo came to life on the screen.

Boy and man picked up the controllers from their cradles on the game console and settled in for a session of flicking a square "ball" across the screen with their "paddles", each trying to outscore the other. Johnny particularly enjoyed playing Pong with Chris because he never had to let the boy win. Chris was darned good at the game, better than Johnny was if truth be told, and Johnny was able to play with abandon.

The game had been a Christmas gift from Chris's father and paternal grandfather last year. As soon as Chris had seen it advertised during the season's TV ad blitz it was all he had wanted. At $99 there was no way Roy was going to be able to fulfill his son's wish. However, when Roy's dad came for his annual visit the man offered to go halves on his grandson's gift. It was strange for the paramedic to find himself shopping at Sears with his father, but to Roy it was one best times he'd spent with is dad in many years.

After putting the kid's new clothes away, Joanne emerged from the hallway to find her son and her kid brother (as she often thought of Johnny) engrossed in game play and laughing together as if they were both only eight. She smiled as only a mother can when seeing her husband's best friend having the time of his life with her child. Walking into the kitchen she looked out the window over the sink to see her husband and daughter swinging side by side on the swing set. How Roy was managing to swing himself and push Jennifer at the same time was anybody's guess, but they, too, were having the time of their lives.

As she pulled out the ingredients for the hamburgers she was going to make out of the fresh ground beef she had just bought, Joanne wondered if Johnny was really going to take a trip out to see his family. Roy had told her about his friend's melancholy last shift over not having been back home since he was 15. She knew that span of time must seem even longer to a man who was obviously so happy when surrounded by family. Joanne just hoped that that man wouldn't waste any more time getting in touch with his own.

TBC