Patrick barely managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes at his present company. Elizabeth had decided that, if he and Steven were really going to be in competition, she should get some free babysitting out of the deal. She had called her brother and sent them to the park with both babies and, at first, he had been confident he could do it. Now, he wasn't so sure.

Whatever bond he had thought he had created with Gracie was not helping him out right now. She hadn't stopped crying since Lucky had put her in the front of the stroller. Every time he moved to pick her up, she just screamed louder. Jake, on the other hand, cried when he wasn't held. Steven was, of course, no help at all. "Could you take him for a second?" He asked thrusting Jake toward Steven. A bottle would solve this, Patrick decided. He hoped.

Gracie screamed, probably worried that she wasn't getting the attention she deserved, and Patrick ignored Steven so he could mix the bottle. Satisfied, he lifted her out of the stroller and into his arms, doing what he could to get her to get her interested in the bottle. It was to no avail. She cried harder and kicked out her little feet. "It's got to be the Webber in her." Patrick assessed.

"Please. It's the Spencer." Steven threw back.

"This is getting us nowhere." Patrick started to set the bottle back into the diaper bag when Jake started to whimper. He handed it to Steven and Jake took it with both hands.

"Looks like I'm winning." Steven laughed. He had been completely amused when Elizabeth told him about the competition. Georgie would get a kick out of it. He reminded himself to tell her once this little trip was over with.

"Jake's easier." Patrick countered with a shake of his head. "And Gracie's never acted like this when it was just the three of us. It must be you."

"Well aren't they just beautiful?" A woman cooed, giving each of the infants a little finger wave.

"Thanks." Steven and Patrick said in unison.

"A little over a month, right?" Patrick looked at Steven.

"You expect me to know?" Steven shot back.

"A little over a month." Patrick declared with a smile.

"They are so cute. And they look just like you." She exclaimed sharing a long look with both men.

"Well that's just good genes." Steven told her.

"Where's their mother if you don't mind me asking?"

"At home relaxing." Patrick answered.

"At home? So the three of you live together?" She assumed.

"No." Steven assured her. "Three different places."

"That must be hard for the babies." She said thoughtfully.

"No, they have Lucky." Patrick informed her.

"Lucky?" She wrinkled her nose at the name.

"Their father." Steven threw in taking a still traumatized Gracie from Patrick and leaving a sleeping Jake with him.

"I thought you were their fathers."

"Fathers?" Patrick managed.

"No. No. No. We're just the uncles." Steven tried to get across.

"You don't have to be ashamed. You don't have to make up a story. This is the twenty-first century." She reminded them.

"No, see you've got it wrong." Patrick shook his head furiously.

"Why didn't you let me bring my camera?" Dillon's voice, thick with laughter reached both of their ears. Turning quickly Patrick and Steven saw Lucas, Dillon, and Lance standing nearby, close enough to hear everything.

"Don't hide who you really are." The woman called from over her shoulder as she began to move further down the park. "I think you make a beautiful family."

"Yes, yes you do." Dillon managed, straining and completely failing to keep a straight face.

*****

Maxie crouched beneath the safety of a plush green bush, her shoes digging into the ground as she tried to keep from falling over thereby giving away her position. She could see Kristina from every angle so there was no worry that what had happened only a few months ago could happen again. Being allowed to take Kristina to the park without the watchful eye of her mother must have meant that Alexis was a little closer to forgiving her for disregarding her safety. Maxie was just glad some of the animosity was over and done with. It was exhausting. She really didn't care what Alexis thought of her, not like Georgie did. She was surprised when Georgie turned down her invitation to come to the park with them, but she had been in a hurry to get, well, somewhere. Her little sister finally had a secret of her own, a few if Maxie read her right. It was about damn time.

The park wasn't so busy mid-week. Maxie had almost fallen over in shock when Mike had given her the day off. She felt like, since Ric had left, she had worked every single second. At least, she thought to herself, no one was in the hospital, no one was terribly ill, no one was overly upset, and Ric's dad was getting better so he's be coming home soon. As the Nurses Ball drew closer and closer, she had started to worry that he might not make it back in time. He still might not. She couldn't expect him to drop everything and come back, but she hoped he would.

Maxie almost jumped a foot in the air when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around, she narrowed her eyes playfully at her baby sister. "Were you trying to scare me?"

"Found you." Kristina declared triumphantly, jumping up and down in her excitement. Maxie had warned she was an expert at this game, but Kristina had spotted her sister's silver shoes immediately. She only pretended not to know where Maxie was so she didn't feel bad for not being that good. "I win!"

"Rematch?" Maxie begged with a half-smile.

"Fine. But I'll hide this time."

"Okay. Remember, no wandering off." Maxie shook her finger and hurried over to the base, a tree that was older than the town.

Kristina ran off as Maxie started to count, determined to find the hiding spot she had found earlier when she was "pretending" to look for Maxie. Seeing the huge oak tree that was directly across from the tree Maxie was currently leaning near, Kristina ran for it at breakneck speed, determined to make it to the overgrown bush behind the tree before her sister had time to stop counting. Turning the corner she fell directly across the lap of someone who had apparently also decided this was a great hiding spot.

"Careful there." Sam caught the little brunette and helped her to her feet. "Hope I didn't hurt you." She had needed a break from the monotonous tune of the apartment so she had sought out the park. The little girl looked about Vincent's age and she felt her heart tug a little at the fact.

Wiping the dirt off her arms and light blue jacket Kristina examined herself closely. "No I'm good."

"So what were you doing in such a hurry?" Sam had barely managed to catch the child as she dove for the spot.

"Shh!" Kristina held up her finger to her mouth. "I'm trying to win at hide and seek."

Sam held back her laughter, its effects causing her to bite her bottom lip. "Sorry. Sorry. Mind if I hide with you?" She didn't know what it was about the little girl that made her hesitant to get up and walk away. She had read about the girl's abduction in the newspaper so many months ago and could only imagine what her mother had gone through.

"Just don't blow my spot." Kristina warned.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Sam replied, backing away from the spot to keep her promise.

"Where could Kristina be?" Maxie asked loudly. "Could she be behind this tree? Nope. How about...?" Maxie voice moved away from them.

Kristina smiled in triumph. All she needed Maxie to do was move just a little bit further away and she could make the run to the base with no problems. Looking over at her hiding partner, she smiled widely. "She's not going to find us!"

"Shh." Sam giggled quietly. "You're going to get us caught."

"I am not!"

"Kristina, are you in this log?" Maxie actually glanced into the aforementioned log, purposely not finding Kristina in a hurry.

"See?" Kristina pointed over toward where Maxie stood. "She's not even trying for real."

"My name's Sam. What's yours?"

"Kristina."

Suddenly, Maxie jumped toward them, almost falling over when she saw that Kristina wasn't alone. "Found you!" Maxie squealed, turning her attention to Kristina.

"How'd you find me?" Kristina wondered.

"Because I'm the smartest person you know." Maxie clarified with a wide grin.

"Can we play again?"

"I think I need a break." Maxie confessed and met Sam's nervous stare. "Do I know you? You look familiar."

"Sam McCall. Kristina and I just ran into each other—quite literally." Sam explained hurriedly.

"Sam was in my hiding spot." Kristina explained seriously

"Was she? I'm Maxie Jones." Maxie introduced herself and saw the flicker of recognition in Sam's eyes.

"The Commissioner's daughter?"

"Yes." Maxie was used to the nickname.

"Well it's nice to meet you. I was about to get myself a snow cone. What do you say?" Sam didn't know what to make of this need to be friends with these two. It was so out of place for her. She couldn't remember the last time she had talked to a friend. Harper had been the closest thing—and then she had screwed that up and thrown sex into the mix. Oh well. Kristina was watching Maxie, anxiously awaiting an answer.

"I don't see why we can't." Maxie replied at last.

"Yeah!" Kristina yelled, jumping up and grabbing both of the women's hands. "Let's go. I'm getting cherry!"

Previews:

"My expectations aren't really that high."

"She speaks to wound."