Jeff woke up the next morning to the sound of the phone ringing. He groaned and picked it up with his eyes still closed. "Hello?" he said sleepily.
"He's out. The fucking bastards let him out." It was Tommy on the other line.
"Who?" Jeff's mind was still to muddled from being sleepy.
"Raven! Who the hell do you think I'm talking about?"
That made Jeff sit straight up. All thoughts of sleep were gone from his mind now. "What?" he yelled, his voice immediately betraying how badly he was panicking. "Are you serious?"
"I'm as serious as a heart attack," Tommy confirmed. "He was supposed to be serving his parole back in the Bowery, but he's already disappeared."
Fuck fuck fuck, this is bad, this is really bad, Jeff thought to himself as he shook Randy's shoulder until his younger husband woke up. "Raven's out and he's disappeared," he whispered. "Go get the kids and bring them in here."
"Oh fucking hell," Randy groaned as he rolled out of bed. He sounded pissed off, which Jeff just knew was his defense mechanism to cover up just how scared he really was.
Jeff watched Randy leave the room and then sighed helplessly. "What are we going to do Tommy?" he asked. "He's going to come after us no matter what we do."
"I know," Tommy said. "And more likely than not, he's going to find a way to get you. Fuck, maybe you should find a new place to stay. He's got to at least know that you guys live in Cameron. I would think that would be the first place he would go to look for you."
Well fuck, that probably meant Matt, Katie and their old family would probably have to move too for their own safety. That made for a total of twelve people that needed a new place to stay, and that wasn't even counting the dogs. Jeff tried to think of somewhere they could go that would be safe and big enough for all of them.
Tommy decided to help out a little. "Hey doesn't Mark own a couple of different ranches near his place? He'll probably let you stay there until we figure out what to do next."
If Tommy had been there in person, Jeff might have hugged and kissed him right then and there. But since he wasn't, Jeff settled for hugging the nearest pillow instead. "That's brilliant Dreamer! I'll call him and ask him if we can come down right now. You call either my cell phone or Randy's if you hear anything new about Raven, okay?"
"You two will be the first people I call," Tommy assured him. "Sandman also knows to call you guys too. He's on the lookout just as much as I am."
Jeff thanked Tommy again and then hung up so he could immediately call Mark afterwards. He tapped his foot impatiently until Mark finally answered the phone. "Poppa Mark, we need your help!"
Mark groaned. "God I hope so because it's only eight in the morning here Jeff."
"Oh, sorry Poppa Mark. But Raven's out of jail and we all need a place to hide. Can we come hide in one of those nice little ranches you own?" Jeff pouted his lip out for a second before remembering that Mark wouldn't be able to see it.
"Come on Jeff, we've known each other how long now? Of course you can hide in one of my places. Jesus, I'm almost offended that you felt the need to ask that."
"Well stop it, because things are falling apart over here! I'm freaking the hell out right now! I'm ready to start running around the room like a chicken who just got his head cut off!"
Mark sighed. "Jeff, just stop a second and take a deep breath. Freaking out is not going to solve a damn thing. You need to stay calm for the kids."
Jeff knew Mark was right. He had to at least pretend to be somewhat calm about all this. "Okay, I'll try."
"Good. Call me when you know what flight you're going to be on so I know when to get you from the airport."
"You might want to bring more than one car. I want Matt and Katie's brood to come with us."
"Oh lovely. My ranches are going to become a zoo."
"You know you love us though."
"Yeah yeah yeah…"
Jeff hung up the phone as Randy came into the room. "The kids are packing their things," Randy said. "We need to get somewhere safe like right now."
"We're going to Mark's," Jeff said. He handed Randy the phone. "Call Matt and tell him to get everyone at his place ready to go too. They won't be safe here just because we're leaving."
Randy sighed and started dialing Matt's number. "Fuck, this is so fucking wrong. We shouldn't have to be running from our damn home like this."
Jeff agreed whole heartedly with him, but there wasn't time to debate the situation at the moment. He grabbed the first suitcase he could find and started tossing his and Randy's stuff in it. He knew one of them was going to have to go help Sid and Maggie pack because they weren't really that good at it. Damn it all to hell, why couldn't Raven die in prison like Russ did? This would have made everything that much simpler.
XXXXXXXXXXX
"Jack I'm scared."
Jack sighed and looked at Maggie. He had packed up his clothes, his laptop, his meds, and PSP, and now he was trying to help Maggie get her stuff all together. "I know you are sis. But we're going to be okay. Dad and Daddy aren't going to let anything happen to us."
That satisfied Maggie enough to where she could go back to packing her toys. But Jack had lied; he didn't know if they were going to be okay. He didn't know if anyone was going to be able to stop Raven. He knew the history his parents had now. Things tended to get worse before they got better.
So why let just them handle it? Jack asked himself. Why not take matters into your own hands? Set the trap using yourself as bait. Get Aaron, Jenny, Sid and Gary to help you. Raven wanted to take you once and he'll try it again. Set him up for the fall and stop him before he hurts someone else.
Well that was a hell of an idea, but how was he going to do it? And could he get away from Jeff and Randy long enough even if he came up with a decent plan? I guess I'll find out soon enough.
