Jessi took another pancake off of the griddle and added it to the growing stack of golden pancakes. Nicole was at the stove making scrambled eggs.

"How much longer are you going to be?" Nicole asked, "These eggs are almost ready."

"One more after this," Jessi said.

"We'll be done at the same time," Nicole said. Jessi looked at her and smiled. Nicole chuckled, "You planned it that way, of course." She raised her voice and announced, "Breakfast is ready."

In moments the family was enjoying Saturday breakfast.

Nicole said, "You were really good last night, Lori. It's amazing how much more confident you look performing on stage than the first time."

"It was all right once I got started," Lori said. "When the audience started singing 'Thursday' along with me it gave me goose bumps. It was really a rush."

"So what do I have to do to get a couple of those passes," Josh said. "I'd love to take Andy."

"We'll see," Lori said. She warned, "There will be a price."

"What passes?" Nicole asked.

"Willow Hendricks is doing a concert in Seattle in three weeks," Lori said. "Robin gave me some passes to the concert and to go backstage and meet Willow. Robin wants to get a picture of us together. She's going to try to use it to promote 'Music Seen'."

"I'd like to see the concert," Jessi looked uncertain, "Do you want me to pay you for passes for Kyle and me?"

"You won't have to pay. I want the two of you to come," Lori pointed at Josh, "I'm just going to make Josh suffer for a while first. He'd do the same to me."

Stephen finished his pancake and looked longingly at the shrinking pile, "I have to stop now. I'm stuffed. Your pancakes are good, Jessi, I'm going to miss them when the two of you go to UDub."

"We could come over and make pancakes on Saturday mornings," Jessi looked concerned.

"I don't know of any college student who would willingly get up early on Saturday morning to go make pancakes," Stephen said.

"We're not going to be normal college students," Jessi objected. "We could do it." She thought a moment, "You could come over to our house and I could make them for you there."

"Your house?" Nicole asked with a look of surprise.

"Kyle and I are thinking of buying a house near the campus instead of staying in the dorms," Jessi said.

"Declan said that it was a lot easier to provide security to a house," Kyle explained. "All he would have to do is to monitor the outside."

"Is there something you're worried about," Nicole looked concerned.

"No, we don't think there's anything threatening us," Kyle assured her. "Declan just thinks we should continue to monitor for safety. He says that we keep finding new problems and he wants to be ready if we do."

"That's probably a good idea," Stephen agreed. "They're involved in a lot of unusual activities. It would give them more privacy. They can certainly afford it."

Nicole nodded, "I can't see them being able to keep their secrets safe from roommates." She frowned, "Are the two of you ready to live together?"

"We live together now," Kyle said.

"You are both part of a family here," Nicole said. "Are you talking about being roommates or something more intimate?"

Kyle blushed, "We haven't talked about that part, yet. Either way, it's probably a good idea to own a house."

"I guess so," Nicole agreed, reluctantly. "I hadn't really thought through the problems that the two of you would have living in a dorm with people who don't know your secrets."

Josh finished mopping up his last bite of pancake, "I'm going up to my room to play G-Force for an hour before I have to head off for work." He left the table.

Lori said, "And I need to work on my songs. Robin wants me to record my two newest ones and they aren't quite ready yet." She sighed, "I miss having Mark to bounce phrases off of."

"Maybe you should try working by yourself at the Rack," Nicole suggested. "You might find changing the venue affects your word choice."

"I've been avoiding that because it's what Mark and I used to do," Lori said. "But it might be worth a try." She got up from the table, "I think I'll start in my room for a while and see if anything looks different this morning." She headed upstairs.

"And Jessi and I have a project that we're working on," Kyle said. "We should probably go and check on it."

"Another project?" Stephen asked. "What's this one?"

Kyle smiled, "I think it's too soon to talk about. We're still doing some modeling." He and Jessi headed off toward his room leaving Stephen and Nicole alone.

After they had left, Nicole reluctantly said, "The two of them are getting pretty intimate, Stephen. Do you think you should have a talk about 'protection' with Kyle?"

"They know the entire encyclopedia, Nicole," Stephen said. "I'm sure they both know more about the subject than we do – at least on a theoretical basis. I'm not sure about their practical experience." He shook his head, "I really don't want to have that kind of talk with Kyle. Do you want to talk to Jessi?"

"Not really," Nicole admitted.

"Exactly," Stephen picked up his newspaper and started to read it, obviously finished with the discussion.

Nicole picked up her tea and sipped it. "The house is going to seem empty with the three of them gone. We'll just have Josh left."

"You'll be able to get your office back," Stephen said. "And I could have a workshop again." He turned a page, "Although I don't feel a great need for one. If I need to putter, we have a nice lab at school."

"It's been quite an adventure having them join our family, hasn't it?" Nicole observed.

Stephen agreed, "We've done things I never thought we would be doing." He sighed, "I won't miss the fear, though."

"I won't either," Nicole shook her head. "We'll still be involved, of course, but inevitably to a lesser degree."

"Are you starting to have 'empty nest' feelings?" Stephen asked.

"I suppose so," Nicole nodded. "It's been coming on since Christmas." Nicole sat staring at her tea. After a long silence she asked, "Stephen, are we too old to be dealing with diapers again?"

Stephen set the paper down and looked at her in consternation, "Nicole, you're not…?"

"Pregnant?" Nicole laughed, "No, don't panic." She looked at him, "But I know two babies who are going to need parents in the fall, parents who are used to dealing with very bright children."

"You want us to adopt the babies?" Stephen raised his eyebrows.

"I'm just thinking about it," Nicole said. "They're going to pose interesting challenges to their adoptive parents. I think we're uniquely equipped to handle them."

"It's a big commitment, Nicole," Stephen warned. "It will be almost twenty years before they're ready for college. Is that how you want to spend the next twenty years of your life?"

"They'll probably be ready for college early," Nicole said. "I don't know, it just feels like it's something we should do." She shrugged, "I want to at least think about it, if you're willing."

"I can imagine us doing it," Stephen nodded. "We raised Lori and Josh starting with infants. We could do it again. I need some time to get used to the idea, though. It's a major decision."

"That's certainly true," Nicole agreed. "It would be interesting to watch them grow up, though."