Jon continued walking until he reached his mother's house. Even though it wasn't far, he felt as if he had walked for eternity.

Making his way up her porch, he banged on her door.

"Mom! Mom, open up! It's me!" Jon said.

Linda was scared out of her mind when she first heard Jon banging on the door. She had just drifted off to sleep. Irritated, she climbed out of bed and went to answer the door.

"Come in Jonathan," his mother told him.

Jon stepped into the house and closed the door.

"What's going on?" Linda said, turning the lights on.

"I've lost it," Jon said.

"What do you mean?"

"I hit my wife, I vented my anger out on Maddy, and now all of them probably hate me."

"Jonathan...please tell me you're lying."

"No."

"Oh Jonathan," Linda said.

She crossed her arms and shook her head.

"Why?"

"Aiden is hurt. Because I wasn't there to protect him. Multiple times guys have come after Adriana and where the hell was I? Nowhere to be found! Well, of course I was on the other side of the damn world in the fucking Army away from Adriana so there was no way I could've kept her out of harm's way!"

"Jonathan, you're a great husband and father. Things will happen in life. That's life itself! What happened to Adriana and the kids is not your fault. It will never be. It's not like you neglect them!"

"If I hadn't joined the damn Army, I wouldn't be thinking this damn way! Ever since the incident with Luke who was close to killing her, I just...FUCK!"

Jon slammed his fist against the wall.

"I'm acting like him."

"Like who?"

"Greg."

"Why would you say that?"

"I promised to never hurt Adriana and the kids. And I did."

"Jonathan, you cannot blame yourself for anything else. Accept responsibility for what you did tonight, but I will not allow you to continue blaming yourself for anything else. And I will not allow you to compare yourself to Greg. But you know what, honestly you being in the Army set off a chain of events for both you and Adriana. I think after you came home, deep down you felt as if anyone closest got hurt, it was the end of the world. On top of that, you and Adriana sometimes don't know how to talk things out. I'll let you stay here for the night to cool down. Wait...did you walk here?"

"Yes."

"Jonathan, please go lay down in the spare room. You need rest," Linda said.

"Am I like him?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Jonathan, don't make me smack you."

Jon obeyed his mother and went to lay down.

As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out. But it must've been for an hour or so because he was up by 5 a.m. in the morning.

"Adriana...Adriana..."

She could've sworn she kept hearing someone call her name in her sleep. She felt something cold touch her.

"Ah!"

Adriana quickly woke up and saw Jon kneeling beside her. Jon turned on the lamp.

"It's me," he said.

"Wha...what time is it?"

"It's 5:48."

"So early. Where did you go?"

"To my mother's house."

"Jonathan, we need to talk later."

"I know. I know the kids hate me."

"They don't."

"You don't know that."

"I talked to them after you left. Maddy was really heartbroken but she understood."

"Man. I fucked up."

"Look, we both need to look into getting help."

"I'm not crazy."

"I'm not saying you're crazy. But we need help."

Jon shook his head.

"Jonathan, you can argue with me all day and night. I don't care. But we're getting help. You don't know if you're suffering from something or not."

There was a knock at the door.

"Mommy?" Maddy said on the other side. "Can I come in?"

"Yes," Adriana said.

Maddy came into the room. She saw her father kneeling beside her mother.

"Daddy...you okay?" she asked.

She walked around the bed and greeted her father.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Jon said. "I'm sorry about what I did. I truly am sorry."

"It's okay Daddy. I still love you," Maddy said.

She gave her father a hug.

Jon began crying.

"Don't cry, Daddy," Maddy said.

She gave her father a kiss on his forehead.

"Come on and get in bed," Adriana said. "You two need to lay down."

Jon got up and turned off the light. Him and Maddy got into bed.

Jon kept thinking about what Adriana said.

Maybe he did need help but he didn't want to admit it. Maybe everything did start when he decided to join the Army. Jon wished he knew exactly what was going on.

Despite being tired, Jon's mind then started to wonder.

Sometimes he found himself reminiscing about his childhood.

How simple things were.

How him and Adriana never cared about anything in the world.

Flashback:

1998

"Maybe you should become a doctor," Adriana said.

"Oh! I can cut people up and look into their bodies then!" Jon said.

"No. To help people," Adriana said. "You can become anything you want and do anything you want."

"I want to become your husband. I want to have kids with you. And I want to be take care of you and the babies," Jon said.

"You're so sweet," Adriana said.

"I know I am," Jon said.

He reached under Adriana's tank top.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"You're doing something!"

Jon laid on his back and tugged on Adriana's tank.

"Climb on top of me," Jon said.

Adriana straddled him. She bent down and gave him a kiss.

"Sometimes I don't want to grow up. Then again I want to live with you forever," she said.

"Same here. What if we have a lot of problems when we get older?" Jon asked.

"Well, we are going to have to stick together."

"I'm not going to become like him. When we have kids I'm not going to leave them and treat them bad."

"You'll be a great dad. You're already a great person."

"Thanks."

Jon smacked Adriana's butt.

"Ow!"

"Nice and tender."

Adriana pinched and twisted Jon's nipple.

"OW!"

Present:

Jon found himself in front of counseling center.

"Jonathan, this will be good for us."

"I guess."

"Let's go inside. Our appointment is in thirty minutes."

"I'm not going in."

"Jonathan, please. Let's go."

"I said I'm not going!"

Adriana simply looked at her husband.

He didn't look like himself. He stared back at her with a blank expression. His curly hair was a little disheveled and his eyes were slightly red. His beard needed some trimming too. A little bit of weight had found its way onto Jon. It was from him stressing so much. It hurt her heart to see him like this.

"What Adriana!?"

"Calm down. Please, come in here with me."

Jon finally turned off the engine and opened his door.

He forgot to unbuckle his seatbelt and quickly became agitated with it.

"Fucking seatbelt!" Jon yelled out.

Adriana reached over and unbuckled the belt for him.

Jon finally got out and slammed the door. He then walked around the car and opened Adriana's door for her.

"Let's get this over with," Jon said.

Adriana got out of the car and started walking to the building.

Jon reluctantly followed his wife into the place.

This wasn't going to go well.

Author's Note: We shall see.