Convinced that Machiavelli was asleep for the night, Billy followed the older immortal down the stairs and into the front yard. Stopping by the group sitting in the front yard, the two indicated their intentions to take a walk.

Perenelle looked up at her husband. "All right," she agreed, catching her husband's hand. "Be careful you two." She looked over at Billy as she said this, but the American just nodded at her from his position in between Black Hawk and Scathach. The others watched as Billy and Nicholas set off down the road.

Billy maneuvered himself so that he was on the outside, closest to the road. "Mr. Flamel- Nick, is Machiavelli going to be okay?" he asked anxiously, looking sideways at the French immortal.

Nicholas looked quickly at Billy. "Of course," he said in his precise English. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. Niccolò is in no danger." Beside him, Billy visibly relaxed.

The two came to a fork in the road and Billy led them to the left, away from the lake and down the path that led to the playground. Nicholas paused at the gate, but Billy walked right through. Realizing he was alone, he looked back and retraced his steps. "It's fine. Past dark there's usually nobody here." He smiled. "Best place in the world to talk if you don't want to be heard." He led Nicholas to the swings, where the two sat beside each other.

"You seem happy," Nicholas commented. "Parenthood suits you well."

"I am happy," Billy said, swinging backwards a little. "I never thought I'd get a chance to be a father. It's nice even if it is temporary."

Nicholas looked over at the younger immortal. "I've known Machiavelli a long time. I think this is the happiest I have ever seen him." Keeping his gaze on the younger man, he carefully asked, "If you could, would you keep him a child forever? Keep things as they are now?"

Billy skidded to a stop. "I love Machiavelli," he admitted. "But like I told you before- I want him back as an adult. It's..." he trailed off and coughed, glancing at Nicholas. "Why are you asking this?" he queried softly.

Nicholas pulled the Codex out of a pouch tied around his neck. He perched a pince nez on his nose, and opened the book one of the first pages. Billy looked at him questioningly, but held up a lit ball of aura to help him read. The American shifted over to look at the page, but scanning the changing symbols, shrugged and drifted back. Nick hastened to explain. "I've been researching this while you were gone. This page describes the circumstances that led to Machiavelli's conditions." His fingers moved across the page and wisps of smoke came off the page. He hesitated, but continued. "I could stop Machiavelli from aging all the way back."

Billy nearly fell off of his swing. "What?" he squawked as surely as if Machiavelli had put the death grip on him. "What are you talking about?"

Nicholas closed the book carefully. "Abraham, the man who wrote the Codex, was a humanist," he explained. "He believed in the goodness of the humans, at a time when most of his peers believed that humans were weak and useless. Abraham wanted to reward the goodness of mankind so he engineered a spell that would stop the age regression process from reversing itself."

Billy was struggling to process the information before him. "I thought the immortality potion did that?"

"The immortality potion would be useless for him. He's already immortal. But the spell would freeze him at whatever age we cast the spell at.

"So, if Mac wanted to stay twenty for all time, he could?"

Nicholas nodded. "Essentially, yes. Like all spells in the Codex, it has to be renewed. In this case, every year, or Machiavelli will age back to where he started." He paused, giving Billy some time to absorb all the information coming at him. "Obviously, this is Machiavelli's decision. But knowing how close you two are, I did want to talk to you about it too- see how you felt about it."

Billy looked up at the stars. He cleared his throat, feeling overwhelmed. "I fell in love with Machiavelli, knowing he was a lot older than me," he said slowly. "I don't care what age he is, I'm always going to love him as much as I do at this moment. If he wants to be younger fine. If not, that's okay too." He stopped, embarrassed.

To his right, Nicholas smiled. "Good. Machiavelli is lucky to have you."

Billy ruffled his hair. "I've said too much," he mumbled. "I always do. But, umm, Nick? Let's not talk about this with Machiavelli until after he gets over his cold. I don't want to upset him or anything."

Nicholas nodded. Billy got up out of the swing and helped to pull the Frenchman to his feet. Nicholas looked at their feet. "You were right, this is a great place to discuss business. But we're lucky we're both wearing boots or we'd be shaking sand out of our shoes for days."

Billy chuckled. "I know. Come on now, we should head back. Else they might think we've been eaten by a bear."