A/N: I am really sorry for the delay. I am spreading myself too thin and my muse has returned to the art of suggesting dozens of different scenes and plots for other stories in other fandoms and basically leaves this one alone. I am just hoping to push through until she works with me again.

Colton sat on his bed and stared at his course schedule for the hundredth time, trying to remember what order his classes were in. He already knew that middle school was going to be a brand new experience, and he was hoping that if he started out on the right foot, the struggles would be a little easier. He felt so old suddenly, amazed that he was actually here now. He'd been dreaming of this for a few years now, knowing that it was one milestone closer to college, med-school and finally being the doctor he'd always dreamed of.

"Hey Coley! Daddy says he is ready to take you to that big school," Avery announced as she came into the room. "What are you doing?"

"Just looking at this."

"Again? Even I know it by my heart by now," she chuckled. "Did you know that mama is taking me and Ben to the store while you and daddy are checking out the school? Ugh. I do not want to go there."

"Why not?"

"Because I always get in trouble for whining."

"Well just remember when you whine your face looks like you're sitting on the toilet."

"That's not very nice! Mama! Coley is being mean to me!"

She dashed out of the room and Colton rolled his eyes, folding the schedule up and putting it in his pocket before he headed downstairs.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah. Are we meeting Danny and Isa there?"

"Uh-huh. Go let mama know we're leaving."

Lindsay was in the kitchen consoling Avery, who had taken Colton's comment a little too far and was now asking how her face looked all the time.

"We're leaving," Colton managed to get in though Avery's questions. "Good luck with this."

"Thanks. Hey c'mere."

He obediently leaned down for her kiss, scrunching up his nose.

"Thanks for humoring your old mom."

"Yeah, anytime."

He gave her a grin and went out to the car, sliding into the front seat while Adam turned the air conditioner on.

"So buddy, are you and Isa getting along again yet?"

Colton wrinkled his nose.

"I guess. It's not the same though, I'm afraid to say much to her because I don't know what will make her mad."

"Have you tried just asking her what she's upset about?"

"I know why she's upset," Colton sighed. "She's mad because I knew something and she didn't, and I never told her."

"I can see how that might be a problem."

"You're taking her side?"

"First of all son, there aren't sides. Second of all, I see where she's coming from. Isa takes things to heart a lot more than she'd like to admit, so when she gets upset about something, it's more likely to last a long time."

"Why is she like that?"

"I don't know. It's not all bad. When she finds something she loves, she loves it with every part of her. And she loves you."

"Sure doesn't feel like it. Why doesn't she just come out and say she's mad at me so we can talk about it and get it over with? This has been going on for months, for the whole summer. It's ridiculous!"

"I know. Colton, if you want to talk to her about this, you have to keep trying. Be patient and gentle in how you talk to her and listen before you start defending yourself."

"I bothers me that she's so upset. She said she's angry all the time. Usually she talks to me about that stuff but she's not right now. It worries me that she might be keeping it all inside."

"Me too."

"What do I do? How do I be her friend without making her mad?"

"You just let her know you're there if she wants to talk, and carry on like everything is okay. When she's ready, she'll come to you."

"This sucks."

"Yeah, it does."

"So then," Colton started, casting a glance across the car. "Do you want to talk about why you and mama have been fighting so much?"

"No, I don't."

"Is it going to be okay?"

"Of course it is. It's just one of those growing pains, that's all."

"It wasn't like that when we were in California. Once we got home…"

"I know buddy. We're both really stubborn right now so we're arguing a lot, but it will get better. I promise."

"What if it doesn't?"

"Son, I love your mother more than anything. No matter how much we fight, I will always love her, and I will always try to figure out how to make our relationship better. She works at it too and most of the time we work together, we're just going through a hard time right now."

"You can go through a hard time without yelling at each other."

"Okay, that's true."

Colton was quiet for a moment, staring out the window. He didn't try to listen in on their arguments, but the first time, he'd been under the impression that it was one of their fake fights, the kind they had for fun, as a way of flirting. But he'd soon discovered that it was serious, that they were really arguing, that they were really upset.

"Would you tell me if you were going to get a divorce?"

"Colton, we aren't getting a divorce."

"You swear?"

"I swear."

"You might want to let Ben and Aves in on that too."

Adam sighed deeply and shook his head.

"Sounds like mama and I need to knuckle down and get this figured out."

"You work on that, I'll work on figuring out where the heck all my classes are."

The hallways seemed intimidating enough now, while it was sparsely populated with pre-teens and their parents, checking classroom numbers against paper schedules. Colton could only imagine what it would be like on the first day of school, kids bustling every which way, the noise it would produce, the confusion. He gulped and looked over at Isa, who seemed to be having much of the same feelings.

"Kinda freaky," he said, while she nodded.

"I just don't want to get stepped on. Or have to eat lunch in the bathroom."

"Hey, we have the same lunch time. I won't let you eat in the bathroom."

"So we can eat together in the janitors closet?"

He laughed and nodded.

"I love the smell of Pine-Sol."

"If we were being serious… Colt, do you think I'll be a pariah?"

"You're actually worried about what everyone else might think of you?"

"Well… yeah. I don't want to be miserable because some shallow blonde girl who grew boobs decides that I'm sub-human. I don't really care what people think of me, but I don't really want to hear what they might say."

"Is, you know that no matter what, you'll have me."

"What if you're a pariah too?"

"Then it will be like normal. Colt and Isa versus the world."

She smiled and wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Thanks Colt."

"Love you, Sweet Thing."

"I love you too. But hey, if some cute guy decides me loves me…"

"Yeah, I'll step off."

"Uh, what are they doing?" Isa asked, pointing down the hallway and into the gym where Danny and Adam were.

"Are they shooting the basketball backwards?"

"This will be a good story for the mothers."

They laughed and went into the gym, sitting down on the bleachers and watching the antics of their fathers, who were trash talking each other.

"Hey Is?"

"Yeah?"

"I just want to make sure that we're okay. We haven't really been talking much."

"I'm sorry. I know I got mad at you and I really didn't mean to. And I'm sorry I've been so… you know."

"It did hurt my feelings a lot," he admitted, not meeting her eye. "You know how much I love you and that I would never do something to hurt you."

"I know that. And I wasn't trying to hurt you by shutting you out."

"I know."

"Colt, it just feels like we're growing up and maybe growing apart a little. I was talking to Mamaw on the phone the other night and I told her that and she said that's okay, everyone grows apart in different ways, but we'll grow back together in other ways. We'll be just as close, but it'll be different."

"It's never been different before. You and I have always been the same."

"I know. Ever since I can remember, I've loved you. You've been my best friend, we never really had a choice. And I think we're at the point where we have a choice now and we're choosing each other again. And that's good. But we can kind of make our friendship whatever we want it to be. And it might be kind of rough as we feel that out."

"You know, no matter what changes in our lives, no matter how far apart we might get, I really feel that at the end of the day, we'll always be best friends."

"I know. That's no reason for either of us to take it for granted."

"No, it's not."

She reached over and squeezed his hand, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"I'm nervous."

"About what?"

"Growing up. Doing it right."

"Me too, Is. We'll do it together."

"As always."

"Linds."

"Hmm?"

"Are you awake?"

"I can be. What's up?"

"I think it's about time we talked."

"Yeah."

"Without yelling, without getting upset."

"I'm in," she agreed, sitting up. "You want to start?"

He nodded and sat down next to her, turning slightly so he could engage with her a little more.

"I'm sorry we've been fighting so much."

"So am I."

"I may not be ready to talk about things but I'm going to have to push myself because living with this wall between us isn't working. I love you and I'm sick of seeing how much it hurts you when we fight. The kids are noticing too. I'm done being stubborn and angry. I just want us to be okay."

"I do too. It feels like the last few weeks have been almost out-of-body. Both of us were saying and doing the most out of character things and it worries me that we've both let it get so bad."

"I know."

"Adam, please just tell me why you're so angry. I'll listen, I swear."

He hated being told that he was angry, even if he was, and it was his first inclination to defend himself against what she'd said. In the end, his determination to get his marriage back won out, though some of the sizzle of her wording still burned.

"I'm angry because we lost our daughter and there's nothing I could do. I'm angry because the likelihood of her ever having a life or even surviving is zero. I'm angry because things keep getting in the way, because I can't heal like you can. I feel like you're doing this without me and I know that a lot of that is my fault, but I resent you for it anyway. And I hate myself for that. And you know, I didn't have any clue what was going on with my sister until it was too late. And now she's in an outpatient program and she's had to drop out of school because I wasn't there for her enough. That hurts, Linds. I failed her, I failed Rebecca, and I'm failing you and the kids. Do you know what kind of pressure that is?"

She just stared at him, mouth agape, his ranting making her breathless.

"I think I've pretty much conquered everything my father did to me. I don't worry that I'll lose it with you or the kids and I don't ever feel like the piece of crap he wanted me to think I was. And I'm proud of that, but this? The last few months, I haven't been the man I wanted to be, or the one you've always been proud of."

"I haven't been what I was supposed to be either," she admitted sadly. "I hate this."

"I went ahead and booked an appointment with that counselor Emily told us about. Day after tomorrow. I know I didn't discuss it with you but I assumed that you still wanted to go, no matter how much we've been putting it off."

"I do want to go. I want you back, Adam. I miss you."

"I miss you too."

She hesitated for a moment, then tumbled into his arms, letting him hold her tightly.

"I had this horrible dream last night that we split up. And I woke up and I rolled over and you'd already gotten up but for a minute I believed it, that we gave up and stopped loving each other. It was horrible."

"We're not splitting up. We're going to do better, we're going to get help and neither one of us is going to let anything fester anymore."

"We have a lot of work to do."

They'll spend most of the night talking, sometimes arguing hard, other times laughing, but either way, they're building a new foundation, one that will be able to better withstand any other storms that come their way.