Sully offered Hank something to drink. He only had soft drinks in the house, so there was no worry about Hank wanting something harder and eventually becoming intoxicated if he drank too much. They both ended up with a twenty-ounce bottle of Pepsi in front of them as they sat on the front porch. Sully had a small plastic table with three chairs on the porch that he rarely made use of, but the inexpensive patio furniture came in handy that day.

Hank said he wanted to talk, but not in front of Zac. Sully agreed to it, but after the day he'd had, he wasn't about to allow his boy to get too far away from him. So, the front porch it was, with the door closed and the baby monitor on so Sully could hear what was happening in the house. In addition, he put Wolf inside with the kids. The dog would bark and attack if he sensed that any harm was coming their way.

When he went inside to retrieve the bottles of soda, he noticed that Zachary was playing Mario Kart and Hanna was sitting next to him, contently, watching him play. As Zachary was working the controls, he asked Hanna about her day, and the toddler bubbled up and told her brother everything she could remember about school that day. The sight warmed Sully's heart until he saw Mia standing by herself.

She looked as though she had no interest in video games and was standing by the open door of Hanna's bedroom. She appeared to have a lot of interest in Hanna's toys, especially her dolls, but she just stood there looking and doing nothing. Sully thought it was probably a good thing that she was trained to not touch things that aren't hers without asking first. However, it also seemed to Sully that she was too scared to ask to play with anything.

"Hanna?" Sully asked, before returning outside to talk with Hank, "Can Mia play with some of your Barbies?"

"Yes," the two-year-old agreed. Hanna was good about sharing her toys. She shared with Rosemary Hart whenever the girl came over with her brother, Ben, for baseball conditioning.

"Get a few for her, Baby," Sully instructed, "Then you can come back and watch Zac play if ya want."

Hanna obliged and retrieved her pink Barbie case and a couple of dolls. When the case was opened it turned into a pop-up, fold-out, playhouse. It was the toy that Rosemary usually played with, if they were playing in the house, when she came over. It was light weight, unlike Hanna's wooden doll house, so the toddler was able to carry it easily. Hanna set it in front of Mia and opened it for her. Then she returned to Zachary.

A smile grew on Mia's face. Sully was happy about that, but also a little put off that it appeared to him that she had never played with a doll before. Or maybe she did, but she may not have any dolls of her own.

Now he was sitting across from Hank at the small table, each with a soft drink nearby and Sully waited for him to start talking.

"So, um…" Hank began, not quite knowing where to start, "This is where Abagail used to live?"

"No," Sully said succinctly.

"Oh," the other man replied with a nod of his head.

Sully scoffed. Hank said he wanted to talk, so why wasn't he talking? To break through the obvious awkwardness between them, Sully started talking, "We lived in a house a few miles away. The house and neighborhood were only about ten-years-old when we moved in. It wasn't that old, but pretty well established, and very family friendly."

"Where did ya meet her?" Hank asked.

"Here at the ranch," Sully informed him, "She brought Zac for a Summer Camp thing that my mother puts on every year."

"It might interest ya to know that Abagail came to visit me once when I was in prison. It was right before she married you," Hank said, taking a sip of his Pepsi.

Sully didn't know that and now he wondered why she hadn't told him. Maybe she thought it might upset him? Perhaps make him jealous? Not that it mattered anymore, but he wouldn't have been mad or jealous because she went to visit her ex in jail.

"Mind if I smoke?" Hank requested, and he pulled out his pack of Marlboro Red cigarettes and a lighter.

"I guess not," Sully replied with a shrug. He didn't care for smoking himself, but they were outside, so it didn't bother him that much.

"Want one?" Hank offered, before lighting up.

"No, Thanks," Sully declined.

"Anyway," he continued, as he puffed on his cigarette, "Abs, that's what I used to call her, Abs said that she didn't take any pleasure in seein' me put away. She said she never stopped lovin' me even after all of the B.S. that went on, but she was movin' on from me. She said she wanted a fresh start at life, and that Zachary deserved all of the love and happiness that she could give him. He deserved a normal family," Hank began to chuckle lightly as smoke came out of his mouth and nostrils, "Whatever that means… but I can't say that I disagree with her exactly. I was never gonna win husband of the year, but Abagail was a big girl. She knew who I was when she married me, she just chose not to see it, but Zac…I didn't do right by my boy."

"Why did you marry her?" Sully questioned. Based on what Hank said, he deduced that he knew that his marriage to Abagail wasn't going to be successful so why do it at all?

"Because I loved her," Hank confessed, "I really did. I shouldn't have married her. I should've let her go. She wanted a family man, someone like you, I guess. She thought she was gonna turn me around. She thought she could take a hayseed like me, and mold me into what she wanted. I tried for a while, but my natural personality kept showin' through."

"I don't think ya tried hard enough," Sully commented. He wasn't buying what Hank was trying to sell him. Sully knew Abagail and could certainly believe that she thought she could change him, but he didn't believe Hank when he said he tried. How long did he try? A day? A week? Was he trying when he got so drunk that he accidentally killed his mother-in-law?

"You're probably right," Hank said.

"Who is that little girl in there?" Sully asked, "Is she really your daughter?

"Yep," Hank confirmed, "That pain in the ass in there is all mine."

"Don't call her that," Sully told him as if it were a knee jerk reaction.

"You try spendin' more than ten minutes with her and then come and tell me not to call her a pain in the ass," Hank challenged. He was annoyed with Sully already and viewed him as someone who acts like he's morally superior, or holier-than-thou.

Sully scoffed and didn't fall into what he viewed as Hank's trap to start an argument. Sully was with small children all the time. He knew exactly what they were like. Yes, he could probably agree with Hank that they could be irritating at times, but it didn't sound right to Sully to hear a child's father refer to her as "that pain in the ass."

"How did that happen?" Sully asked.

"How did what happen?" Hank asked in return.

"How do you have a six-year-old child?" Sully clarified.

"Ya mean, was I a cheatin' dog?" Hank questioned, taking another puff of his cigarette, "Yes."

Sully said nothing, he just shook his head, sort of, and took a sip of his soda. So, Hank was not only a drunk, a bad father, and a bad husband, he was a cheater too.

"Don't act so superior," Hank said, responding to the slight shake of Sully's head, "You don't know how it was between me and Abagail."

"How was it?" Sully inquired, getting mentally prepared to defend his late wife.

"I wasn't what she wanted, so she quit puttin' out," Hank told him, "What choice did I have?"

Sully was married to Abagail too, and he never had a problem with her, as Hank put it, "puttin' out." Sex stopped being part of the routine, only after she was too sick to do it. Before then, Sully had never experienced her not wanting to be with him.

"Did you tell her about your affairs?" Sully questioned, wanting to know his answer. He was curious to know if that was something else that Abagail had kept from him. He wouldn't be angry with her if she did keep that information a secret. Honestly, her marriage to Hank was completely separate from her marriage to him, but he was curious.

"Hell no!" Hank replied, "Me tellin' her would have just led us to a divorce, and I didn't want that. I loved her! I'd wanted to be with Abs, not any of those other women, but she said no."

"So, there was more than one?" Sully inquired, now questioning Hank's maturity level. If Abagail, or any woman that he'd developed a sexual relationship with, just stopped wanting to be with him, he'd want to find out why and try to fix things. Sully wouldn't have just moved on to the closest warm body like Hank did. He couldn't fathom doing that.

"Yeah," Hank admitted with a sigh, "I was with a woman named Myra, another one named Sadie, and another one named Clarice. Clarice was the one that got knocked-up with Mia."

"Did ya tell Abagail after that?" Sully questioned, but assumed Hank's answer was no.

"No," Hank replied, confirming Sully's assumption, "I didn't wanna lose her, and our marriage was already hangin' by a thread. Clarice became obsessed with me marryin' her after she found out she was pregnant. She said that her gettin' pregnant was a sign that we was supposed to be together. My heart has always belonged to Abagail. Always. We were goin' through a hard time, but I didn't wanna divorce."

"Did Clarice threaten to tell Abagail or somethin'?" he questioned. As he was listening to Hank, Sully felt conflicted. He could understand not wanting a divorce, but at the same time, he couldn't understand how Hank could justify staying married. It was crystal clear that he didn't respect his marriage vows, but somehow, he also justified his adultery by blaming Abagail for it. It was her fault that he cheated because she wouldn't have sex with him. Were his sensibilities about marriage really that warped or was he just a grown child who didn't want to take responsibility for anything?

"Nah," Hank said, with a shake of his head, "When I said no, she was pissed, but she wasn't gonna tell on me. Well, at least not then. I didn't know what she was gonna do after she had the baby, and I still viewed her pregnancy as a tickin' time bomb. How I seen it was, when she gave birth, that was when my marriage was gonna blow-up. Abs forgave me for a lot, but she wouldn't forgive that, cheatin' and knockin' someone else up. It wasn't gonna happen."

He was right, Sully thought to himself. Abagail would have never accepted him cheating. She would have left him sooner than she did, had she known.

"Well, one day," Hank continued, "Abagail and I went out. We were actually havin' a good day for a change. It was Zac's first day of kindergarten. She took off from work that day, and I worked nights, so it didn't matter if I took off or not. Of course, she got all emotional and teary-eyed after we took him to his class, and it was time to leave. Truthfully, I got emotional too, I was just better at hidin' it than she was. Well, we left, then I took her to breakfast, and then she wanted to go shoppin' to get him a backpack. We didn't get him one at first, thinkin' he was too young for that, but all the other kids had one, so she wanted to get him one too."

"Sounds like her," Sully commented with a laugh.

"We went to Wal-Mart, Target, I don't remember," Hank said, "and we found him a nice one. Then somehow, we got separated in the store and when I found her again, she was in the maternity section. She was talkin' to a young pregnant woman, explainin' to her about pregnancy stuff. I didn't see the pregnant woman's face at the time, but I heard Abagail tell her that she wanted another baby. I thought, huh, maybe I'll get lucky soon. Then I turned the corner and wrapped my arms around her from behind. She was my wife, I used to love on her like that all the time, it just hadn't happened in a while. Then I looked up and realized the woman she'd been talkin' to was Clarice."

"Playin' with fire," Sully commented, "Did Clarice plan that?"

"She didn't," he replied, "It was a coincidence. That actually made it worse for me. Abagail could find out what I had done at any time and that would be it. Knowin' that the bomb was gonna go off, I started drinkin'. I used to drink too much, but I was doin' it to unwind before. But after that I was just drinkin' to get drunk. After a week, or two later, I got wasted, and like an idiot, I got behind the wheel of a car, and that was when I accidentally killed my mother-in-law."

Sully was conflicted again. Part of him felt a little bit sorry for Hank after hearing what happened. Part of him thought that Hank's words were just another excuse for bad behavior that he didn't want to take responsibility for. The part of him that felt sorry for Hank, wanted to offer him solace, but he had none to give. Maude was dead and she wasn't coming back. Abagail was dead too, and she would never be able to hear what happened and forgive him for it. The other part of him wanted to call Hank out for his B.S. Not knowing what to do or say next, Sully decided to move forward.

"What about now?" Sully asked, getting to the subject that was most important to him, "Are ya gonna go after Zac?"

Hank let out a chuckle, "I wish I could. He's my boy and all I have left of Abagail, but I can't."

That revelation made Sully feel better, but it also left him with more questions.

"Why not?" he questioned, taking another sip of his soda.

"Why?" Hank asked with a mischievous smile, "Is he a pain in the ass? Ya wanna get rid of him?"

"No," Sully stated firmly and seriously, "I just wanna know why ya can't."

"I can't raise a kid," Hank confessed, "I told Abagail that way back in high school and she didn't believe me. I guess she thought that havin' a kid would turn me into you." Hank laughed at his own joke.

"Is that the only reason?" Sully probed further.

"The judge over the family court is Judge Webster," Hank stated, unaware that Sully already knew that. However, Hank then gave Sully information that he was not already aware of, "Six years ago, Webster was over manslaughter cases, particularly cases that involved drunk drivin'. He was the one that gave me that twelve-year sentence. He ain't gonna give me a kid, and he'd probably get pissed if he knew I'm on parole."

"But Mia lives with you," Sully pointed out. He really wasn't trying to give Hank reasons to go after Zachary, and he was happy that Hank decided not to. It was just that Sully could never see himself willingly giving up one of his children, especially without a fight. The very thought of it was incomprehensible to him.

"She does, but my grandmother is her guardian, not me," Hank informed him.

"What happened to her mother?" Sully questioned, taking a drink of his Pepsi and moving the conversation forward.

"I don't know," Hank admitted, putting out his cigarette on the concrete and then taking a sip of his drink, "Clarice took care of her for her whole life, up until a couple of months ago. Around Thanksgivin' time, I was still in jail, she brought her over to my grandmother's house and left her there. She gave her all of Mia's papers: birth certificate, medical records, school records. All she said to my grandmother was that I'm her father, and that she couldn't take care of her anymore, and we haven't seen her since. My grandmother asked me if it was true, and I said it was. The court did a DNA test and confirmed that she was my daughter, and then they made my grandmother her legal guardian."

"Speakin' of your grandmother," Sully said, changing the subject. It was good that he knew for sure that Mia and Zac were brother and sister, but Sully had a serious bone to pick with Hank about Miss Ilsa, "She went to Abagail's funeral and then asked to be part of Zac's life. I didn't have a problem with it then, but I have a problem with it now. If she goes near Zac again, I'm gonna have to call the police."

"Please don't do that," Hank requested, "Please don't."

"Give me a reason not to!" Sully demanded, his frustration level clearly rising, "She showed up on Christmas! She didn't show up to my house, she came to my girlfriend's house, uninvited, I don't even know how she found out where my girlfriend lives! She showed up... She sprang Mia on us without any warning, without discussing it with me first…"

"I know," Hank responded, nodding and gesturing with his hands that he wanted Sully to calm down.

"...Then Zac disappeared today," Sully continued, "I was scared to death, had no idea where he was, and you said that SHE tricked him into goin' somewhere with her…"

"I know that too," Hank said with a nod, his hands still up.

"... Also without my permission. What was she thinkin' by goin' to Zachary's school...and... well... enough is enough!" Sully stated firmly.

"She didn't mean any harm," Hank tried to defend his grandmother.

"WHAT DID SHE MEAN?" Sully shouted. He was past frustration now and moving on to anger.

Using his hands again, Hank gestured to Sully, nonverbally asking him to calm down so he could explain, "Since I was a little kid, that woman has always seen me through rose colored glasses. She thinks me drinkin' too much, nearly flunkin' out of high school, gettin' Clarice pregnant, goin' to jail, the list goes on for 'bout a mile, was all just a big misunderstandin' and none of it was my fault. That woman truly loves me and thinks I can do no wrong."

"But–" Sully questioned with a scoff, throwing his hands up in the air. What Hank said about his grandmother was fairly obvious to him, and Sully believed Hank being raised by someone like that explained a lot about why he was the way he was, but that didn't mean that Sully was going to put up with it. No way!

"I've been in jail," Hank said, "That day when we ran into each other at the cemetery was my first day out. I was gone for six years, and I didn't realize it until recently, but my grandmother is losin' her mind. She's goin' senile."

"I think she was pretty stealthy today," Sully commented, his voice laced with sarcasm. He could not accept Hank's answer as a good excuse for such wild and inappropriate behavior.

"I know that, but she ain't all there, Man, I'm tellin' ya," Hank explained, "I haven't taken her car keys away from her yet, but I will. I've taken her credit cards and access to the checkin' account away from her already. I had to. She bought a brand-new car last week, when I was out tryin' to find work. That's somethin' that she don't need and can't afford. Besides that, she ain't even gonna live in town for very much longer. She won't bother you again."

"Where's she goin'?" Sully questioned.

"California," Hank replied, "I can't find work here. The only thing I know how to do is be a bartender. That was my job before I went to jail, but nobody wants to hire a felon, especially one that committed an alcohol related crime. A couple friends of mine are willin' to take the risk. I got permission from my parole officer, I found an apartment, and a couple miles down the road, I found an old age home. I'm gonna put Nana there, to make sure she's taken care of, and I'll be nearby so she ain't alone. I'm gonna put the house on the market, pay off all her debts with the money from that, and move us."

"Are ya sayin' you never wanna see Zac again?" Sully asked, stunned that Hank was making the decision to move so far away.

"No," Hank answered, "I wanna see him again. I wanna see him when he's older. I wanna tell him everything someday."

"What about him havin' a relationship with Mia?" Sully questioned, "This is all fine for you, but I think that Zachary should have a relationship with his sister."

"That's where you come in," Hank stated, looking Sully dead in the eye.

"What does that mean?" Sully questioned, though he could guess where Hank was going with that comment.

"Like ya said," Hank began, "Zac and Mia should have a relationship, they're brother and sister. I can't take care of her and my grandmother sure as hell can't, she can't even take care of her damn cat. Abagail chose you for Zac, and her opinion of what makes a good father is good enough for me. So now I'm choosin' you too, for both of them."

Sully started laughing nervously, thinking this was becoming a farce, "You can't be serious."

"Yes," Hank replied, "Dead serious."

"This ain't like rehomin' a dog," Sully argued, "This is a child we're talkin' about. She has feelings. She's already been abandoned once and made to live with somone she doesn't know. Your gonna do that to her again?"

"If it makes ya feel any better, Mia can't stand me," Hank said with a laugh, "She'll probably be happy to see me go."

Not knowing how to respond, Sully questioned, "What if Clarice decides to change her mind later and come back? I don't need that."

"Clarice ain't wishy-washy. I don't think she's gonna change her mind, but if she does, I'll help ya fight her off," Hank promised, "I wanna do this proper and legal. You will have every signed document that ya need."

Sully scoffed and shook his head, "What will happen to Mia if I say no?" he questioned.

"She'll become a ward of the state," Hank informed him with a shrug.

"You can't do that," Sully insisted, completely horrified at the thought of it.

"I told ya," Hank countered, "I can't take care of her."

Sully didn't know what to make of Hank. At some points during their conversation, he saw him as a selfish jerk, and at other points, he saw him as sympathetic. However, after hearing his plans for Mia, if he didn't agree to take her in, Sully was back to thinking Hank was a selfish jerk again.

"If I agree to this," Sully stated clearly, "Then you can't change your mind later. When I took on Zachary, I did it with my whole heart. I decided that I was gonna love him like he was my own, and I will continue to do that every day of my life. If I take on Mia, I will do the exact same thing for her. That means I'm her father, not you. I will love and care for that little girl like she's my own, and I don't want our lives interrupted because you decide you feel guilty about it later on down the road."

Hank let out a sigh, "I want the same thing for Mia as I want for Zac. When she's grown, I want the chance to tell her my side of the story. I wanna tell her about her mom and me."

Sully wondered why he would want that. If Hank was planning on signing over Mia to the state, should Sully not agree to this, how would he be able to find her later? It didn't make any sense to him.

"Come on, Man," Hank said, attempting to get him to agree, "I can't take care of her. Don't make the same mistake that our wife made by not believin' me."

Sully wanted to pop Hank in the mouth after he made that "our wife" comment. Luckily for Hank, Sully's cell phone rang, and it was Michaela calling. It was past the time that Matthew was supposed to get out of school. He wondered if she'd heard something about Zachary disappearing, and now she was calling to ask him about it.

"I gotta take this," he told Hank.

"I'll wait," Hank replied and took a couple gulps of his Pepsi.

"Hello, Sweetheart," Sully greeted her when he answered the phone.

"Sweetheart, Ha," Hank mocked, but Sully just ignored him.

"Sully," Michaela replied, clearly panicking, "Dorothy was supposed to pick up the kids from school today, but she never showed up."

"Do you need help pickin' them up?" Sully asked.

"No, I picked them up already and we're at home," she explained, "I've called Dorothy twice and she hasn't answered or called me back. She's over two hours late. I'm very worried about her. She's been acting so strangely lately and I'm worried that her husband is on a bender."

Sully and Michaela had not discussed Dorothy's husband yet, but he could tell that she knew a few things. He also knew that if Marcus was drinking again, then Dorothy could be in serious danger.

"Okay," Sully said, "I'm gonna bring my kids to you. Then I want you all to stay put, and I'll take care of everything else. I need ya to give me at least fifteen minutes, Honey."

"Okay," Michaela responded, "I'll wait for you. Please hurry."

"I'll go as fast as I can," Sully promised, and then he ended the call. He looked at Hank next and said, "I need to cut this meeting short."

"That's what it sounded like to me," Hank replied, not asking him for any details about his phone call, "But I have a question for ya. When you say your takin' your kids to... wherever... does that include Mia? Or not?"

To be continued. Please review. =)

I hope you enjoyed my single scene chapter. For those of you who guessed that Hank was going to ask Sully to take Mia, you guessed right!

How do you think Michaela will respond?