They went down to the parking lot and Matty saw the silver corvette. It was really clean and shiny. They went inside and it had a new car smell. The whole car was extremely clean. Which was very much in contrast to Phillip's side of the room of the Maplewood house.

Phillip smiled at Matty, "Matty meet my girl. This is Vetty. "Matty had no idea what Phillip wanted him to do. Did he want him to shake hands with the car? So Matty just patted the top of Vetty a couple of times in acknowledgement. "Ok so now dude. We are going to Marvelous Marvin's first. But no eating in the car. Alright?"

Phillip & Matty stopped at Marvelous Marvins on the way back to the Maplewood house. Matty had never had Marvelous Marvins before, and the food was incredible. Well, he probably had but he didn't remember. He loved it.

Afterwards they went to the Maplewood house, and they cleaned up the blood drippings from where Lee's stiches had popped. It was around 10:30PM. Phillip and he then got in the car and headed to his father's house in Alexandria, VA.

They got to Uncle Joe's house around 11:00PM. Carrie and Jaime were sitting on the couch drinking glasses of wine. They looked at him. Jaime stared. "You brought Matty here? Is mom here too?" Phillip sighed, "Its a long story. Pour me one of those. Is dad still up?"

Carrie spoke, "He's in his office. That's Alex?" Phillip nodded. "Yep, he goes by Matty now though." Carrie came over to Matty. "It is really good to see you." And she hugged him. Matty's first thought was she didn't look evil. She seemed kind of nice actually.
She was about a 5'6" professionally dressed woman with dark hair pulled back in a bun. "Joey & Leann are asleep. I can wake up your grandmother though. She is very excited to see you."

Phillip spoke, "No don't wake grandma. She can meet him in the morning. Matty should probably go to bed soon too." Then Carrie said in an annoyed voice, "I wish you would have called me, Phillip. I'm not sure where to put him." "He can just share the rollaway with me. He's small. We'll fit."
Jaime spoke. "Or he can share with me. I can read to him like I used to." Then Phillip pointed to his ears. And Jaime said, "Oh yeah." But Matty liked the idea of Jaime reading to him. It didn't matter if he could hear him or not. He could just read along. Matty pointed at Jaime and nodded yes. Jaime smiled. "Cool, I can just read, and you follow along? "Matty smiled. Jaime could almost read his mind like his mom could.

Jaime put his arm around Matty. Then he looked at Phillip. "Where's mom? How come you have Matty?" Phillip sighed. "Be patient dingus. I'll tell you everything in a minute. We need dad. " "Mom's ok right?" Jaime said worriedly. "Yeah, mom's totally fine " Carrie spoke. "I'll go get your father." Carrie disappeared down a hallway.

His Uncle Joe came back with her. He saw Matty and ruffled his hair, "Hey Matty. It's nice to see you again." Then he turned to Phillip. "Did the Agency take your mom? Is that your phone call was when you left earlier? I should have never told her it was ok to leave the basement." Uncle Joe seemed upset with himself.

Phillip spoke, "No, mom's totally fine. She is at the hospital. The man that has been taking care of Matty. Michael Winthrope. He came to the house. He just had surgery well not even a week ago. So, he probably should not have been traveling. He was not in good shape, so mom took him to the hospital. Mom's with him now."

Uncle Joe looked at Phillip, "Did you call Francine? The Agency? They should question him. Find out why he kept him so long. They should arrest him for kidnapping." Phillip sighed. "No, he doesn't deserve to be in jail. It was a misunderstanding. He thought mom was dead. He was just protecting Matty. Mom wants you to help him, dad."

"Your mom is ok with the man that's kept her son away from her for almost five years?" Phillip nodded. "It's not what you think. We have to protect him. Look you and Jaime should go see him in the morning." His dad seemed annoyed. "To hell with the morning. I'm going to go right now. And Jaime you aren't coming. So don't even think about it. Which hospital? Parker or Gallilee?" Phillip sighed. "Gallilee, dad. Go you'll understand when you meet him."

Uncle Joe just grabbed his jacket and left. Leaving the rest of them sitting on the couch in an awkward silence. Carrie looked uncomfortable. Matty was starting to understand why Phillip had complained to his mother that it was always so awkward. Then Carrie said, "Why do you always have to upset him like that Phllip?" Matty was confused. It was his mom that upset his dad. Oh, this must be why Phillip thought she was evil.

Phillip just looked at her. You could tell he wanted to say something else, but he just said, "I'm sorry, Carrie" Then Jaime spoke. "No man you shouldn't have to apologize. Dad's not mad at Phillip. He's mad at my mom. Why do you always take everything out on Phillip?" Carrie looked at them. "Ugh. Both of you I swear. I'm going to bed. There are extra blankets in the hall closet if you need one for Matty." And she downed the rest of her wine and left.

Jaime sighed, "Seriously dude. New record for her going from 0 to step monster. You have not even been here twenty minutes." Phllip smiled. "Yeah well, I'm just sorry that is going to be Matty's first impression of her." Jaime nodded. "So, this Michael Winthrope guy. You and mom are seriously cool with him keeping Matty away from us? Or has mom just cracked for real this time?" Phillip looked at him. "Not a word Jaime. Do not tell anyone. Dad's going to know when he comes back. But I don't know how mom is going to handle grandma. So do not tell her what I'm about to tell you."

Jaime looked at him "You called me Jaime. It's serious, isn't it?" Phillip's face got intense. "Michael Winthrope is Lee. He's not dead." Jaime looked at Phillip. "What? There was a body? Lee would never have left mom." Phillip nodded. "That's what I said to him. He thought mom died in the explosion. And the body. Lee killed the bastard that put the cigarette out in Matty's ear. He put his id and wallet on him. Threw him in the Potomac. Figured it would buy them some time to escape. That's what he told me."

Jaime ran his hand through his hair and was tearing up. "Lee's alive." Phillip nodded. "Yeah, that's why we need to protect him. If anyone other than us figures out who he is. What Lee did to get the agency and the military to save all those kids. It was treason. Remember Aleksei Kalnikov?"

"Of course I do. I almost lost my bike to him when we were kids. And you and he were hanging out when you were at Georgetown. He was working on his doctorate. He almost got you expelled for that whole underground gambling thing he started. Lee got you off. Lee tried to get Aleksei off too but since he was the ringleader of the whole gambling network at Georgetown. He still went down. Lee got him a job at the Agency, didn't he?"
Phillip nodded. "Yeah, until he got scooched for starting a gambling ring at the agency. Anyway, when Matty got taken and I got hurt trying to stop them. They wouldn't let Lee back in the Agency. Lee hired Aleksei to juice up the computer in the basement. So that he could access the agency computers. Except Aleksei really likes Lee.

He didn't just give him access to the Agency and Police databases. Aleksei made it so Lee had access to all the government and law enforcement computers. The Pentagon, CIA, FBI, Agency, Interpol, State Department, IRS, you name it. Lee had access to it on that computer. That's why the agency took away the computer that day. Aleksei wasn't implicated. I just know it was him because I'm still friends with him. He was a little scared when everything went down. That he would get in trouble. He was pretty sure the safeguards he had in place on the computer could not be traced to him. He came to see me to make sure. That's why I know about Aleksei's involvement."

Jaime looked at Phillip. "That's crazy. But Lee died before they could charge him with anything." Phllip nodded "Yeah but the Agency took that computer. They know it was Lee that put in the orders. For both the Military and Agency. He impersonated a general and Dr. Smyth. They know it was him. "Jaime said "But they saved like 20 kids that day from Karbala. I know a lot of them are screwed up now. But Mom's helped at least 12 reunite with their families and get help."

Phillip nodded. "Yeah. Mom's awesome. That's why we have to help her." Then Jaime said, "Can I have the keys to Vetty? I want to go see Lee." Phillip looked at him. "No way man, you've been drinking. You aren't getting in Vetty. Look tomorrow morning. Matty is going to want to go back to the hospital anyway. It wasn't easy getting him away from Lee. We will let grandma gush all over him. He can meet Leann and Joey. Then I'll drive you both to the hospital and you can reunite with Lee. Sound good?" "Yeah ok." Then Jaime hugged Phillip. Then Phillip looked at Matty. "Do not tell mom we were nice to each other. We have reputations to uphold." Jaime nodded and looked at him. "It's true little dude. This is need to know and mom does not need to know. She gets sickening when we are nice to each other." Matty smiled. It was really nice having brothers even if they were both a little crazy.

Notes:

Next chapter - Matty reunites with Dotty. Leann makes her first appearance and we meet Joey.