"Hey." Karen knocked on the doorframe of Ava's room.

The nine year old hadn't heard her, because she had her headphones over her ears, listening to music, while she jumped up and down on her bed.

"Havana-Rose Scott!" Karen shouted over the music, startling the child. "If you break that box spring, you'll be sleeping on the floor for the rest of you life."

Ava giggled and hopped off the bed, skipping over to her mother.

"I was wondering if you'd like to go to the hospital to see Coach Durham. I bet he could use a couple of visitors."

"Okay!" Ava nodded enthusiastically and put on a pair of shoes.

They were two different colors. It was a personal Ava trademark.

She loved mis-matched shoes and she loved being different from everyone else.

Karen was glad to see that Lucas and Keith's absence wasn't affecting Ava as much as it was affecting her.

She thought that she could handle it if Lucas left, but she was so wrong. She missed her oldest dearly.

And she knew Ava did, too.

She had no one to terrorize.

But some nights, she'd crawl into bed with her mother and curl into her bed to make sure that she was still there.

By the time morning rolled around, she'd be sleeping in her brother's bed as if nothing had happened.

"Coach Durham?" Karen called once she and her daughter made it to his hospital room.

Whitey cracked one eye open and laughed at the sight of her. "Karen. I always pretend to be asleep when the nurse comes in here."

"How are you doing?" Karen laughed and sat down in a chair beside the bed, while Ava stayed in the doorway.

"Ah, you know, they want to operate….but it's a long story full of medical mumbo jumbo."

"Well, I've got lots of time. I closed the cafe for the day." Karen noticed her daughter hadn't come in yet. "Ava, come say hello. He doesn't bite."

Ava hesitated before making her way over to her mother's side. "Hi." She waved.

"Well, hello." Whitey smiled. "It's good to see you again. You know you're getting prettier and prettier everyday."

"Thank you."

"You know, I remember holding you when you were just a baby."

"Really?" Ava perked up.

"I sure do. You were a shy little thing, but I knew then that you were special."

"Thank you."

"I guess your nest is feeling half empty, huh?"

"I guess so." Karen smiled softly, pulling Ava onto her lap.

"You ever think, maybe that's what Lucas wanted? You know, that silence would close in on you and you'd have to go out and make some noise yourself."

"Well…..I was thinking that maybe I'd take some classes over at the University."

"Well stop thinking about it, and do it! You know what I'd do if I was your age? Everything…..and then by golly, I'd turn around and do it again. I wouldn't give a care in the world who disapproved or what I looked like doing it. Karen…take it from me...…when you're my age, you don't want to be here…...tangled up in that road you never travelled. Make some time. Take a few chances."

"Can we go see a movie, Mama?" Ava skipped happily alongside her mother, holding her hand as they walked through the hospital.

Whitey had certainly put things into perspective for Karen.

Maybe she should take advantage of the extra time she had on her hands.

"We can do whatever you want to do, baby." Karen couldn't help but feel the joy her child was feeling.

But that was soon gone when she spotted Deb crying in the hallway.

"What's wrong with Aunt Deb, Mama?" Ava had come to a stop once she saw the woman.

Deb was usually so strong, Ava had never seen her like this before.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Karen assured her. "Deb? Deb, what's wrong? What happened?"

"He's gonna die." Deb sobbed.

"Who?"

"Dan!" Deb blurted. "He had a heart attack."

Ava's world stopped in that very moment.

Her father was in the hospital.

But how? How had this happened so fast?

She had just seen him and he looked fine!

"Is Nathan here?" Karen asked.

"He's in the chapel." Deb sniffled. "He's with Haley."

"Okay, Ava, why don't you go and find them? We'll be alright here."

Ava nodded numbly and slipped into the chapel without a sound.

Nathan and Haley were the only two in there besides her, but she still was unsure of what to do.

"Ava?" Haley furrowed her eyebrows.

Nathan turned around and looked at her, his eyes bloodshot and swollen. "C'mere." He waved her over to sit with them.

Ava's feet began to walk before her mind registered that she was even moving.

"I-Is he gonna be okay?" She asked.

"We don't know." Haley wrapped an arm around her, still hanging onto Nathan.

"Are you okay?" The nine year old asked her brother. "Do you need anything?"

There wasn't anything she could give him, but it was the thought that counted.

"No." Nathan shook his head. "Just…..stay."

"Okay." Ava nodded as they fell into a comfortable silence, staring at the alter in front of them.

The child put her feet up on the pew and curled into Haley, fiddling with the girl's left hand before she felt something unusual.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and turned so that she could see clearly.

And on Haley's hand, was a wedding band.

She had gotten married.

But Ava didn't say anything. Even at her tender age, she knew that now was definitely not the right time.

If there was one thing that Ava was good at besides tormenting her brother, it was being sneaky.

Once she had said her goodbyes to Nathan and Haley, instead of finding her mother, like she was told to do, she crept into her father's room, making sure that no one had seen her get there.

She needed to see her father and she didn't know if her mother would want her to, given their history.

Ava hadn't even told her that she had gone to see him a couple of times after her birthday.

She didn't want to sneak around and keep things from her, but she didn't think that she could tell her about any of this stuff without hurting her or her uncle.

She loved Karen. The woman was the only mother she knew, and she was the only mother she ever cared to know.

And Keith was one of her absolute favorite people in the world. He had always been there for her no matter what.

He had stepped in when Dan didn't.

So why did she want to get to know Dan so badly? She just couldn't come up with a concrete answer. She herself didn't know.

He was father, but at the same time...…he wasn't. He had never come around to see her, never acknowledged that she existed, he never even wanted her.

And when she asked him why that was, he said it was 'complicated'.

Whatever that meant.

Yet, here she was, in his hospital room, looking over him, afraid for him, sad for him.

And he didn't even deserve it.

But she didn't care. She was willing to overlook it all and give him a chance.

She wanted him to be in her life. She needed him to be.

"Hi, Daddy." She whispered, looking at all the wires he was hooked up to. "Can you hear me?"

The only response she expected was the beeping of his heart rate monitor, and that's the only response she got.

"Well…..if you can…..it's Ava." She took a deep breath. "Um, you have to get better, okay? Nathan is really upset that you're hurt even though he's mad at you. And so is Aunt Deb. I saw her crying outside. I just thought you'd wanna know that." She shrugged. "And even Mama wants you to get better. She didn't say anything, but I know her."

She still didn't get a response, but she felt inclined to keep going.

"Sarah isn't bothering me anymore. She leaves me and my friends alone. I think Haley and Nathan got married…..I think that's really cool, except I hope they don't start acting all mushy and start kissing everywhere like they do on tv. That's gross."

"I thought I'd find you here." Karen startled the daylights out of her daughter for the second time that day as she walked into the room. And instead of being upset or scolding her, like Ava thought she would, she just smiled and wrapped an arm around her. "Did you two have a good talk?"

"Yeah." Ava nodded. "Do you think he heard me?"

"I know he did. I'm sure he was happy to have you come and visit him."

"Me, too."

"Does he know how dumb he looks?" Ava asked her brother as they braved the hot sun and walked to the River Court. "And what happened to his hair?"

Lucas had called and told them he was coming back to town and to meet him at the River Court.

He hadn't been gone long, but to Ava, it had felt like a lifetime. She had never been away from her brother in her whole life.

So when she heard he was coming back, she was super excited to see him.

The youngest Scotts found him lying on the blacktop of the court with his eyes closed, listening to music as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"I don't know, let's find out." Nathan stood over their older brother, blocking his sunlight.

Lucas noticed the lack of heat on his face and cracked an eye open to see his two, unbelievably annoying siblings looking down at him.

"Three questions." Nathan smirked. "You ready?"

"Was that your first one?" Lucas took an earphone out of his ear.

"Number one." Nathan ignored him. "What happened to your hair?"

Lucas just laughed and sat up. "I left it in Charleston. You and Haley still married?"

"Yeah, she hasn't thrown me out yet. Number two: why'd you come back?"

"It was the right thing to do." Lucas shrugged. "Which actually brings me to my number two: how's your….how's Dan doing?"

"Oh, he's alright. He's still alive, probably freaking out about me and Haley…..like my mom."

"I am, too." Ava dribbled her basketball between her legs. "You guys kiss all the time. That's disgusting. I don't know how Haley does it."

"You know what?" Nathan snatched the ball away from her and threw it in the opposite direction. "Go find that and leave us alone."

Ava's jaw dropped and she looked at Lucas for help, but all he did was point in the direction that Nathan threw her ball. "You guys are the worst! I'll get you back for this!"

"Yeah, whatever." Nathan nudged her to get her moving, before turning back to Lucas. "Alright, last question: you regret all that, 'you're my brother' stuff, now that you're back?"

"Absolutely, you?"

"Definitely."

"So, I can totally see your family tripping out." Lucas stood up. "I mean, I freaked out and I'm not even related to Haley."

"Actually, you are now." Nathan smirked, which turned into a grimace when the basketball he had thrown came flying back at him.

"I told you, I'd get you back!"

"Can you just...hold on for a minute?" He asked Lucas. "I need to go take care of something."

Lucas laughed out loud as he watched Nathan sprint after their sister, who couldn't really do much but run...and scream.

It was good. to be back.

"Hi." Ava walked into Dan's hospital room, keeping her distance.

"Hi." Dan smiled as soon as he saw her. "Come closer, I don't bite."

Ava smiled and sat down at the end of his bed, taking everything in.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better." The man answered truthfully. "How's school? Get into any fights lately?"

"No.' Ava giggled. "Mama wasn't too happy about it last time."

"She's right. You shouldn't fight with your classmates unless it's absolutely necessary. Only when you need to defend yourself. Okay?"

"Okay." Ava agreed. "Does all this hurt?" She asked, looking at the needles and wires. "That's a lot of stuff."

"No, it doesn't hurt." Dan laughed. "It's what the doctors are giving me to help me get better."

"When will you be all better?"

"I don't know, Ava. Soon. So don't worry. I'm gonna be alright."

"Okay. When you get out of here…..can we go get ice cream?"

"I would love to. It's a date." He winked. "What do you have planned today, Baby?"

"Nathan and Haley are having a party…...everybody's going. Did they tell you?" Ava asked cautiously, not wanting to be the one to spill the beans.

Everyone was reluctant to tell her anything for fear of her blabbing.

She was not about to prove them right.

"What? That they got married?" Dan questioned. "Nathan told me earlier. I haven't asked, what do you think about it?"

"Them getting married?" Ava asked. "I don't know. It's okay, I guess."

"That doesn't sound too confident. What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Ava shrugged. "I love Haley, but..…"

"But what, honey?" Dan pressed, genuinely concerned. "Tell me, it's okay."

"Everybody's so much older than me…...me and Haley met Nathan around the same time, but their closer cause she's older and she spends more time with him….I barely know him."

"And you think that now that they're married, you might not get a chance to get to know him?"

"….Yeah."

"Why don't you tell him that?"

"Cause they're married and it's stupid, and it doesn't matter."

"It's not stupid, Ava, and of course it matters. I'm sure that if you go and talk to him, he'll understand."

Ava wasn't convinced in the slightest, but she acquiesced just to appease him.

"Hi." Keith knocked, ending the conversation.

And it was a good thing, too. Ava didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"I was wondering if you were ever gonna come visit me."

"Hi, Uncle Keith." Ava smiled and hugged him as soon as he was within reach.

"Hi, Munchkin." He ruffled her hair. "Keeping your dad company?"

"Yeah, but he's boring." She joked.

"Hey, now." Dan chuckled.

"Ava, why don't you go and see if one of the nurses will give you a cup of jello?" Keith suggested.

"You want me to leave, huh?" Ava smirked.

"What tipped you off?"

"I hate hospital jello and you know it. Plus, it's obvious you want me to leave so you can talk. I'm nine, not two."

"Well, go outside and stay where I can keep and eye on you, smart-aleck." Keith playfully swatted at her as she hopped off the bed.

"Bye!" Ava waved at her father before exiting the room, leaving the two brothers alone.

"I was waiting for the right time to visit…..and uh, I guess then I realized there wasn't gonna be a right time so…..here I am." Keith sighed. "I'm sorry, Dan…..about what happened with me and Deb. I wish I could take it all back."

"I haven't been much of a brother to you Keith, or a husband to Deb, or a father. I guess I've just had other things on my mind; success, business…"

"Well, you just worry about getting well, okay?" Keith was shocked by how well this was going. "I'll help out at the dealership until you get back on your feet. I know you're gonna have a very strong opinion about this but—"

"—Actually, that would take a load off my mind."

"You're okay with that?"

"Things change." Dan smiled. "People change."

"Oh." This was beyond creepy, but if this was what Dan was gonna be like from now on, who was Keith to complain? "Well, okay then. Get well, Dan." He said his goodbyes before nearly dashing out the door.

This was far too weird.

"This is some party." Keith mused as he and Ava entered the warehouse where the party was taking place.

"It was all Luke's idea." Ava explained, searching the crowd for Haley, but instead, spotted her parents.

"I'm gonna go find your mom, don't party too hard." Keith told her, before leaving her to run to the two funniest people she had ever met.

"Uncle Jimmy!" She tugged on his sleeve to get his attention.

"Lydia, do you hear something?" Jimmy asked his wife.

"No, dear. I think you're just getting old." Lydia played along, looking for the unknown person above Ava's head. "I don't see anyone."

"Aunt Lydia, I'm right here!" Ava crossed her arms, all too aware of the joke about her height, or lack thereof.

"Oh my goodness, it's a leprechaun." Lydia gasped. "First our daughter gets married, and then we strike gold!"

"Haha." Ava rolled her eyes. "Very funny. I forgot to laugh. I'm not that short."

"Well, look who it is." Jimmy smirked, finally acknowledging the girl. "Ava-Rose."

"I don't know an Ava-Rose." Lydia was still playing the game, much to Ava's chagrin.

"Fine." Ava huffed. "I'm leaving."

The nine year old turned to leave, but she didn't get very far before Jimmy lifted her up from behind. "How've you been doing, Ava? Taking care of Haley for us?"

"I'm trying." Ava sighed dramatically. "I do my best, but sometimes it's hard. You try to raise 'em right and you think you're getting through, but then they go off and get married. It's tough, you know?"

"Oh, we know." Jimmy nodded, trying not to laugh as his daughter and her husband approached them, catching the tail end of the conversation.

"And you see him?" Ava pointed to her brother. "He's a lot of work."

"What?" Nathan furrowed his eyebrows. "What is this?"

"Ava loves to play pretend, Nathan." Haley explained. "My parents, as eccentric as they are, play right along and indulge her. Usually it's about how hard it was raising me and it looks like you're being sucked into the joke, too."

"Great." Nathan chuckled.

His sister was certainly her own little person.

"Every kid is different, you may need a new approach." Lydia told her, shaking her head at Nathan.

"I tried my best with that one, too. He just doesn't listen." Ava had such a burdened look on her face, that one would think that she was a single mother of multiple unruly children.

"You just need to be patient."

"I have been….now they're married! Where did I go wrong?"

"Okay, that's enough fake parenting for now." Haley playfully rolling her eyes. "Honestly, you guys, it's crazy."

"See how she talks to us?" Ava kept going. "Rude."

"You would think she was raised by wolves." Lydia lamented.

"You know what?" Haley took Ava from her father and set her on the ground, looking down at her.

"Uh oh."

"Yeah. 'Uh oh'." Haley cupped her chin. "Did you come here to give me a hard time?"

"Yes." Ava answered without the slightest bit of hesitation, making Haley's parents laugh.

"Well, at least you're honest." Haley relented as Deb made their way over to them.

"Mom, have you met Haley's parents?" Nathan asked her.

"Hi, I'm Lydia James, this is my husband, Jim."

"Hi, nice to meet you." Jimmy followed suit.

"Hi." Deb smiled tightly.

"Sorry to hear about your husband. How's he doing?"

"He's struggling with a new reality. I suppose we both are."

"Well, I look forward to the day when we can all break bread and…..argue about religion and politics and how best to raise our grandchildren."

A little joked popped into Ava's head, but she kept her moth shut, because now really wasn't the time.

It was too bad, because the joke was really funny.

Instead, Jimmy was the one to try and lighten the mood. "Yeah…..uh, no hurry on the last one, by the way." Everyone but Deb found it to be funny, of course. "Well, you've raised a fine man."

"He's not a man."

"Sorry?"

"I said, he's not a man, he's a boy and none of this would have happened if you people had had enough common sense to stop it!" Deb finally snapped.

"Mom!"

"No! I am not going to stand here and make nice and pretend like this is all okay when it isn't."

"Ava, honey." Haley smiled sweetly at the child. "Are you hungry? I bet you are. I saw some really big cookies over on the table over there." She pointed to where the food table was.

"You just want me to leave so I don't hear what you're gonna say next, right?"

"That's right." Haley nodded. "And if you leave right now, you can have two."

"Okay!" Ava lit up at the thought of all that sugar. "Bye!"

Once the child was out of earshot, the tension in the area increased to an all time high.

"You said you're not gonna stand here and make nice?" Haley reeled on Deb. "Then don't!" She snapped, shocking everyone involved. "It's one thing for you to raise your voice at me, but don't come in here and dump on my parents! We made our decision, we got married and we're happy, and if you're not here to celebrate with us, then you should just go home, because I don't want you here!"

Even though Ava wasn't supposed to hear the conversation, she was too curious not to listen.

And she wasn't exactly shocked by Haley's outburst. She knew she had it in her.

"Now, who told you that you could eat so much sugar, huh?" Keith snuck up behind his niece, making her shriek.

"Haley did!" She giggled when he dug his fingers in her side. "She wanted to yell at Aunt Deb, so she sent me away."

"She yelled at Deb?" Karen asked. "That doesn't sound like Haley. Is she okay?"

"She looks fine to me." Ava shrugged, lifting her arms, silently asking her uncle to lift her up.

Keith obliged her and swung her up onto his shoulders, knowing how much she liked it up there.

She got comfortable just in time to see Haley's parents make their way up onto the stage to speak into the mic.

There was no sign of Deb anywhere, so she must've left.

If she wasn't going to enjoy the party and celebrate, it was probably for the best.

"I guess it's not surprise that some would criticize us, call us unfit parents." Jimmy started.

"And normally, they would be right."

"And for those who say they're too young, let me just say, you can drive at sixteen, go to war at eighteen, you can drink at twenty-one and retire at sixty-five…so how old do you have to be, before your love is real?"

"So here's to you, Haley Bob." Lydia smiled at her daughter. "And Nathan, she's your headache now."

Everyone laughed as they raised their glasses to toast to the newly wedded couple, giving Lucas time to take Lydia and Jimmy's place at the mic.

"I think everybody knows that Nathan and I got off to a pretty sketchy start." He began. "Nathan, does mutual hatred sound about right?"

"Worse!" Nathan called out from the crowd.

"Yeah." Lucas chuckled. "You see, then a funny thing happened…Haley. She showed me that you can find the good in everybody, if you just give them a chance. The benefit of the doubt. Sometimes, people disappoint you, sometimes they surprise you. But you never really get to know them…until you listen for what's in their hearts. And that's what Haley did with Nathan. That's what we should do for them. So for you skeptics out there, prepare to be surprised. So this." He held up his glass of water. "Is to my brother and my little sis…..in law." He cracked a smirk. "And in love."

Everyone once again, took a sip of their drinks and clapped after the heartwarming speech was finished.

"Oh! And I almost forgot." Lucas had been leaving the stage before he remembered something at the last minute. "Ava said that she loves you, she's over there making sure that I do what I promised." He added, making everyone 'aww'.

"We love you, too, Ava!" Haley laughed.

Ava gave the couple a big thumbs up and smiled.

Here was to a happy and loving marriage.

She had a good feeling about those two.

"Hi, Mama." Ava smiled sheepishly as her mother entered her room and turned the music off.

She had been dancing to some music that was playing on her CD player.

Her latest musical obsession, was anything Britney Spears. Baby One More Time, Oops I Did it Again, Deep In My Heart, if Britney sang it before 2003, Ava was into it.

And dancing had been something she had recently picked up and found that she really liked.

And she was shockingly very good at it.

She had all the choreography to Baby One More Time down to science without having ever taken a single dance lesson.

She was a natural.

"Are you ready for school tomorrow?" She asked her mother as they both sat down on her bed. "Are you nervous?"

"Yeah, actually, I am." Karen admitted. "I haven't been to school in a while, so this is going to be a big change."

Karen had finally decided to go back to school and take some college courses.

Ava was glad, because she seemed to be really happy about it.

It was nice to see her doing things for herself.

"Yeah, you haven't been to school in years."

"Watch it." Karen tickled her side.

"They're gonna like you, Mama."

"I hope so."

"They will." Ava assured her. "Everybody likes you."

"Well, thank you for your vote of confidence. But that's not what I came here to talk to you about."

"What do you want to talk to me about?"

"Why don't you get under the covers and we'll talk?"

Ava shrugged and allowed her mother to tuck her in under her covers and slip in beside her. "What, Mama?"

"A woman came into the cafe a few days ago and said that they caught you watching their dance class after school. I've noticed you've taken an interest in dancing, too, so I signed you up for some classes a few times a week. Is that something you'd like to do?"

"Yes! I want to!"

"Good." Karen smiled. "You start tomorrow after school is over. Get some sleep."

"Can you stay here with me?"

"Just for tonight, but you have to close your eyes and sleep, okay?" Karen got comfortable.

She always said, 'just for tonight' whenever Ava asked, but when Ava would ask the night after, or the night after that, she wouldn't dream of denying her request.

"Okay….goodnight, Mama." Ava sighed contently and closed her eyes.

It had been a good day.

She hoped every day after this one could be just as good, if not better.