Tori walked into the restaurant Becky wanted them to meet up at. She walked up some stairs onto an open patio space that showed a beautiful view of the city and the evening sky.

"Tori!" she heard a voice say before looking in its direction and seeing Becky already sitting at a table. "Hey!" Tori smiled as she sat down.

"You want to order an appetizer or anything?"

"No. I'm craving something super cheesy though." As she studied the menu, she heard one of the chairs at her table move. She looked up and saw a slender built man with tattoos that covered most of his body. His hair was dyed a deep brown, but his roots revealed he was a blonde and he had a spider bite piercing and an eyebrow piercing. No way this was the same boy from secondary school. "Lucas?" Tori screeched out in surprise.

He looked at her in surprise before a small smile crept onto his face. "Hello Tori."

She knew Lucas looked different due to what Becky told her, but she wasn't expecting it to be that dramatic.

Lucas kept his smile on as he scratched the top of his head. "Did Becky not tell you I was coming?"

"It's not that. It's just…" she drifts off.

"I'm pretty sure it's the look, Lucas," Becky interjected. "Keep in mind after we finished school, you just dropped off the face of the earth."

Lucas picked up the menu. "I wouldn't exactly call it "dropping off". More like…" he snakes his head around as he looked up. "Hmm, I guess I did drop off," he giggled.

The trio ordered their food and as they got further into the conversation, Becky began to realize that the conversations were mainly driven by her. She'd ask a question and Lucas and Tori would only answer towards her and hardly would speak to each other. She pressed her lips tightly together as she stood up. "Hey, I'm gonna use the bathroom real quick, yeah?"

They both nodded at her before she left. The silence was deafening between the two. Tori kept darting her eyes from her drink to Lucas and Lucas was looking at something on his phone while he would swirl his scotch with his other hand. Tori cleared her throat. "So, how have you been?"

Lucas looked up at her with a blank expression. "I've been okay. How are you?"

"I've been okay." God this is awkward.

Lucas took a quick sip of his drink. "I see you're pregnant. Congrats, I guess."

"You guess?"

Lucas shrugged as he did a short laugh. "You never striked me as motherly."

Ouch. "I'm surrogating for my brother. You remember Charlie?"

"Yeah," he hummed out.

And just like that, silence grew back between them. Tori couldn't help but let out a small scoff as she rubbed her forehead.

"You feel the awkwardness too, right?" Lucas chuckled as he looked out at the scenery.

"It doesn't have to be awkward," Tori groaned out as she started making little tornados in her lemonade with her straw. "I'm really curious about what you've been up too."

"You're curious about me?"

"Of course I am." Lucas gave her a blank stare before he let out a loud laugh that caused her to jump. "What's so funny?"

He shrugged as his laughing seized. "Forgive me. It's just that from what I remember, you didn't like me much." Tori stopped spinning her straw in her drink and looked up at Lucas. He was still looking out at the scenery as he rested his chin on his hand. "So, for you to be interested in what's going on with me is kinda funny, I guess." He finally faces back at her. A small smile on his face. "I understand the Solitaire situation, which duh, ya' know? But before you knew. You avoided me badly."

Tori slumped in her seat. She couldn't say she didn't. She remembered finding his awkwardness annoying and how he tried forcing back their childhood friendship to be just as irritating.

"I'd rather you just tell me to fuck off or something than that." Lucas said.

"You're right. But… Jesus! I don't know! When it comes to me…" She found herself drifting off again, unsure of what to say. She wasn't expecting to have this type of conversation right here and now.

"Hey, look." Lucas closed his eyes and did a deep sigh before opening them again. "When I went to uni, I did a lot of growing up and had to break out of my shell a lot. What I did to you was weird, and I apologize." His shoulders slumped a bit as he leaned into his seat. "I just really wanted my childhood friend back."

Tori blankly stared at him. "Do you want to start all over or something?"

Lucas returned her blank stare before slowly shaking his head. "You don't have to forgive me. What I did was shitty."

"I mean yeah, but me, you and Becky could rekindle something. I think that's what Becky wants."

"But is that what you want?"

Tori got quiet again as she went back to stirring her lemonade.

"In the time of my absence, being alone with my thoughts and everything, I thought about what happened over and over. ' Maybe if I'd done this', I would think, ' Maybe if I forced myself to be this way, things would be different'. But now, as an adult with a full frontal lobe, I realized nothing would've changed in my favor, because you would've stayed the same."

Tori slumped her shoulders. She kinda felt bad. "Lucas—"

"It's okay. I've made peace with you not liking me." He picked up his scotch and took a sip of his drink. "It's okay because… I don't like you either."

Tori's mouth slightly dropped as she furrowed her eyebrows. Huh?!

Lucas looked up. "Oh! Becky's coming back! Pretend I said something funny."

He started the fake laughing first before Tori joined in. Why the hell did she do it after the guy just told her he didn't like her? She didn't know.

"Oh! It's so good to see you guys having a good time," Becky gleamed as she sat back down.

"Yeah. Tori's a hoot and a half!" Lucas said with a bright smile.

"Yeah, and this dude's a fuckin' clown!" Tori said as she pointed at him with her thumb.

Becky reached for their hands and squeezed it. "It's so nice to regroup with old friends!" She then looked over at Lucas. "Aye, Lucas. Charlie and Nick might have a baby shower and I'll most likely be planning it. You should totally come! It'll be fun!"

Lucas leaned his head to the side as the corner of his mouth twitched. "Man… I don't know."

"Oh, come on!" She then turned towards Tori. "You think it'll be fun, right Tori?"

"Um… Actually I…" she drifted off.

Tori and Lucas then looked at Becky's face. Her grey eyes got big and shiny, and her mouth was in a pout.

"Girl, are you crying?" Lucas questioned.

"You guys don't understand. I've just missed being around people from school. Like adulthood just rips you away from people so bad, so to be with you guys like this…" a few tears start to come from her eyes.

"Becky?!" Tori exclaimed in astonishment. She then sighed as she looked over at Lucas who was already looking at her with the same worried look. "You should come to the baby shower Lucas," she said, reluctantly.

"I'll totally be there," he said, mirroring the same tone as Tori.

Becky then hooked her arms around their necks and pulled them in for a group hug. "Aww, look at us! We're the three musketeers!"

Tori and Lucas looked at each other before giving each other awkward smiles.

Oliver zipped up his final suitcase. "I think that's everything."

Julio sighed as he looked around the room. "I can't believe it's already time for you to go back."

"Don't get all sappy now dad. I'll come and visit for more maths help obviously."

As they spoke, Jane turned into the room, peeking from the door frame. "Do you want anything specific for dinner, Oli? I'll make a special dinner, just for you," she said with a small smile.

Oliver hummed to himself a bit before giving her an answer. "Nothing too crazy. Maybe just some pasta with garlic bread on the side?"

Jane gave him a simple thumbs up before making her way towards the kitchen.

Julio grabbed at Oliver's shoulders. "It's good to see you and your mum finally getting along a bit."

"Are we getting along?"

Julio takes a sharp breath before turning his son around. "I mean… It's still a bit awkward here and there, but it's better than it was a few months ago, no?"

Oliver's lips tightened. ' I'm doing it for you,' he thought to himself as he gave his dad a simple nob. They might be civil now, but Jane's secret still lingered in the air like the scent of dirty laundry.

"Is your girlfriend coming to ride with you tomorrow?"

Oliver's face warmed at the mention of Delphi. "She's not my girlfriend!" he complained. ' Well, not yet at least .'

Julio couldn't help but chuckle at his son's reaction. "Whatever you say. Let's go help out you mum with the cooking."

They began to descend the stairs and into the kitchen. When they got there, Jane was leaning on the sink. She looked ghostly pail and was short of breath.

Julio immediately ran to her side and took her into his arms. "Honey, everything okay?" he asked as he began to touch her forehead.

Jane tightened her lips together. "Um… I don't know. I just got very dizzy all of a sudden." She forced out a brief laugh. "Maybe I'm just getting old."

"Oh, stop that," Julio sighed. He placed a hand around her waist. "Let's get you to the living room. I'll take care of dinner."

"But I promised Oliver—"

"It's fine, mum. Relax a bit."

Jane gave Oliver a sympathetic look before Julio led her to the living room.

Oliver began to dig in the fridge for ingredients. While pulling out the random arrangements of cheeses, he began to hear vibrating. He looked around for a bit before figuring out that it was coming from his mum's phone. He picked it up and was perplexed at the influx of notifications coming in. The question then popped in his head of should he unlock it.

After a few moments of arguing with himself, he swiped his finger on the notification, but to his surprise, Jane had a lock on her phone. "I can't believe she knows how to do that," Oli chuckled to himself.

He walked to the living room and saw Julio still comforting her.

"You sure you don't want something hot to drink?" Julio asked.

"I'll be fine dear," she said, trying her best to reassure him.

"Hey mum." Oliver spoke up. "Your phone keeps going off."

He reached the phone towards her, but a grimace appeared on her face as she slightly leaned away from it. "Just put it in my room."

Oliver tilted his head at his mum before leaving to her room. The phone vibrated like crazy in his hand and continued to go off when he placed it on the nightstand.

"A gender reveal?" Nick questioned as he painted the first stripe on the wall lilac.

"Yes. A gender reveal slash baby shower thing," Charlie said as he opened the can of blue. "And we can do this thing if they think Thor and Loki or boys, they bring nappies and if they think they're girls they bring milk and if they think both they bring other necessities like bottles or something."

Nick raised his eyebrows in amusement. "That's actually really smart, Char. Along with what we'll get from the hospital, we'll be stocked pretty good until they're almost ready to drink actual milk. Where the idea of a baby shower come from anyway?"

"Tori rekindled her friendship with Becky not too long ago and it turns out she's good at planning stuff like that." Charlie walked over to Nick and wrapped his arms around his waist as he buried his face in his back. "And ya' know, these are our first kids, and I think it would be nice to share this joy with our friends and family."

A small smile grew on Nick's face as he used his free hand to squeeze at Charlie's arm. "Yeah, that wouldn't be so bad." Nick turned to face him. Charlie's arms still around him. "So, what are we doing for the reveal part? Nothing too crazy I hope."

"Something simple of course! The last thing I want to be is extreme and end up like that one couple who set fire to the states." As Nick laughed at Charlie's comment, Charlie's phone went off. He reached into his back pocket and studied his phone. "It's Ben." He fully let go of Nick and began to walk out the room as he answered.

'Why couldn't he just answer the phone here?' he wondered before he ferociously shook his head. ' Stop that.' He went back to painting the walls. By the time he realized Charlie was gone for longer than he expected he was already done with the first wall. He cocked an eyebrow in confusion before walking out of the room.

Nick searched the floor for Charlie before hearing his voice coming from their bedroom. He peeked in and saw Charlie pacing back and forth while arguing with Ben about something.

"We're not cutting that part out, Ben. It's just too good. Remember what I told you the last time you were here? This is the type of writing I wanted from you."

Nick's eyes narrowed as his eyebrows knitted together. The LAST time he was HERE ? Why is he here and how many times exactly has he stepped foot in their house? Nick continued to listen in on the conversation.

"Hey now! Listen to me! That. Part. Is. Good. Understand?" Charlie said sternly. Shoving a fist in his hand at every word. "Stop doubting yourself." Charlie got silent. Ben was probably saying something. "Coffee?" He hummed to himself a bit. "I don't see why not."

Nick suspiciously squinted at Charlie. ' A date?'

A few moments passed before Charlie let out a small laugh. "You're stupid," he chuckled.

Nick's jaw dropped. His heart felt overheated. ' The only person who should be making my man laugh like that is me!' he then caught himself again. Was he jealous? And not just jealous, but jealous of Ben Hope of all fucking people. And Ben Hope has him snooping?!

Nick collected his thoughts as he shook his head again and walked into the room. "Is everything okay with Ben?" he asked as if he wasn't just listening to 75% of his conversation.

Charlie's eyebrows slightly raised at Nick before he looked at the time of the call on his phone. He let out a little gasp. "I'm so sorry, Nick! I didn't even realize!" He put the phone back to his ear. "Hey Ben, I was actually in the middle of something. Can we discuss this later?" He goes silent on the phone again before letting out another laugh and looking at Nick from the corner of his eye. "You think so?"

Now they're discussing him right in front of him. This is ridiculous.

"Okay, I'm really hanging up now. Bye." Charlie then tossed his phone on the bed before snaking his arm around Nick's.

As they began to walk back to the nursery, Nick cleared his throat. "That was a pretty long conversation."

Charlie groaned. "Tell me about it. I told him to add something to the book and now he wants to take it out. It's like he wants to sabotage it or something."

Nick then rubbed the back of his neck. "Did he say something about me?" Charlie laughed again, causing Nick's expression to form to annoyed. "It can't be that funny now."

"It was just something silly. Don't worry about it."

…Don't worry about it?

Charlie studied the first wall his husband painted. "Damn, I was gone for quite some time, huh?" he snorted as he rubbed the back of his neck. He picked up a paint roller and started to roll it in the blue paint. "Just sit back and relax. I'll do this one."

Nick stayed silent as he studied Charlie's back. Though he tried his best to fight it, those awful thoughts mixed with reassuring ones popped into his head randomly like fireworks.

'He's just working with Ben. Nothing's going on…'

'Yeah, wouldn't you like to think that? Don't you remember what Monica said?'

'No! Monica's full of it. Jason even said so!'

'But what if Monica was being truthful this time?'

'Well, that's Monica's situation. Charlie loves you, dumbass.'

'Does he though? Being together for so long may be boring for him, you know? And you just had to cover the Olympics this year. What time do you have for him?'

'I'm here with him now…'

'Tuh! You think that's enough? I bet BEN has all the free time in the world. Go on and cover those silly sports games while Charlie goes on all the coffee dates with Ben so he can make him laugh.'

'Stop that! It's just business.'

'Mmm… Is it?'

'Yes.'

'No.'

'Yes.'

'No.'

'Yes.'

'N—'

Nick stumbled a bit, catching himself on the doorframe as he rubbed his forehead. "Shut up," he mumbled.

Charlie quickly turned around, and a worried expression grew on his face. "Honey?" Charlie said with concern. He began to reach out to him, but Nick smacked his hand away. He was taken aback. "Nick?"

After some time of him massaging at his temples, Nick finally registered what he just did. "Um—!" He placed his hands on Charlie's shoulders. "I'm sorry. That wasn't right." Charlie tilted his head to the side before taking his hands and leading him back to their bedroom. He forced Nick to sit down and began to touch his forehead. "Char?"

"Are you sick or something?" Charlie questioned. "You're acting weird."

"No, it's just…" Nick bit his tongue. "No. Forget it. It's stupid."

"If it has you this dishevelled, it's not stupid. What's wrong? Tell me." He reached for Nick's hand and laced their fingers together.

Nick pressed his lips in a thin line. He knows what he's worrying about is ridiculous. He fought with his thoughts for a few more seconds before finally saying something. "Argh… I guess it's the Olympics having me stressed out." It won't be too bad to tell half the truth, right? "And you and that book… I feel like we hardly see each other, ya' know? It's like, when I come home or when I'm leaving, you're already fast asleep."

Charlie leaned a bit to study his husband's face some more. "Is it really just that?"

"Yeah…" Nick hesitantly pushed out.

Charlie squinted at him. Something's up. "I won't push you to tell me the other thing, but I can see where you're coming from. Look how long it took us to have the name conversation," he smiled. "Maybe after the Olympics and the book we can do a quick holiday? The babies are due in early March anyway. I'll be done with the book and everything and you'll be wrapping up the coverage."

Nick began to nod. "That'll actually be nice."

Charlie stood up and kissed Nick on his forehead. "Hey, I know it's work, but you wanna come with Ben, Josiah, and I for coffee on Saturday? We're just discussing story progression and promoting, so you may get a bit bored, but at least you'll be with me."

A weight had lifted off Nick's shoulders. What in the world was he thinking? Charlie would never do him like that. "No. I can't be doing that to you while you work. Plus, I'm interviewing the athlete who's doing snowboarding that day."

Charlie playfully pouted at Nick. "You sure? You don't want to hear us nerds tell Ben how there's too many spelling mistakes and contradictions in his own life story?"

Nick laughed. "I'm positive. Oh, another thing I've been meaning to ask."

"And what's that?"

"Don't you think it's time for us to drop the names Thor and Loki off the twins?"

Charlie threw himself back on the bed with a playfully loud groan. "But Thor and Loki are so iconic," he giggled before rolling over onto his stomach. "I guess so. But the only name we've settled on so far is Orion. What are we gonna call the second twin?"

Nick looked up as he hummed. "We'll call them the Orions for now and after the baby shower we can settle on the second name."

Charlie nodded before pushing himself off the bed. He held out a hand to Nick to stand him up. "Let's hurry and finish up that nursery. It's still early in the day and if we hurry, we can have some time to ourselves."

Nick took his hand and stood up. "You mean it?"

"Of course, honey. I didn't know you were so lonely." He laced their fingers. "We can be all cute in the kitchen while you cook me something and I taste test everything."

Nick scoffed. "My little helper," he said with sarcasm in his voice. "I want to go for a small walk with Daisy after, I want to watch a movie, and I want something else after that too."

Charlie cocked and eyebrow. "Something else?"

Nick smirked. "Don't be coy with me." He unlaced their fingers and placed his hand right on Charlie's ass.

Charlie's mouth dropped as he turned scarlet red. "You're disgusting."

"No. You!" He joked back as he bopped him on the nose. "But in all seriousness, I have missed you, Char. I've missed you a lot."

Charlie wrapped his arms around Nick and looked up at him fondly. "I've missed you too. I was so happy when I woke up today and saw you."

Nick leaned in and kissed Charlie. He pressed his forehead on his. "I say we start those plans now but backwards."

"Nick—" before Charlie could finish his sentence, Nick began to kiss him all over his face and he giggled at each of them. "That tickles." He finally caught him by the face and firmly planted a kiss on his lips.

Though it was a kiss that felt like every kiss they'd done before, to Nick, it felt like this was Charlie's way of telling him that everything would be alright.

' We'll be okay,' Nick thought. ' We'll be okay… right?'

Ben continued to look out at the almost empty street as he stirred his coffee absentmindedly. Just then, he heard a bell ring before looking in its direction. It was Charlie and he almost looked out of breath as he walked towards the table.

"Sorry I'm so late," Charlie said as he sat down.

"You're fine. It's only been a few minutes," Ben reassured. "You're doing better than Josiah, I guess," he said as he let out a small laugh before raising his cup to his lips.

Charlie's right eyebrow shot up. "Josiah's late? That's out of character." He pulled out his laptop and started booting it up.

Ben then raised his hand at the barista that was at the counter, and he gave him a thumbs up before he started up the coffee machine. Five minutes later he walked up to their table and placed the coffee in front of Charlie.

Charlie looked up at the waiter in confusion. "Um… Thank you?" He said before taking a sip of the coffee.

"You still like caramel, right?" Ben hesitantly asked.

Charlie tilted his head to the side.

"You told me ways ago that your friend ordered that for you, and you said you've liked that flavour ever since."

Charlie leaned in his seat before a random memory popped into his head. He was hanging out with Elle and a new café opened up near her place. He had only had coffee with milk and sugar until that day when Elle pleaded with him to let her blind order for him. She ended up getting this flavour for him and he was immediately obsessed.

"I mentioned that to you like once," Charlie said.

Ben shrugged his shoulders at him. "I listened here and there, I guess."

Charlie studied him a bit before going back to his laptop. "Let me just read over this scene while we wait for Josiah."

Ben nodded.

- I stood still in the study as dad goes over my grades. I was passing everything, but I had a low B in history.

"What's the meaning of this?" dad asked as he shook the paper back and forth in the air. I continue to stand there silently before dad shoots out of his seat, startling me. "Answer me, damn it!" he roars.

My voice is caught in my throat. No matter how I answer, he'll just be mad. "I'm sorry," is all I was able to muster up.

Dad grits his teeth at me before throwing his glass of scotch at the wall behind me. This doesn't make me flinch. I'm used to that gesture. "How did I end up with you as my child? I'm sure the bitch cheated. There's just no way," dad grumbled, running his fingers hastily through his hair. He always says that, even though I'm a spitting image of him. I just happen to be the one that took on dark features. "Your brother was brilliant in school."

I can't help but roll my eyes. There he goes again about my brother. I wish he'd shut up about him. The bastard graduated uni and cut contact with the family as soon as he got his diploma. He doesn't like you, dad. Shut up about him.

He's still red with anger when he finally has the gall to look at me. "Get out of my sight."

I don't say anything before exiting the study.

I try to go straight to my room, but I end up running into mum. I don't like her either. My hate for her isn't on the same level as my hate for dad, but I guess you can say it's like an annoyance slash pity type of hate. I think she's weak if that makes sense, just so easy to push around, and her being weak pisses me off. I hate her soft voice and how she tries to act like everything is fine. I think when she married dad, he had her lobotomized or something.

"Ben, would you like anything specific for dinner?"

I try my best not to scream at her. Her crying is pretty annoying also. "I'm going out later," I finally say after going through all the sentences in my head that didn't sound like an insult.

"Oh," she disappointedly sighs.

My eye twitches at her. The hell does she mean by ' oh'? Excuse the hell out of me for not wanting to play house today.

I walk around her to get to the stairs. "Maybe you should make something you like since you're looking for suggestions," I tell her. Dad called her a whale last week because she made something that was fried, so she's been surviving off tea. I say things like this to her because I find it encourages her to take care of herself.

I finally get to my room and the breath I release is as relaxing as stepping into a hot shower. I'm free to be myself in my room. Well… not too free.

Charlie then hears his phone go off. He looks at it and it's a message from Josiah.

Josiah : Family emergency. I'm not coming

"Oh wow."

"What's going on?" Ben asked.

"Josiah's not coming," Charlie answered as he placed his phone face down on the table. "So, I have a few things to say about the scenes that don't take place in the diary."

Ben picked up his coffee again and began to slide his finger around the rim. "I'm all ears."

"As much as it pains me to say this, the scenes that take place in the home are good. It's damn near fantastic. I mean, the family dynamic has been done before, but I feel like it's very interesting that the character…you? The character? What should I say?"

Ben lazily shrugged his shoulders. "You can just say me, I guess."

"Yes. I find it interesting that you don't side with any parent but somehow you still sympathize with your mother, even though you say you hate her. You articulate your inner monologue efficiently and I think it gives readers a clearer context. So, my question to you is this," he lowered his laptop screen to get a better look at Ben. "Why do you want to cut it out so bad?"

Ben groaned a bit as he looked up. "I think it's the same reason that I told you the last time."

"The sympathy thing? Well, yeah. I mean it's there, but that doesn't mean every person is going to just sympathize with said character all because of things they went through that make them a shitty person. For example, are you familiar with BoJack Horseman?"

Ben snorted. "Yes, I'm familiar with it."

"Perfect. Okay, so it's like… We as the audience know BoJack is shitty and he does these shitty things, but we understand why he's like that because we see how it was for him growing up. But just because he grew up like that doesn't excuse all his actions he does in the future, you get me? So yeah, I get that you don't want sympathy for book you, but at the same time, book you doesn't do a one eighty, they stay crappy through and through. They may cry and have 'woah is me' moments, but because they continue to drive home the point that they're awful, a big majority of the audience isn't going to sympathize with you. At the end of the day, book you sucks because home life sucks and book you chooses to continue to suck," he says as he presses his hands on the table. Charlie's face then morphed into surprise as he leaned back into his seat and ruffled his fingers through his hair.

"What? What is it?" Ben asked with a puzzled expression. "You're freaking me out, Spring."

Charlie pointed at him. "You're BoJack."

Ben choked. "Excuse me?!"

Charlie frantically nodded. "Yes, yes! You're BoJack." He then did a light gasp as he pressed his palms into his chest. "Does that make me your Princess Carolyn? Because I'm putting up with you even though I know you're actually awful."

Ben turned away from Charlie as he started laughing. "Fuck off." When he was done, he looked back at Charlie. "Okay. I'll put more parts about my fucked-up family in since you think it'll be so good."

"I don't think, I know." Charlie quickly interjected. He quickly gulped down the rest of the coffee. "I think we can wrap it up a bit early."

As he began to leave, Ben quickly scrambled from his seat and chased after Charlie. "Charlie! Wait up!" Charlie turned around to look at Ben with a stoic expression. "Um… Would you like to hang out?"

Charlie's forehead wrinkled in surprise. "Hang out? No!"

"Come on, Charlie!" Ben whined. "Are you doing something with Nick today?"

"I mean… No, but—"

"So, you're just going to sit in that house and be bored all day?"

Charlie stuttered a bit. Damn, he caught him good. "You should be writing anyway."

As Charlie tried to leave, Ben cleared his throat. "Do you still play the drums?"

Charlie paused as he looked back at him. "No, I haven't played them in a long time."

"Do you want too?" Ben asked.

This piqued Charlie's interest. "What do you mean?" Ben shrugged before turning away from him. It was Charlie's turn to now follow him. "Hold on! Why are you being vague?"

As Charlie followed Ben down the street, he was unaware that David was in his car, watching the whole thing. David snapped another photo before sending all the photos he took to Monica.

Monica scrolled at all the abundance of photos David sent her with a smile on her face. She texted him back to follow them before putting her phone away and focusing back on the meeting.

"With the absence of Nancy, I know the workload looks a bit much," Ruben said. "But I whole heartedly believe that we can take on a lot of her work." He looked over at a young woman with a short black fro. "Octavia, you'll of course be doing world news. I need thorough and accurate research. I don't want a repeat of last time," he groaned on the last part.

Monica subtly rolled her eyes.

"I won't let you down, sir!" Octavia reassured.

Ruben started going through everyone in the room. "Henry will be doing business; Laura is taking on entertainment…" He finally got to Nick. "And you already know what you're doing," he chuckled.

"Of course I do," Nick chuckled back as he nodded.

"And since everyone in your team is bilingual, we can get more interviews that way."

"Wait. I'm not covering from here?" Nick questioned.

Ruben scoffed. "No! I'm sending your ass to Belgium! We're the number one news channel. Why would we cover from here?"

Nick's voice caught in his throat a bit. "I… I guess that makes sense."

Ruben nodded at him. "Meeting adjourned."

Nick, Jason and Monica walked out of the room together.

"You seem shocked SN," Jason noticed.

"I didn't expect to travel. Did Nancy travel?"

Jason nodded at him. "Why are you acting all surprised? We travelled with Ruben for the World Cup when we were interning."

"We did, didn't we?" Nick began to mumble something as he ran his fingers through his hair.

Jason swatted his hand down. "Stop that. You're on soon. And I guess traveling is different now, right? You're a married man with babies on the way," he laughed.

Monica rolled her eyes at the comment. She cleared her throat. "It looks like we'll be spending a lot of time with each other. Let's work hard."

Jason twisted his mouth to the side as he looked at her from the corner of his eye. "You trying to reassure us or yourself?"

Her smile quickly dropped as she angrily looked at him.

"Stop fighting you two!" Nick said with stress in his voice. "But Monica is right, we have to work hard. Jason, do you have my notes?"

Jason flipped through his clipboard. "Huh. I think I left them in your office earlier."

Nick slightly raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Jason being disorganized. That's a first."

He rolled his eyes. "I guess I'm a bit rusty. I'll be quick."

"No!" Monica quickly interjected. Nick and Jason looked at her with puzzled expressions. She cleared her throat again. "I mean… Let me go get it. Don't you usually fill SN in with stuff on this walk?"

Jason squinted at her. "I do."

"So, just let me do it. You left it on his desk, right?"

Jason thought on it. Something was off. But what? He's snapped out of his thoughts when Nick touches him on the shoulder. Giving him a pleading and reassuring look.

He reluctantly sighed. "Okay. We'll meet you outside."

They began to head out of the studio as Monica walked to Nick's office. When she was there, the first thing she did was go on the computer. From what she remembered, the password was Nick and Charlie's wedding anniversary. She opened up his schedule and scrolled through his weekends. She saw one open Saturday. She created a meeting time and snapped a picture of it to send to David.

Monica: This is the time I have you for. Don't be late

After that she flipped through her clipboard and pulled out a couple pieces of paper with typed out writing on it. She then took Jason's notes and put it with her paperwork. Next, she pulled a flash drive from her bra and opened up Jason's laptop that he left behind. After knowing him for months, she caught a glimpse of his pin before too. His mum's birthday. She even knew his preferred place to write his notes. Google Docs. She plugged in the flash and copied the notes from it before deleting Jason's original notes and pasting it there. She slammed the laptop shut before running out the office.

When Monica got to the news van, she handed Nick the swapped paper. "Here's Jason's notes," she said breathlessly.

Nick thanked her before taking it and beginning to study over it.

Fifteen or so minutes later they finally arrived at the interview destination. As they began to walk in, Nick's expression became tangled. He looked over at Jason. "Jason, everything okay?"

"What do you mean?"

He began to show him the notes. "Your notes are wrong. They're all wrong! Like, I know I didn't get to research as deep as you, but even I know that the athlete studied in Hungry not Germany. And you even put down that their dad got them into snowboarding when it was actually his older sister who would take him to practice."

Jason's expression dropped as he snatched the notes away from him. He panicked as he flipped through them. "This is impossible! I doubled checked and everything, SN!"

"Jason, it's okay," he said as he placed his hands on his shoulders. "You did say, you weren't all there earlier…" he tried to joke.

"No. No! You don't understand! I read over everything! You were there!"

Nick furrowed his eyebrows together, unsure of what to say.

"The interview starts soon. What do we do?"

Monica flipped through her clipboard and pulled out Jason's notes. "Hey, would you like to use my notes, Mr. Spring-Nelson?"

Nick quickly looked through the notes. Jason peeked over his shoulders and his pupils dilated at the paper. "Those… Those are my—"

"Monica, these are perfect!" Nick exclaimed. "Thank you!"

Monica felt her cheeks warm as Nick smiled at her.

"Let me get to the interview area. I'll study the best that I can there."

They watched Nick walk away before facing each other.

"You conniving bitch," Jason sneered. "You know good and well those are my notes!"

Monica pretended to be confused. "What are you accusing me off?"

"Don't play dumb with me!"

She then pretended to be startled before starting her waterworks. "I'm not going to stand here and listen to this!" She then began to go to God knows where.

Jason cut her eyes at her before going to where Nick was.

After he finished his interview, Nick went towards his dressing room. When he entered, he was startled when he saw Monica sitting on the couch crying. "Monica, you okay?"

Monica took her hands from her face and wiped her tears. "Oh SN, it's just that Jason went crazy on me. He accused me of messing with his notes!" She stood up and walked over to him. "I know he said that I shouldn't be trusted or whatever, but I'm really trying to regain your trust. Honest!"

Nick placed both his hands on her shoulders. "I'll talk to him okay."

Monica unexpectedly wrapped her arms around him. Gripping at the back of his suit.

"Monica?" Nick asked, concerned. His hands still on her shoulders. He could feel her shaking.

Just then, Jason walked in and let out a sharp gasp at what he saw. He quickly walked up to them and peeled Monica off him.

"Jason?"

"I thought I told you to stop that!" Jason said as he pointed an accusing finger towards her. He then faced Nick. "She switched my notes!"

Nick let out a rough sigh. "It's okay, Jason. Accidents happen."

Jason began to ferociously shake his head. "I don't make mistakes like that!" He then pulled out his phone and opened his Google Doc. "Look. It's right there!"

Nick squinted at it as he scrolled through. He let out a sigh. "Mate, those are the notes I saw earlier."

Jason became puzzled as he faced the phone back towards him. His jaw dropping more and more as he scrolled through the notes. "How?" he mumbled.

Monica turned around to let out a small laugh. ' Learn your place, Jason.' She then got herself together and turned back to the two men. "Jason, I would never do that to you. I know you don't like me, but I'm not as evil as you think. I just take my jokes too far."

Jason was already shaking with anger at this point. " WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY NOTES?!" he yelled as he marched towards her.

Nick quickly stepped in between them. "That's enough!" Jason was taken aback. Nick never raised his voice at him. "Look, I understand you're upset that you messed up, but that doesn't mean you take your anger out on her!"

"I didn't mess up! She switched my fucking notes! Those notes she gave you are mine!"

"Jason, you know how crazy this all sounds right?"

Monica walked up. "See! This is what I was trying to tell you a while back. Jason has it out for me."

Jason's eyes dilated at Monica before he turned to Nick. "Come on, SN. You've got to believe me."

Nick rubbed the back of his neck as he looked away. "That's enough Jason."

Jason's hands dropped in defeat. "Really?"

"Listen—"

"No!" Jason then threw his clipboard at Nick. Sending paper flying everywhere. "Fuck this!" he said as he stormed out the room.

Nick's face dropped as he began to follow Jason. "Jason, come on!"

Monica then switched her emotions when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She began to do a princess wave. "Thank you. Thank you. I'll like to thank the academy," she joked. ' It's like everything is just falling into place.'

Charlie continued to follow Ben to this old brick building. The place looked abandoned.

"Are you sure it's okay to be here?" Charlie asked hesitantly.

Ben shrugged. "The doors are always open though, so I just assumed it was free to the public."

They walked in the building. Something about it felt eery. Like it seemed familiar. Like a school or office, but with there being not one person in sight but the lights where still operating felt strange.

"How'd you find this place?"

"I got in a fight with my dad one day and ran away. I ended up finding this place."

"What was the fight about?"

Ben looked back at him with a mischievous smirk on his face. "Don't want to spoil the book for you," he winked.

Charlie rolled his eyes.

They continued to walk down a hall with a lot of rooms. Charlie would look inside each room and noticed there was instruments in all of them. Ben finally stopped at a door and opened it. Inside, there was a drum set in almost perfect condition.

As Ben propped the door open with a doorstop, Charlie took of his coat before sitting at the drums. He touched at the symbols. "Who would just abandon this?"

"That's why I said I believe the place is opened to the public. Everything here is just in perfect condition," Ben said.

Charlie looked around on the floor for the drumsticks. When he finally found them, he did a quick bang on each set. It sounded perfect. He began to slowly play it. He was a bit rusty. But when he closed his eyes, he began to go crazy. Hitting every part as hard as he can without a care in the world. When he was done, he threw his head back. "Jesus! That felt as good as doing crack!"

Ben jolted at the wild simile. "Okay?" he nervously laughed.

Charlie started to play gently again.

"Why'd you stop?"

Charlie sighed. "The music industry is purely based on luck and the odds weren't in our favour I guess," he shrugged. "I thought maybe I could be a music teacher. That's what I originally went to school for. But after my first few interviews, I got a little discouraged."

"What happened?"

"Not to bore you with details, but basically they'll interview me, then they'll background check me," he sighed. "One of them straight up told me no one would hire a mental case," he laughed softly. "Oh my God! And the experience requirements they have! Like give me the experience, damn it!"

Ben leaned on the wall as he studied Charlie. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's whatever," Charlie shrugged. He then saw something at the corner of his eye. He quickly turned towards it and stood up.

Ben looked in the direction he was focused on. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I thought I saw something."

Ben looked at him with a deep frown. "You don't think it was a… g-g-g-g-ghost?" he jokingly stuttered.

Charlie supressed his smile. "Shut up and let's get out of here."

Ben led the way as they walked out the building. He then pointed at the park across the street. "The scenery there is nice too."

They quickly walked across the street and to the park. Ben was right about the scenery. A lot of big trees and a walkway that circled a pond with a fountain in the middle of it. It was relaxing.

"I should bring Nick here," Charlie thought out loud. "He's been stressed lately."

"It's a nice place to have a breather at," Ben said. "I like to bring Fitz out here."

' That's right. He has a kid,' Charlie thought.

"He doesn't like loud places. He's very quiet and to himself. He likes drawing anime people when I bring him out here."

"Anime people?"

"I think that's what he's into right now. Be prepared for that. When kids like something, they like that one thing a lot."

Charlie just nodded. "I think Nick would be good at that."

Ben tilted his head at him. "And how about you?"

Charlie shrugged. "Parenthood scares me even though I was the one who wanted it the most. Like I have this reoccurring dream that somethings going to happen when my sister gives birth. Something crazy always happens to the twins or her or both. Nick either stays or leaves and Tori's boyfriend is always upset."

Ben hummed. "I think that's just the anxieties of upcoming parenthood. They're not like a dog or something. It's a whole person and they're ten times needier than an animal. And your sister, I've only met her a few times at school, but she doesn't seem like the type to just hide something like that if something was wrong from you."

Charlie lightly nodded. "I guess you're right…" He couldn't believe he just said that.

"And Nick… Nick wouldn't just leave you. He was always known as the nice guy in our class." Ben rolled his eyes. "And… Nick loves you. He shows that through his actions a lot. He's a better man than me, that's for sure."

Charlie looked over at him straight faced.

"Out of all the drama that happened during secondary, I think about us a lot."

"You say something out of line I'll break your nose again."

Ben laughed. "No, no. It's just when I speak to my therapist, our… "relationship" comes out a lot. I can't help but think ' If only I was like the Nick Nelson kid'. Coming out during that time was basically social suicide. But he did it for you and everything was okay for him. I mean, what moron would try to bully a rugby kid, but you know what I mean. Everything was fine. But my dad hated gay people, and my social circle was toxic, there was just no way I could do it. But… I had a person like you." He finally looked at Charlie. "I had the chance to at least have one person who could know about me. That day we met; you were so nice to me. It could have been a beginning of a nice friendship. But I went and ruined it. Using you like a druggie who needed a quick fix." He stopped walking, causing Charlie to stop walking also. "So, basically what I'm trying to say is… You'll be okay, because you have a Nick Nelson who will stick with you through thick and thin not a Ben Hope who cares to much about what the world thinks about him. And since I let all that in the air, I think this is a perfect opportunity to apologize."

Charlie slightly raised his eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, Charlie. I'm really, really, really sorry."

Charlie stayed silent as he studied Ben's sad face. He slowly blinked. "Thank you. But apology not accepted," he said as he adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulders. "The things you did still have an affect on me today. So, I can't forgive you."

Ben didn't react to Charlie's answer. He stared back at him until a small smile appeared on his face and he nodded. This puzzled Charlie. "That's okay. You don't owe me that." He looked up for a moment. "Maybe not so much my Princess Carolyn, maybe my Herb."

Charlie cut his eyes at Ben before continuing his walk. Ben watched him walk first with a smile on his face before following him.

Jane sat in silence in the living room as she stared blankly at the TV. Just then, her phone vibrated on the couch. She reluctantly picked it up. "What?"

"Hello to you, too," Lionel chuckled on the other end. "I don't like this new tone you have with me."

"Well excuse the hell out of me for not wanting to talk to someone who is blackmailing me," she sneered as she tightened her cardigan around her. "Lionel, I thought you were my friend."

"We're not friends, Jane," Lionel exhaled. "You know I'm in love with you. We're in love with each other. And I wouldn't necessarily call this blackmail. I know it could be seen like that, but this is actually me fighting for you."

"Bullshit!" Jane said in a harsh whisper. "Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! You're full of shit, Lionel!" She buried her face in her hand. "I told you it was over, and this is what you do?"

"I'm not bullshitting! And how do you think I feel, huh? You think I like doing this to you? You think I like putting you into this type of state?!"

She let out a scoff. "And you think I'll stay with you once you confront my husband with all your evidence? Are you stupid? My own sons won't speak to me properly and now you want to ruin my marriage that's already hanging on a thread. You think I'll pick you?"

He stayed silent as he listened to Jane cry on the other end. Several minutes passed before he let out a reluctant groan. "Can you meet with me?"

"What?"

"Let's meet somewhere. I'll send the location," he said before hanging up.

A few seconds later, Jane's phone vibrates again. The location was a nearby plaza. It was also the plaza they first met at.

She bit her bottom lip as she debated with herself before finally deciding that she'll go. She snatched up her keys and bolted out the door.

Lionel sat at the water fountain, people watching as he waited for Jane. He looked up as he heard footsteps coming towards him. There she was. The woman he was crazy about. He stood up and tried to hug her, but she put a hand in front to her. He'd be lying if he said it didn't sting.

"Why did you drag me out here?"

"I wanted to talk, Jane," Lionel said. "I wanted to talk about us going forward." Jane adjusted her weight on a different leg as she avoided looking directly at him. "Will you look at me please?"

"No," Jane said softly.

"Will you at least sit down?"

"No. Just tell me what you want so I can go."

Lionel firmly presses his lips together. Was this really going to be it? The end of them? And was it really going to end like this? He let out a rough sigh before pulling out his phone and handing it to her.

Jane's face twisted in confusion as she took it.

"I deleted everything," he said. Jane finally looked up at him as she took the phone. She went through his photos, messages, emails, his cloud. Any proof of their affair was gone. "I was going to tell him, but you sounded so upset on the phone and it broke me, ya' know?"

Jane handed the phone back to him. "Thank you."

Lionel nodded. "Maybe in another life, I guess."

All Jane could do is shrug her shoulders. "Goodbye, Lionel."

"Bye."

As Jane turned around to leave, Lionel caught her arm and pulled her towards him. He then planted a kiss on her as he tightened his arms around her.

Jane tried pushing him off at first before she found herself melting into it and closing her eyes. Her hands going up his chest before lacing her fingers together behind his neck.

They finally pulled and stared at each other as if they were the only two people in the plaza.

"Jane… It can't end this way. Please?" Lionel's voice sounded desperate.

"Lionel… Lionel I can't."

" MUM?!"

Jane and Lionel's hearts dropped at the familiar voice. They quickly pulled away and turned in the direction of the voice. There stood Oliver with Delphi by his side.

Jane opened and closed her mouth, unsure of what to say.

Before they knew it, Oliver snatched Delphi by her hand and ran away with her.

"Oliver!" Jane screeched as she chased after him, leaving Lionel standing in place. "Oliver!"

Oliver busted through the doors of his parents' house. He looked around frantically. "Dad? Dad?!" he screeched. Delphi watched as he ran all over the house like some wild animal. "Dad where are you?!" he hollered again as he fought back tears.

As he was running past Delphi, Delphi caught him by the back of his shirt. "Oliver, you need to breathe."

Oliver was still shaking and frantically looking around. "I can't… I can't!"

As Delphi tried to calm him, Jane finally caught up to them. "Oliver. Oliver, please listen to me," she pleaded as the stream of tears fell from her face. "I promise this is just one little slip up." Oliver began to shake his head no. It was his turn to let his tears fall. "I promise you; I went there to end things with him!"

"Shut up!" Oliver screamed. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" He began to look around the house again. "I'm going to tell him everything I know! Dad!"

"Yes?" The three of them turned around and saw Julio closing the door. Jane could feel her heart beating out of her chest and Oliver was trembling on adrenaline. Julio exchanged a look between his wife and his son. "What's happening? I can cut this tension with a knife."

Oliver bit his bottom lip before looking at his mum. She shook his head at him with a pleading expression. He scoffed at her before facing back to his dad. "Mum's been cheating on you."

Julio furrowed his eyebrows before facing his wife and she looked away from him in shame.

Oliver began to play with his fingers as he tried to pull his thoughts together. "I've known about it since April, and I told Charlie and Charlie wanted to tell you, but he told mum to tell you…" he tossed his head back as he began to pace back and forth. "But she was being so fucking slow with telling you and then I ended up meeting the guy and he said they were over, but from what I just saw, they're obviously not over and—"

As Oliver continued, Julio calmly took of his coat and placed it on one of the hangers. He then walked up to Oliver and placed a hand on each of his cheeks. " Shooooosh."

Oliver's forehead wrinkled. "Dad?"

Julio smiled at him before looking over at Jane and Delphi. "Everyone, to the living room."

Delphi played with her jumper string. "Even me?"

Julio laughed. "Yes, even you. I mean, that if you want to. But I think Oli really needs his friend right now. That's if he wants you to stay, though."

Delphi looked at Oliver and Oliver nodded as he held out his hand. She took it and they began to walk to the living room.

Julio sat down in the armchair as he studied everybody. "Everyone is calm now, right?"

Oliver narrowed his eyes at his dad. "You're being surprisingly calm for someone who'd just been cheated on."

Julio did a breath as he smiled. "That's because I know." Every one's eyes widened at him. He nodded as a hurt expression morphed on his face. "I've known for a long time."

Author's Note: I'll try not to make you guys wait that long again 🙏