Phillip fell asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes.

Leann turnedto Matty and signed, "It's ok if you want to sleep too, Matty. I'll be quiet. I know it's been a rough couple of days for you."

Matty signed,"I'm not really that tired. I passed out before. Scared Mom and Dad a little bit. I want to go do some research on the computer but I'm guessing Grandma is on guard."

Leann looked at him, "Yeah and me. I could do the research if you wanted me too. What's dad's password? Just tell me what I'm supposed to look for."

Matty smiled, "Your eleven years old."

She looked at him, "Just show me what to do and tell me what to look for. I want to help Jamie too."

Matty smiled at her, "No, I'm in enough trouble with Mom and Dad."

Leann scoffed, "Please, you can do no wrong in Dad's eyes. You never get in trouble with him. Even when you broke that douche Warren at your old school's nose. Dad was more proud of you than angry. You only got expelled more because Dad punched the principal."

Matty looked at her, "Mom & Dad grounded me for turning myself over to Birol."

She looked at him, "How would grounding even work with you? You never go anywhere anyway. Especially since you aged out of the Junior Trailblazers. I mean you were getting a little better when you started dating Rachel and you were hanging out with Jeff. I hope Jeff's okay. Maybe when this is over we can go visit Jeff in the hospital."

Matty smiled, "Me too. I feel so bad he got hurt because of me. Dad said he was going to be alright though. That he was more worried about me than himself."

Leann looked at him, "He's so nice. He's cute too. Do you think maybe next year when I start Junior High that maybe he'd date me? I don't think my relationship with Levi is Junior High material."

Matty looked at her, "Umm I think you would probably still be a little young for Jeff."

She sighed, "Yeah, at least it's not as big an age difference as when you were in love with Irene."

Matty looked at her, "I was never in love with Irene. I was seven years old when I proposed to her. This thing between us Irene and I. It's all a joke. It always has been. Irene's always just been family to me."

Leann looked at him, "Do you like any of the other girls besides Rachel at your school?"

Matty looked at her, "I don't really know any of the other girls at my school. I haven't really been going to Arlington High long enough. Rachel is the only girl that sits at Jeff's table. It's mostly just guys from the basketball team. I'm kind of too screwed up."

Leann smiled at him, "No you aren't. You just think you are screwed up. It's all in your head. Well, if you do like a girl. Let me know. I'll help you."

Matty smiled, "That's ok. I like going to Mom with that kind of stuff. Mom's the best with girl stuff."

Leann looked at him, "You're so weird. You know most girls aren't into a guy bringing their Mommy on dates, right?"

Matty laughed, "Rachel thought it was cute that I'm so close with our parents."

Leann spoke, "Well she's weird too but do not go back to her. She is not right for you. Trust me Matty, next time you go out on a date. Leave our parents at home or double date with Levi and me. That's probably better if you just bring your little sister. People understand that. You can make it seem like Mom and Dad forced you to do that. That your babysitting me. Actually, Levi has an older sister her name is Lisa. Oh wait she has a boyfriend. I'll let you know if that changes."

Matty spoke, "Jeff wants to set me up with his cousin. She works at a bookstore."

Leann smiled. "Really? That's perfect. His whole family is really nice. I've met his brother Bobby before a long time ago. He's a friend of Jamie's."

Matty looked at her, "Dating is the farthest thing from my mind right now though. How about we talk about it more when we Jamie comes home?"

Leann smiled, "Ok but don't think I'm going to forget. You deserve a nice girl, Matty."

Matty laughed, "You sound just like Grandma right now."

Just then their grandmother came in the room, "Leann, you're keeping Matty awake. At least Phillip fell asleep. That's good. He needed it. Now it's your turn, Matty. C'mon Leann."

Matty spoke, "It's ok, Grandma. I'm not really tired anyway. I like having Leann in here with me."

His grandmother spoke, "That's very sweet but you can spend time with your sister after you nap a little."

Leann left the room. Matty was left alone with his sleeping brother. Matty put it back on ESPN. He really wasn't tired. He just watched television for a while. Then he saw Phillip say "Don't touch my brother!" and he started thrashing in his sleep. Matty went to wake him up. He was having a nightmare. Phillip opened his eyes. He was sweaty and breathing hard.

Phillip grabbed Matty and hugged him, "I just dreamt about when you were taken from us."

Matty spoke, "I'm ok, dude. I'm right here. I'm totally fine and still trapped in the basement with you."

Phillip was breathing heavy, "I can't go through it again. I can't do this."

Matty hugged him "I'm here, dude. Whatever happens. We'll get through it together."

Phillip nodded, "I know. Sorry, little dude. That you have to see me like this."

Matty smiled, "I can handle it. It might have been a different story if Mom hadn't gotten you to take a shower though."

Phillip looked at him, "Yeah, I'm sorry. I think Irene was getting ready to leave me."

Irene picked that moment to walk in the room, "Why do I want to leave you this time?"

Matty spoke, "If that smell had gotten any worse."

Irene laughed, "I would not have left him for that. There just would be no fifth child in our future."

Phillip looked at her, "Babe, maybe I will stop showering as a form of birth control. I think four children is plenty."

Irene smiled, "Well then, I should not tell you that I got a call from the OBGYN office. They made an error. It is triplets."

Phillip had a look of pure terror on his face and then he looked at her, "Please tell me your joking."

She smiled, "I am. But it is another set of twins. The other one was hiding."

Phillip looked at her with fear. "You're still kidding right?"

Irene smiled, "Yes. It's still just the one."

Phillip smiled at his wife, "That was not cool."

She went over and kissed Phillip. "No, but it is nice to see you smile again. I missed that smile."

Phillip looked at her, "Have I told you lately how much I love you?"

Irene played with Phillip's beard, "Not half as much as I love you."

Matty looked at them, "I'm just going to go in the other room."

Phillip kissed Irene really quickly. "No dude. We aren't Mom & your Dad. We can control ourselves. It's safe. Irene and I will have our alone time later. Not while Jamie is still missing. Plus, my father is coming in a about a half hour."

Matty looked at him. "Are you sure you are up to seeing your Dad right now?"

Phillip nodded, "Yeah, it'll be alright. I kind of need to see him. Actually, can you leave Irene and I alone for a few minutes? I want to talk to her alone."

Matty nodded, "Yeah sure, dude."

Matty left the room and headed for the game room.

He went into the game room. His Grandmother immediately came over to him. "It's not dinner time yet."

Matty looked at her, "Irene and Phillip wanted to talk alone for a little bit before Uncle Joe came over."

His grandmother nodded, "Ok. C'mon go sit and relax on the couch then. How are you feeling, Angel?"

Matty looked at her, "Better than I have felt in days. I'm fine, Grandma. I really am."

Matty went and sat on the couch next to his sister. The twins were in front of the television playing Death Demon.

Just then they heard a beeping noise coming from the office. His grandmother spoke, "Oh he's early. Leann go buzz your Uncle Joe in if that's him."

Leann nodded and went into the office. A minute later the door to the basement opened and Uncle Joe came in.

Uncle Joe looked tired and sad. He was quiet as he came in.

The twins ran up to him and hugged him, "Hi Grandpa."

He smiled at them, "Hey kids. How are you all doing?"

Mandy spoke, "Okay, I guess. Our Dad's been a mess. Grandma finally got him to leave the office."

Jimmy spoke, "Yeah and he smelled so bad. He doesn't smell bad anymore. Grandma got him to take a shower. How's Uncle Joey?"

Uncle Joe sighed, "There's no change. They gave him the same drugs they gave Matty. But he hasn't woken up yet."

Mandy spoke, "I wish it was safe for us to go see him. Can you tell Joeythat we love him and we miss him when you go back?"

His Uncle Joe smiled at her gently, "I will. I think he'd like that very much."

Then he walked over to Matty. "Hey Matty. How are you feeling?"

Matty spoke, "I'm feeling better, Uncle Joe. I am so sorry about everything."

His Uncle Joe spoke, "Oh Matty, you shouldn't be sorry. When I talked to your mother. It sounds like you saved Joey's life. You got them to leave him behind. He has a chance now. Thanks to you. What you did, I can't thank you enough."

Matty smiled at him, "I should be sorry, Uncle Joe. It's me they wanted. It was all my fault. I pretended to be Joey."

Uncle Joe looked at him, "You did that to protect yourself. I actually think that was pretty smart. None of this is on you. You are just a kid. None of this is your fault. I blame your parents."

Matty spoke, "My parents are heroes. It's not their fault. They've helped so many people. All the other kids from the warehouse. Do you know more than half of them are home with their families living normal lives because of my mom. My parents have saved so many lives. Including yours, didn't they save you once from getting arrested for murder when you first came back from Africa?"

Uncle Joe sighed, "You are right. I'm sorry, Matty. I'm just tired. I shouldn't have said that to you. It's just been a long couple of 's Phillip?"

His grandmother looked at him and said. "Hi Joe. He and Irene are in the bedroom. I'd knock first."

Matty spoke, "No it should be safe. They are just talking. I think."

Uncle Joe nodded, "I'll knock. Just in case."

Phillip and Irene walked into the game room at that moment holding hands. Irene let go of Phillip's hand and went over to his grandmother and grabbed baby Dottie.

Phillip looked at Uncle Joe, "Hey Dad, thanks for coming. We can talk in the office."

Uncle Joe and Phillip disappeared into the office. Irene sat on the couch with baby Dottie. His sister was on the other side of the couch. Matty went over and sat in the middle of them.
Everyone was really quiet. It was strange. Then the quiet was broken by the sound of all all hell breaking lose. The alarms all started going off and the alarm lights were flashing.

Irene handed baby Dottie back to his grandmother. Matty, Leann, and Irene all went to the office to see what was going on. Matty heard gunfire. He turned and looked at the monitors. They could see Karbala men outside fighting with the agents. Then all of the sudden the alert that someone was accessing the secret entrance through the garage went on.
Matty left the office went to the hallway and looked at the back door entrance. Phillip had grabbed a gun from the secret compartment in the desk and stepped in front of Matty and aimed the gun at the back door entrance. The back door entrance door opened, and Jamie walked in by himself.

Jamie's face was all bruised up and his eyes looked so empty. Matty was pretty sure it was not safe to approach him. Matty ran back in the office real quick and lifted the glass for the big red emergency help button that was on the wall and pressed it. Matty had no idea what the button actually did but he knew he was never supposed to push it unless they were all in danger. He was pretty sure they were all in danger. Even if they weren't. He didn't care.

Matty went back into the hallway. His Uncle Joe started walking up to Jamie.

Matty yelled, "Uncle Joe, No. Stay back!" But it was too late Jamie had pulled out a gun and shot Uncle Joe. Then the back door entrance opened again and Addi Birol walked into the basement.

Notes:

You ended the chapter there? That's not cool. Next chapter is quadruple backed up. I will post it very soon.

Next chapter - Just pure hijinks.