"One hesitates to open a new chapter when the old one is not resolved." ― Jude Morgan

Monday morning after dropping the boys off at school, Shawn accompanied Audrey on one of many weekly errands runs. Since coming home, he had spent most of his time with Audrey and almost none with Jon. It was a blessing in the sense that his relationship with her was growing stronger and he felt the greatest sense of belonging somewhere and to someone that he'd ever felt in his life.

Jon had no time available to really spend with anyone. Or at least not quality time. He tried so hard to give every child the same amount of time when he was home that it often amounted to less than 10 minutes a day.

Shawn could almost swear that his former teacher set a timer so that he did not spend more or less time with one child over another. It was frustrating. He would much prefer seeing Jon for an hour once week to a few constantly interrupted minutes every night. The younger kids didn't seem to notice this problem. However, Julia did and briefly confided in him how much she hated it. She told him she had considered quitting skating to spend time with her dad until she realized that her skating lessons afforded her the only one-on-one time she got with him. This disheartened Shawn. He knew from experience what would eventually happen to his family if something didn't change.

It didn't help that the family schedule was getting worse. Practices, games, and competitions for Julia were consuming the after-school hours and, starting Tuesday, Jon was in for back-to-back meetings for the rest of the week as the budget proposal was coming out in the two weeks and every interest group possible demanded his attention. Shawn promised Julia and himself that he would ensure Jon and Audrey got away from everything but each other. Unfortunately, it seemed all forces were converging against him to ensure he failed his mission. And Jon himself was proving to be his biggest obstacle.

He sighed worriedly and tried to focus on helping Audrey. He'd try again to figure something out at home.

Bella was in an unusually foul mood, considering it wasn't nap time. Audrey thought she might be getting sick and had her scheduled for a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. The toddler's mood put her at odds with Shawn as he tried to care for her while Audrey dealt with other things. She did not want her brother, she wanted her father and since she couldn't have him, she refused to interact with anyone but her mother. It was heartbreaking watching the little girl drape herself over Audrey's shoulder while crying for Jon. It brought a dark gloomy cloud over Shawn.

As they headed across the parking lot towards the grocery store a booming, deep voice called out,

"Audrey!"

Audrey stopped abruptly and looked over her shoulder. She broke out into a grin at the sight of the person who called her name and waved.

"David!"

An older man in his 50s hurried across the asphalt lot to greet them. He was a tall, broad shouldered man with impeccable taste in clothing. His close-cropped hair was jet black graying slightly around his temples. A bit more gray speckled his goatee. The sun caught in deep blue sunglasses reflecting various hues of blue and purple onto his face. When he reached Audrey, he embraced her with a gentle hug. Bella did not react to him at all and continued to moan for her father.

"Oh, David, how are you?"

"I'm good," he grinned broadly. "How's the fam?"

"We are good," her smile intensified as she reached out for Shawn's arm. "We're all together finally. This is Shawn."

A delighted smile graced the older man's face, and he extended his hand towards Shawn.

"Welcome home, Shawn."

Shawn smiled. It was hard not to, even though he had no idea who the man was.

Audrey corrected this by way of introduction. "Shawn, this Dr. David Durran. He's a close family friend. He was also my and Jon's marriage counselor awhile back."

"Nice to meet you, sir," Shawn greeted him, noting that the counseling was "awhile back". He wondered exactly what that meant. Jon made it sound as though they'd only had counseling when they were first married. Is that she means? Or was it more recent?

"You as well." David tipped his head slightly to the side. "How are you doing?"

"I'm pretty good," the younger man answered honestly. There was something about the man's presence that lent peace to the atmosphere around him. "So you're a marriage counselor?"

"It's one of the counseling services I provide, yes. I'm more of a life and relationship coach these days."

"Ah." Shawn nodded. What came out of his mouth next surprised him. "Do you do individual counselin'?" He cringed. Why did he say that? It was like his mouth completely bypassed his brain. No doubt the doctor got a lot of questions like that once his profession was known and he certainly did not want to be the one asking those lame questions.

Dr. Durran smiled. If the question bothered him, he didn't show it. "Considering your family- I would for you."

"Do you offer a family discount?" he joked. It was going from bad to worse and Shawn wished his mouth would quit running on its own.

"I'll give you a 2-for-1 if you bring your dad in with you."

The men laughed, one with considerable embarrassment. Shawn wondered why Dr. Durran brought Jon up in that context. He was a family friend- did he know something was wrong? This thought added to Shawn's growing pile of problems. As he tried to pull himself away from the negative thinking, another thought occurred to him: everyone was referring to Jon as his dad or he was being introduced as Jon's oldest. That didn't bother him. That was what he always wanted.

But on the other side of that coin was Audrey and it bothered him that no one referred to him as her son or her oldest.

And he was both.

It had been the three of them almost since the beginning. It was, Shawn told himself, a trivial thing and he tried to shrug it off.

The doctor seemed to sense Shawn's anxiety. "I'm sure you've got a lot on your mind. I hope being home will let you explore your past and find the closure you need." The man smiled slightly at the surprised look on Shawn's face. He wasn't a mind reader, he and Jon had been texting on and off since Shawn came home, so he knew a little bit about what was going on. "But if you need me, ask your mom for my info. I'll be happy to talk."

If Shawn hadn't thought he was a mind reader before he most certainly entertained the idea now.

Audrey turned to Shawn, shifting Bella in arms. "Shawn, would you mind going back to the car and getting Bella's blanket. I think I left it in her car seat. She may need it inside."

"Oh sure," he agreed, relieved to have something to do. He fished the keys out of Audrey's purse and headed off to retrieve the missing blanket.

David turned to her with an inquisitive look. "You've got that baby bundle up pretty well. Does she really need a blanket?"

"No," Audrey smiled dolefully. "I just wanted to talk to you. And I don't want to worry Shawn."

"Is this about Jon?"

She sighed as she nodded suddenly looking weary. "Has he talked to you lately?"

"No," he said. His tone was neutral. "He's texted me a few times since Shawn came back. That's all. What's going on?"

"I don't know. He's really not talking to me. He's exhausted all the time. David, I'm scared this job is destroying his health. I feel like I'm losing him."

David mulled this over with deep concern. "How's he been since Shawn's been back?"

"There's been no difference. Shawn's been a huge help to me, but Jon's hardly seen him. He's hardly seen any of us. I don't know. Shawn keeps asking me to let him take the kids so Jon and I can spend some time together, but Jon just can't find the time."

"How long has Shawn been back?"

"A little over a week."

"When did he start asking to take the kids?"

"I don't know. Wednesday or Thursday last week."

The doctor raised his eyebrows in surprise. Knowing the Turners as he did, there must be a serious upset in their home life for someone so freshly back into fold to notice a problem so quickly.

"I really want him to come in to see you, but he won't do it. Not now anyway." She gave a shrug of resignation.

"Is he talking to anyone at all? Old friends? Colleagues?"

"He got together with some college friends a few weeks ago. But there's no one he talks to regularly that I know of."

"Is Jon still working through lunch?"

"I'm sure he is." Audrey rolled her eyes at this. "Works through dinner most of the time, too, if he doesn't come home. And he rarely does. David, he's lost so much weight in the last year."

The doctor rubbed his hand over his goatee, mulling over the best way to approach his friend. "Audrey, I think I'll stop by his office and take him out to lunch. I think seeing him first as a friend might be better than forcing him to see me in my office."

Audrey nodded looking greatly relieved. "Thank you. I so appreciate it."

David smiled, squeezed her arm affectionately bidding her farewell, and headed back to his car. He gave Shawn a wave as the younger man returned with his sister's blanket.

For the first time since 8 am, the district office was quiet. There were no people coming in and out, no phones constantly ringing. This was the time-of-day Katherine Tompkins always looked forward to, that hour and half lunch break of peace in the middle of the day. She tapped the end of her pen against the wood of the desk, wondering if today the day was, she would succeed in getting Jon away from work long enough to relax and eat something. It seemed to her that he lived on coffee and stress and nothing else. She pushed her chair back away from her desk and stretched.

Jonathan Turner.

It was strange how things had come full circle and they were working together again, albeit in a much different situation. Eight months ago, they were reunited by her desire to get back to working in a school setting after a ten-year break to be a stay-at-home mother. Katherine smiled as she recalled the day, she found out who the superintendent of New York Public Schools was. At first, the name seemed to be a coincidence. She had heard the stories about Superintendent Turner when he was still Principal Turner; although her boys attended a neighboring school district, the man was an extremely popular educator and frequently helped other districts in need. She never dreamed that he could be her Jonathan.

The Mr. Turner the faculty and parents went on about was a family man of five and married for seventeen years. There was no way he was the same man. Katherine always assumed that if Jon ever got married, and that was a very big if, it would be very late in life. And if he had kids, it would be one at the most with someone he wasn't with anymore. She imagined him to be highly successful in his career while still drifting from relationship to relationship.

She was hired before she met the superintendent as he was on vacation and would not return early for the interview. She would never forget walking into his office on her first day in late August to find the man she had once been in love with sitting on the superintendent's desk. He had changed very little: he was still very fit with brown eyes, just as sparkling and mischievous as always. His dark hair was cut short with very little gray in it. And he still looked so very good. Katherine never expected to see him again and when she did it felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. Jon seemed just as surprised to see her, although she couldn't tell if he was glad to see her or not. In fact, after almost a year, she still couldn't say. When he wasn't working, which almost never, he was incredibly guarded and kept their social interactions to a minimum. Katherine couldn't tell if this was personal or if it was simply the way he treated everyone during working hours. On the surface he was very social- Jon always had been- but from what she heard of his conversations with others, he talked a lot without saying much about himself. There was only a handful of times when she was able to get him to talk and he would relax if the conversation stayed on the topic of his family, anything else would shut him down. If she veered onto the wrong topic, got too personal, he would walk away from her and would not engage in conversation for the rest of the day.

Katherine looked over her list of things to do that didn't involve phone calls. She reordered a few things on the list so she could accomplish as much as possible before leaving for lunch. The more that was done, the more likely Jon would be open to going to lunch. Or at least she hoped he would be as his excuse for skipping lunch was always that there was so much to do. She clicked open the calendar app on her computer, pulled up Jon's schedule for the week, and printed it out for him. She knew he preferred to have it shared to his mobile app, but she would do that later. She needed an excuse to go to his office and pull him away from his desk for a while. As usual the app was stubborn and refused to stay on the week she wanted and skipped merrily ahead to May. Katherine frowned at the screen. Jon wanted all of his end-of-the-year must-dos scheduled concretely ahead of time for the first two weeks of May, nothing after and nothing that didn't absolutely have to be done. At first, he wasn't forthcoming with why this was necessary, but as more invites from various groups wanting his attention to discuss the following school year came in, Jon told her to let them know he was taking all his personal days in May to be home when Audrey was due with the new baby.

Audrey Andrews.

Learning that Jon was married to Audrey bothered Katherine more than she cared to admit. The time during which she and Jon dated was a particularly difficult time in her life that encompassed much more than her romantic relationship with him. Back then she was very insecure, and those insecurities caused her to react in ways that were less than gracious. Through most of her life, she had to fight for position and fight for attention. As ambitious as she was, there was always a part of her that simply wanted to be a wife and mother. By the time she was thirty she had made more bad choices in men and had her heart broken more times than she could count. At thirty, she began to panic about ever fulfilling her dreams of marriage and family and her desperation only set her up for more heartache. That was how she entered her relationship with Jonathan, fighting for position and attention. He was a good man, the first genuinely good man she'd ever dated, and she just couldn't lose him. Her desperation blinded her to much of what was going on around her. Katherine had no idea back then that Jon was so heavily invested in Audrey. She thought that it was only Shawn that he was pouring his time into. After all the years that had passed, thinking back to that time in her life brought a hot flush of deep embarrassment to her cheeks.

0o0o

It was after 11 pm and there was no sign of Jon. Something was wrong. Katherine paced the lobby of the Library anxiously. Eli and the Matthews boy had been running interference all evening with fishy tales of where Jon was and what he was doing every time she asked about him. Every time she called his room, Cory answered with some inane story; there was a spider in the girls' room, Trini accidentally started a fire, Shawn was drowning in the bathtub. Eventually, Frankie Stacchino let it slip that Mr. Turner was out on the town. He had started to say more when both Eli and Cory jumped on him. Jealousy, worry, and fear engulfed her, and her mind conjured up a thousand things her on again-off again boyfriend could be doing without her and none of them were good. Yet she could do nothing about it as the boys holed up in their room with Jon's traitorous best friend and would not speak to her anymore. All she could do was wait.

It started to rain a little after 10:30. By 10:45 it was pouring. At 11:15, Jon finally sauntered through the doors, rain soaked and laughing without a care in the world. Her heart raced and fear of who he was with gripped her. It stunned her to see Shawn Hunter at his side, just as wet, and telling some ridiculous story to his teacher. Katherine's mouth fell open. She didn't know what to think. Jon left her behind to hang out with his student? An intense covetous pain stabbed her heart. Why? Why hadn't he asked her to go with them? It was like Jon and Shawn were a part of some secret club that she was banned from joining. It had been this way ever since Jon offered to take the boy in while his father traipsed across the country for some reason she couldn't remember. Jon always chose Shawn over her, although she and Jon had been together before Shawn entered the picture. Seeing them together without any care as to what she had been through for the last several hours and intentionally having Eli and Cory keep her in the dark infuriated her. By the time they noticed her, Katherine was shaking with indignation.

Shawn saw her first and grabbed Jon's sleeve abruptly, forcing him to come to a halt. He gave the teen a puzzled look, then followed his gaze to see what the problem was. Jon paled considerably when he saw the look on Katherine's face. It never occurred to him that he might have to deal with her. He had not planned for this.

"Where have you been?" she snapped angrily. It was difficult for her to keep a lid on her emotions but knowing how quickly he would shut down at an emotional outburst, she tried to keep her voice steady.

But her tone and the reprimand in it immediately set him against her. He bristled visibly. "Out," he said shortly.

She watched suspiciously as Shawn positioned himself securely at Jon's side, arms folded, glowering at her. She ignored the boy and his dirty look and pushed on, "Out where?"

Jon gritted his teeth in vexation and swallowed the sarcastic one-liner that threatened to slip out, reminding himself they were in a hotel lobby, and it was late.

"Just out." An explanation normally would have appeased her, but he knew the mood she was in well and no explanation would avoid the scene that was on the horizon. But there was a defiance creeping into him that did not want to explain anything to anyone.

"You're a chaperon, Jon, on a school trip. You had no business being out." She wasn't sure why she chose to scold him like a child, but she did, and it was the wrong thing to do.

If there was one thing Jonathan Turner hated it was being spoken to like a child. As she stood there with all the righteous irritation of a mother who had caught her child sneaking back in from an unapproved night out, arms crossed and lips pressed into a thin line, Jon couldn't take it anymore. She was not his mother. "Excuse me?" His voice was dangerously low.

"You have students to supervise." His attitude was crashing against hers causing her voice to rise with every statement. She was having trouble keeping her anger in check. He had no right to be angry with her.

"My students are just fine." Resentment was entwined in his words.

"Thanks to Eli."

"Yeah, thanks to Eli. He offered to take them so Shawn and I could do a couple things we wanted to do."

Katherine bit back on her response. Something was still wrong. Jon and Shawn were standing strangely in front of the door as if to block it. Why? To prevent her from going out? Or prevent someone from coming in?

She narrowed her eyes, giving Shawn a particularly distrustful glare. She had a feeling he was behind all of this. "What exactly where you two doing that I couldn't do, too?"

This elicited a snicker and eye roll from Shawn. Katherine's glare intensified. Ever since he started living with Jon her relationship had suffered. She wasn't sure that it wasn't intentional.

"We went out to dinner and to see a show." Jon snapped, even though he did not want to give her an explanation. If it had been possible for him to storm by her and go up to their room, he would have. Unfortunately, the third member of their group wasn't in yet and he was stuck.

"That's it?"

"Yes, that's it."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Katherine could feel that tearful lump in her throat and she did not want to give either of them the satisfaction of seeing her cry. Especially Shawn.

"We didn't want you to go with us. You kinda ruin things." This nasty little remark came from Shawn who regarded her with an arrogant smirk.

She wanted to scream at the little punk. She looked at Jon expecting him to reprimand the teen for the comment. He said nothing. He stood there with his arms folded tightly across his stomach glaring at the floor. Whenever it came to Shawn, Jon always let him do what he wanted. He got away with everything, including being disrespectful to her. She had enough of their behavior.

"Are you going to let him speak to me like that?!" she demanded. In childish frustration, she stomped her foot into the tiled floor.

Jon jerked his head up sharply with a look of what could only be described as disgust. In the backdrop of the storm outside, this could have been a trick of the interior lighting against the tempestuous exterior, but she didn't think so.

"Well!?"She could see his jaw muscles tighten.

He remained silent.

She couldn't stand the way he would shut down instead of talking things out. "Say something already!"

"Don't yell at him!" Shawn jumped in front of Jon with hot teenage fury. "All you do is whine and complain and yell. You're impossible to please. And we're gettin' sick of it!"

That brought Jon to life. "All right, Shawn," he said, putting a hand on his shoulder and pulling the teen back to his side. "Let me handle this."

Finally!

But Jon wasn't coming to her defense like she'd hoped. Instead, he was...comforting Shawn? Why did he need to be comforted? He had everything he wanted. She needed comfort, not him! Katherine struggled to name the emotion that was suppressing her breathing. Tears sprang up and began to cloud her vision. Jealousy. She was jealous of a fifteen-year-old boy.

After he had calmed Shawn down, Jon whispered to him to get Audrey up to the girls' room as quickly as possible. He turned to face Katherine and groaned internally. She was beginning to cry. He couldn't stand tears. He had no idea what to do when a woman cried. Based on his experience, the only correct response was to give into whatever the one crying wanted. He was trapped. Again.

"Kat," Jon began, cautiously approaching her like she was a stray cat that might try to scratch him if he got too close. "Kat, I-" He stopped. She was looking at him expectantly. Enhanced by tears she had the bluest eyes he'd ever seen, and they disarmed him fully. "C'mon, Kat. Don't cry."

"What do you expect me to do, Jonathan?" She had no strength left to hold back the emotions that rage within her. "You exclude me from so much of your life because of Shawn. You favor him over me."

"I do not favor him. But you know the situation with Shawn isn't going to change. If you can't accept that then..." his voice trailed off and he held his hand out before letting them drop to his sides.

She bit her lip and shook her head giving him an angry, hurt glare. More tears fell.

"I made a commitment to him, Kat," he said defensively.

"When are you going to make a commitment to me?" Instantly, regret flooded her, and she wished she could take those words back.

Jon stared at her in disbelief. "Are you kiddin' me? Are you seriously bringing up the marriage thing now?!"

And so the old familiar argument at maximum volume ensued yet again. Katherine never meant to start this with him; she never did. She so desperately wanted his reassurance that she was that important to him; that she was needed and wanted, and an engagement ring was the only way she could show others that she was that highly valued. In her over-eagerness, she pushed too far, too fast. Every single time. She couldn't help herself.

Over Jon's shoulder, she could see Shawn continually throwing sharp glares at her while talking to someone.

Who is he talking to?

Shawn turned back to the unseen person clearly upset. He jabbed an angry finger in her direction, then leaned out of Katherine's line of vision. Jon stopped talking and turned partially away from her. That was when she saw who Shawn was with- Audrey, the student teacher.

Where did she come from?

They had been loud in their arguing, but had it been so loud as to bring someone from their group down? Whatever the case, Audrey was there and what she saw reignited her anger. Audrey was comforting Shawn.

Why?! Why did everyone side with him? Why am I the bad guy here?

Katherine was done. She was done with all of them. Giving the chair at the table closest to her a shove so violent it knocked the vase of flowers off it, she stormed past the bewildered hotel night crew up to her room. The vase made a satisfying crash as it shattered on the floor.

o0o0o

Katherine shrugged her shoulders hard as though trying to shake off the unpleasant memory. In retrospect, she made several mistakes when it came to Shawn; the biggest of which was seeing him as competition rather than an ally. Had she viewed him as Jon's son or nephew or even kid brother rather than an unwanted visitor hanging around and had she taken a motherly approach to him things may very well have turned out in her favor. Or that's what she told herself in the months that followed.

She had not known how much time Audrey was spending with the two of them. Shawn, of course, talked non-stop about the young student teacher when she was around, but Katherine wrongly assumed it was to irk her and that he really had a crush on the girl. A month after the incident on the NYC trip, she and Jon started seeing each other again, this time non-exclusively. Jon was much more relaxed, and she tried very hard not to put any pressure on him. For about month things were going very well. This time around Shawn was trying not so subtly to be the wedge between them and he often succeeded by getting Jon to cancel dates with her. She tried so extremely hard to ignore Shawn but eventually her insecurity got the best of her. Then there was the night Jon stood her up. She went over to his apartment and let herself in with the key she still had. She waited nearly three hours before he and Shawn showed up. Upon their return, she understood why Jon did not want to date exclusively. He and Shawn walked in, both with their arms around Audrey. The trio stood in the doorway with a shared looks of surprise and guilt. They were also the picture of a family. It was a deeply embarrassing moment for her, made worse by Shawn's smug grin and his saccharine "Goodnight, Mom. Goodnight, Dad" to Audrey and Jon.

Katherine always felt stupid for not seeing this coming. She had a bad feeling about the student teacher who had captured Jon's attention from the start, but she tried so hard to ignore it. Deep down, she supposed she always knew she could not compete with the younger woman. Katherine was thirty-three and Audrey was barely out of her teens. Of course, Jon chose the young one. He was a man and that's what men did. It was incredibly disappointing to find out that Jon was no different than the rest. She thought he was. She hoped he was. But he wasn't. It was a tale as old as time and it left Katherine with a broken heart once again instead of a happy ending. She left the apartment, humiliated, and Jon let her go.

She let out a heavy sigh as she picked up the schedule from the printer across the room.

Katherine honestly believed back then that Jon would have his fun with Audrey then one of them would get bored and Jon would come back to her. It didn't happen that way, of course. She wasn't so much surprised that the two married as she was that they were still married. And five kids? That stung as well. Jonathan was the only man she had really wanted to have children with. Her ex-husband proved to be a very Jekyll and Hyde personality, mostly Hyde. The only good thing that came of their marriage was her two beautiful boys. She wanted more children. She could have had more children. But her ex refused and sometimes cruelly so. He did not, however, have any issue getting his mistress pregnant. And now that she was free of him after years of legal entanglement involving the boys, her dream of more children was over. At her age, it was not possible outside of adoption. The fact that Audrey was pregnant with number six only served to remind Katherine of the gulf between them.

And then there was Shawn.

If Jon being married to his student teacher all these years was a surprise, Shawn Hunter walking into the district office demanding to see his "dad" was a shock. He seemed to have changed very little. He was still that cocky, know-it-all, leather jacket wearing kid although he had to be in his thirties by now. She wondered if Jon and Audrey didn't cater to his every whim like they did back then. Now that she knew Jon had adopted Shawn after all, it certainly explained the attitude Jon's oldest daughter had towards her. Julia's attitude was an exact copy of Shawn's back then. She was clearly following her brother's bad example. Katherine shook her head trying to rid herself of these thoughts. The lunch hour was growing shorter by the moment, and it would take her most of that time to convince Jon to take a break. She announced herself with a brief knock on his door before she went it.

Jon was attempting to end a conversation on the phone, making a series of sarcastic faces as he did so. Finally, he dropped the receiver into the cradle and held his head between his hands. It the past five months Jon's appearance and health had declined rapidly and it worried Katherine. She often wondered why his wife wasn't more concerned about him and why she wasn't trying to do something about it.

"Jon?"

"It's Mr. Turner in the office," he reminded her as he lifted his head and folded his arm across the desk. He looked weary.

"No one else is in the office."

"What is it?"

"I brought your schedule for the week." She laid the paper in front of him.

He frowned and pushed it away. "I need this on my phone. Why didn't you just upload it to my calendar?"

"I thought you'd like a hard copy." She could see he was in a mood, and this was not a mood she had been able to successfully overcome yet.

"I don't need a hard copy. I need this on my phone."

"Okay, I'll get it done." She knew his irritation wasn't really over the calendar. There was something else bothering him, but getting it out of him was impossible, so she didn't bother to pursue the matter right at that moment.

"Make sure to send Audrey a copy."

"Right." She refrained from reacting to the name. "Jon?"

"What?" For the first time since she walked into his office, he actually looked at her.

"It's lunch. Why don't we go out and eat for once."

"I don't have time," he said waving her off.

"You need to make time." She watched him closely, careful not to push too hard. "You need a break."

He paused a moment, considering this. "No," he said firmly. "I have a phone conference with the PTA at Abigail Adams in 20 minutes. I still have to get this budget report finished. Order something in."

"It would do you good to get out of the office. Some fresh air and sun would make you feel better. You could get more done"

"That'd be great," he said, turning his chair back to his computer. "If the budget would take care of itself. Since it won't, order in."

Katherine frowned and she wanted to argue, but the look on his face warned her against it. Instead, she acquiesced. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," he said, already buried in paperwork. "I'll get something later."

"Jon."

He didn't hear her; she'd already lost him to the budget report. Katherine sighed and watched him for a bit as he unhappily tried to resolve all the issues spread out on his desk to the satisfaction to everyone in the school district, which was an utterly impossible task. Something had to change here, she just wasn't sure how to go about it. But she was determined that one way or another she was going to make this office an oasis for him away from his problems at home. She couldn't fix the work issue, though, but she did hope she could get him to let her lighten his load.

She started to close the door behind her when she heard him call to her.

"Kat?"

Her heart skipped a beat, then started to race. Hopeful that he had changed his mind about lunch and would at least let her order him something, she stepped back into his office with great expectation. She was immediately let down.

"Make sure my wife gets my schedule this time."

He never even looked up at her.

Late in the afternoon a high shrill screech startled Shawn awake and nearly off his bed. This was particularly bad as he had taken up residence on the top bunk. It took him several moments to realize it was his phone screaming at him in an unfamiliar ringtone.

Jamie. The little boy had been playing with his phone earlier and apparently had changed the ringtone. After Shawn was sure he wasn't having a heart attack, he carefully slid off the bed and grabbed the insistent mobile device off his desk.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Hunter?"

"Yes?" he ventured a bit uncertainly. Only Mr. Feeny ever called him by that name and the feminine voice on the line was mostly certain not that of his former teacher.

"This is Sylvia with NYC Lifestyle blog."

"Oh yeah, right," Shawn was still shaky after his near fall. Quickly, he composed himself and focused. Hello."

"Is now a good time to talk?"

"Yes, definitely." Shawn ran a hand through his hair and quietly let out a breath. He had been hoping to hear back from NYCL. A year ago, they contacted him about working for them, but at the time he did not want anything that tied him down to one place. That feeling, of course, had changed in the last two weeks.

"We were so pleased that you contacted us about doing some freelance work for us!" Sylvia chirped cheerfully. It sounded like she was reading from a script. "Would you be available this week to meet about the specifics?"

"Yeah, I've got some time tomorrow after ten, if that works." After a few tedious questions were answered, Shawn hung up with an appointment for his first stationary photography gig. No more traveling. He'd be tied to the City for quite some time. It was going to be a vastly different experience for him.

There was no point in going back to sleep. The boys would be home soon and would bring with them a flood of things to do. So Shawn turned his attention to his own "to-do" list to see what he could get done. There were three major things on his list and resolving the issue of what he was going to for work was the easiest one to take care of. The other two were significantly harder.

Number 2- Text Katy

It shouldn't have been that big of a deal to send a simple text, but if there was one thing that Shawn excelled at it was make the simple difficult and often convoluted. He knew he needed to contact her as it had been a few weeks since their first date and over a week since he'd seen Maya, but there was just something that stood in his way of doing this. And that something was him. He didn't want to. This was simply something he did not want to deal with.

"I hope being home will let you explore your past and find the closure you need."

Shawn squirmed and thought back to his awkward encounter with Dr. Durran. He knew untangling himself from his past was going to be a difficult and unpleasant task. There was still so much he needed to deal with, things that he didn't want to look back at. Until these were resolved, contacting Katy seemed impossible. Was it wrong to be his age and want to go back to being a teenager? Was there something wrong in wanting to just stay home and hang around the family he didn't know he had?

Maybe there wasn't.

Then maybe there was, and Shawn was being immature and irresponsible. Maybe he would lose Katy and Maya if he chose to stay with his family. Did it bother him that they may not wait? Would Maya see him in the same light as she did her father? Would she end up hating him? Should he stay for her? Even if he didn't end up with Katy? Would Katy let him? What if she didn't?

There were too many questions and no way to get answers without talking to Katy. These questions screamed at him demanding to be answered. He didn't know where to begin to make them stop tormenting him. It had only been two weeks since he made it back home. He wondered if this would be something that time home could remedy on its own and or if it was something he was going to be forced to seek outside help with? Jon's words of being whole and healed before entering a relationship reverberated in his ears. He scrunched up his nose as though catching the scent of something awful. He would not deal with this now. He had a far more pressing issue to deal with.

Number 3- Get Jon to take time with Audrey.

Although Shawn had no answer to the question of how to accomplish this, correcting this problem seemed to be more within his reach. This problem he wanted to deal with. This problem he wanted to solve. Unfortunately, he was struggling with a plausible way to convince Jon to take time away from a soul-draining job. He had Jon's schedule, he had Audrey's schedule, and he had the kids' schedule. He saw several places where Jon could take some time to be with his wife without disrupting the schedules very much, but the crux of the problem was Jon himself- he refused to take time off. His excuse was that there was simply too much to do. Because unexpected issues would arise at any time if he got behind on anything he would never get caught up. Or so he claimed. Shawn was beginning to understand Audrey's loathing of the superintendent position; he was beginning to hate it, too.

Shawn went over the ideas he came up with to get his "parents" together. It was a shame they were all outrageous. There were a few that he would have certainly tried to pull off as a kid. However, at thirty-three he knew better.

Maybe, he considered, Jules and I could recreate their first date. Thoughtfully, he tried to remember what their first date was like, and it occurred to him they didn't have one. They weren't allowed to date while Audrey was Jon's student teacher. Everything they did together outside of school, he was with them. And being with them defeated the purpose of the whole scheme. Shawn sighed in frustration.

What about recreating when they first met? I wasn't there for that.

But that wouldn't work either. They first met at Audrey's orientation for student teaching. He could not fathom a way to get either one of them to agree to go back to Philly and John Adams High for any reason. Besides, the way they met was boring.

Can't recreate their wedding because they didn't have one.

Shawn needed to reevaluate his plans and the more he thought, the more he felt he needed to bring Cory into help. His creativity was stymied, and he needed another perspective that only his best friend could provide. Thankfully, time and adult responsibilities had not dampened their ability to conjure up wild ideas when they were together.

A wicked smirked tugged at the corner of Shawn's mouth.

Jon didn't stand a chance against them.