Jaden shook his head. “No he’s not here. I all but threw him out the door. I gave him enough money to go rent a room at the motel and I gave him money to get a ride over there.” He explained. Yea he was aware he’d acted rudely, but he didn’t care. That Simon kid just did not feel right and it was killing him that he couldn’t peg exactly what it was about the kid that infuriated him so much. Maybe it was all the sneakiness…or maybe it was the violence aimed at his family….or heck maybe it was both!What ever the case he wasn’t letting that little twerp hurt his family. His family had been through enough as it was. Especially Dawn. “I can’t practically force her to do anything. If I try and do that then she’ll just take it the wrong way. She might be better off if I just let her calm down on her own.” he explained. “Act accordingly? She’s always acted accordingly mom. Maybe this is her way of saying she doesn’t want to always act accordingly.” he muttered softly. It wasn’t that he disagreed with his mom it was just he had a pretty good idea of how Dawn was feeling. Her whole life she’d always been the child expected to act accordingly and suddenly she’d grown tired of that. She didn’t want to be that anymore but as hard as she was trying to change that it seemed like everyone was pressing her back into that mold. At least that was how he saw it. Then again he was probably looking into it way too much.

He was brought of his thoughts by his loudly growling stomach. Chow time, definitely chow time.He’d just opened his mouth to approach the subject of dinner when his mom beat him to it and enlisted him in her service. He could argue that and say he had schoolwork…then again his mom was tired and she’d done more than enough for him. “Alright, fine I’ll help. On one condition…I get to do all the cooking. You can set the table or something easy. Then you can go cuddle with dad or do what ever it is you guys never seem to do anymore.” He offered with a grin as he breezed past his mom and blocked the entrance to the kitchen.

Nick bit back a soft groan as Angela left his embrace. Really? The one time she came to him and hugged him just because she could in years and she chose to go and make dinner versus spend more time cuddling with him. He felt insulted. It was true he wasn’t as young as he’d used to be and heavens knew he wasn’t as slim and trim as he’d used to be but he didn’t look that bad for someone who’d helped raise four kids and worked two jobs back to back. Did he? Ok that was one question he didn’t want the answer to…still was it so much to ask for some time alone with his wife where they weren’t worrying about their kids or worrying about money. Just some alone time..it wasn’t that much to ask for! And apparently Jaden agreed because no sooner had Nick felt his frustrations beginning to bubble up, his eldest son had stopped Angela and offered them the thing he’d wanted most. Biting back a chuckle he stepped forward and took Angela’s hand in his. “I think that sounds like a fair offer.” he agreed.

Angela smiled gratefully at Jaden "alright... you and Bryan can take care of dinner. Thank you" she said and began walking with Nick to the living room. She settled into the loveseat next to him and immediately curled up "I've missed this" she whispered as she listened to his heartbeat. She shut her eyes and just let her body to relax, soon enough she was sleeping just as deeply as Dawn was.

When she woke up, it wasn't the way she'd hoped. She woke with a start and it took a few moments to remember what had been plaguing her dreams. When she did she immediately began to search for Nick. It was her old nightmare. Strange... there she was, curled up with him, and she still had her most terrifying nightmare.

“You’re welcome mom.” He said with a warm smile as he watched his mom and dad head off towards the living room. He wasn’t just going to get Bryan to help, he was going to get the youngest of the bunch involved too. Grinning, he ran upstairs to get his younger brothers lazy butts in gear. He was hungry enough to eat a horse or at least as much as a horse could eat-his younger siblings couldn’t expect him to make all the food by himself.

Nick didn’t bother holding in his groan of pleasure as he sank down onto the love seat. Huh, so this was what it was like to sit down with no bills to worry about. When Angela curled up next to him, he smiled warmly at his wife leaning down and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead before reclining back against the love seat with a low yawn his arms wrapped protectively around her. When he’d thought of alone time with Angela he hadn’t been thinking of sleeping. He’d been thinking of talking or laughing…heck he’d been thinking of something fun. But right now with Angela cuddled soundly against him he was finding it very hard to stay awake. It wasn’t long before he was sound asleep a soft snore escaping as he slept contentedly with Angela cuddled next to him.

It wasn’t long before Nick was jarred out of his dreamless sleep by a jerk from Angela. Blinking sleepily he sat up straight wincing slightly at the slight crick in his neck. Great, another sign of old age. Wiping the last of sleep from his eyes he took a look at Angela and smiled reassuringly gently rubbing her back. “Its alright…”he murmured soothingly.

Angela moved closer to Nick when he began to rub her back. She'd never thought about it... but now that she was married... Nick was a father and husband. No... he wouldn't leave. He never slept when Dawn was missing because he was always looking for her... right? He wasn't... he wasn't going off... off with another woman... was he? 'No... he wouldn't be holding me like this if he was cheating on me... my father never touched my mother like this, at least not that I can remember' she thought to herself, dispelling the idea. Still... she could never really ignore it. So, she did the one thing she knew she could do, how she convinced herself that he loved her before he put her through all that crap back in High School. She pulled back and looked into his eyes, the tears brimming at her eyes.

More tears came when she saw the traces of grey hair, creating that adorable salt and pepper look. He was still young, but he's definitely aged. Still... his eyes were just as youthful as ever. Her eyes locked with his. She saw worry. Why? afraid that she'll find out his secret? No... there's love in his eyes. She felt a tear roll down her cheek and she hugged him again, resting her head on his chest "I'm sorry... I just... wanted to make sure that it was just a nightmare. It wasn't real and it never will be. I'm sorry" she whispered as she fought back the tears. He'd given her all sorts of crap back in high school. In all honesty, it was a miracle she even took him back. A miracle she didn't burn his existence the minute he broke up with her. She didn't trust men, not since her father turned his back on her and her mother. Maybe that's why she never had that nightmare when she was around him, or when his picture was around... she knew, unconsciously, that he would never intentionally hurt her.

Nick didn’t need to be a mind reader or an empath like Jaden to know what his wife was feeling right now. True a lot of what she felt right now was showing on her face but there were some feelings that one couldn’t show. With Angela there was always some distrust. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, she did trust him he knew that but sometimes it felt like she was holding back and while it hurt him to to think that sometimes she put him in the same group of men as her dad he couldn’t help but feel sorry. Not because Nick himself was that kind of person. Oh no if anything he felt sorry for her dad, because if Nick ever found him he wouldn’t hesitate to kick his old elderly butt. He might be getting near the old mark himself but that didn’t mean he couldn’t kick some butt.

But that wasn’t important right now. His wife needed him for emotional support, the last thing she needed –or wanted- was for him to go on some vengeful mission to make her dad regret what he’d done. She wanted comfort. She’d been through more than enough today. Seeing the tears rolling down her cheeks he gently wipe them away placing a soft kiss on her forehead before he simply held her close and continued to rub her back. “You don’t have to apologize..you always apologize when this happens and everytime I tell you not time. Is it possible that you’re going hard of hearing at this young an age?” he asked giving her teasing grin. He was trying to make her laugh…heck honestly he’d do anything just to make her stop apologizing. Every time she had this stupid nightmare she’d wake up and jump right into apologizing. What he didn’t understand was why she felt like she had to. It wasn’t an inconvenience for him to hold his wife and comfort her. To be honest he missed the moments where all he’d ever had to do was hold Angela and whisper sweet nothings in her ear-not that either of them had had much time for that lately but still it was a nice thought.

Angela cracked a smile and snuggled close to her husband. "Thank you... I know you keep telling me to stop apologizing, but I just feel so bad for ever thinking it in the first place, especially since I know you would never do that" she said softly. "But seriously, if you ever cheat on me, I will not hesitate to kill you" she deadpanned, a deadly expression in her voice. "But since you would never do that, you have nothing to worry about" she said softly as she pulled herself into his lap.

"So... I think I go through to Dawn. She's staying at least tonight, I'm sure of that, but she might stay longer than that. She and I had a nice long talk. I don't think she realized how much we understood her. That, and our little girl was much too eager to grow up. She's asleep right now. I'll have one of the boys go up to get her when dinner's ready. Until then... the night is ours" she pointed out as her fingers traced gentle designs on his chest.

There was no hiding the soft wince flickering across Nick's features as his wife gave him her fiercest expression. Did sh ehave any idea just how scary she looked when she did that? Even joking she still looked pretty scary. Talk about sad, he was a fully grown and getting old man who was terrified of his wife! But at the same time..he was completely in love with her. Always had been and always would be. He couldn't cheat on her and any man that would think of cheating on his wife..well it was just sad. Then again that was his opinion.

He was brought out of his wondering thoughts by the mention of Dawn. His eyes lit up with hope as Angela mentioned possibly getting through to her. That was good, no that was great! It meant she might stay! His exuberance faded somewhat when Angela proposed it might only be for a short time. "But...she can't leave. You didn't give her that option did you? Do you think she'd talk to me? Did you find out why she ran away? Did Justin have something to do with it?" he asked a warning growl creeping into his tone. if he found out that Justin had someone pushed his little girl into running away... His vengeful thoughts slammed to a halt as his wife's words sank in. The night was theirs...did that mean what he thought it meant? Grown up time! A soft shiver rippled through him as he felt her fingers tracing soft delicate designs on his chest."Huh..ours you say? Now that sounds promising.." he murmured his voice taking on a soft seductive purr as he pulled her closer pressing a brief passionate kiss to Angela's lips.

Mmm Nick was pure deliciousness. But Angela had to settle his fears before they went any further. She placed another kiss on his lips and looked at him "sweetheart... I know you want her to stay home, so do I. But our little girl ran away from home. Just because she came home doesn't mean she was entirely ready to come home. It seems that Justin was just the last straw. She tried to grow up too early, and we let her, focusing our attention on bills and the boys who still refuse to grow up. She's staying the night. It's up to us to make sure she wants to keep staying the night. I think that's a definite possibility, though... she called you daddy earlier" she informed him and placed another kiss on his lips. "Baby... I know what you're thinking, but it's going to have to wait until after dinner, alright? Dinner will be anytime now and I really don't want to traumatize our children, ok? You just have to wait until after dinner" she told him and placed yet another kiss on his lips, this one much more passionate "but... that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the remainder of our alone time" she whispered.

Don't get him wrong, Nick loved his kids, heck he really cared about Dawn. But right now, he really wished that there wasn't four flipping kids in the house! He was man, hear him roar. He had needs and those needs were being put on hold by his kids. Couldn't they just eat dinner without them? They could..but Dawn was home.Dawn had come home for some reason, so how was it that she couldn't be ready to come home? He was trying to understand, he really was but did it sound like Angela was blaming them for this? It wasn't their fault..well not completely. They'd paying attention to Dawn but she'd always seemed so mature and sure of herself, she'd seemed independent like she didn't need her parents around to cramp her style. He hummed softly in approval as Angela pressed her lips against his once again. He was trying to behave and she wasn't really helping..not that he was complaining. Yet. Shaking his head softly he gave her a somewhat amused smile one eyebrow arched softly in curiosity."Daddy? I bet you she was half asleep when she said that. Its been ages since any of our kids have called me daddy. " he pointed out softly.

He didn't even bother holding in his groan of disappointment as Angela reminded him he'd have to wait. This sucked, waiting sucked. it had sucked waiting for his kids to get here, it had sucked waiting for them to learn to drive..seriously waiting itself sucked. "Children? Two of them are in college, one of them is entering high school and the others one about to graduate from high school. None of t hem are kids and it snot like they don't know the basics of it, you told them how babies were made and you gave them the whole 'its best to wait talk'..face it our 'kids' are not clueless when it comes to adult fun. Especially the two college going ones. We could sneak upstairs and lock the door and we could be really quiet... Seriously, what could go wrong if we take just a little time for ourselves? I don't think anything bad would happen..actually I think something very nice would happen..." he offered giving her his most charming grin before pressing several soft seductive kisses down her neck his hands soothingly roaming up and down her back. Forget about the remainder of their time, he was demanding over time! True he needed to be worrying about Dawn ut for the last few days he'd done nothing but worry about her and search for her. At least now he knew where she was. She was home in her room safe and sound. That thought alone was enough to lift a huge weight of his shoulders. Suddenly he didn't feel so old, but if he had to wait until after dinner then he'd be feeling even more decrepit than usual. Which was sad because he wasn't an old old man yet. He was just old! And considering he didn't feel like that n ow he was definitely going to make use of it.

Angela giggled "You know that tickles!" she protested as she squirmed away. Oh yeah, she loved it alright, but that didn't mean now was the right time. He was getting dangerously close to her button. She had to keep him away from that before dinner. "Sweetheart, I know you want to but I'm hungry! You are not going to keep me away from food any longer than I need to. Your wife demands food" she stated firmly. "Give her food... and she'll give you her heart and soul tonight" she purred, tracing her finger along his jawline. "But if you keep me from food you aren't getting anything" she deadpanned. Let him chew on that one for awhile. For that matter, time to take matters into her own hands. She stood up and walked to the kitchen "Jaden, sweetie..." she started, her voice soft "when's dinner?" she asked, her voice harder then it was previously. Seriously, do not deprive her of food. She was trying hard not to look at her kitchen. Sometimes they pulled it off well, sometimes they made a mess, she couldn't bring herself to see which time it was.

Well that wasn't the reaction he'd been hoping for, he was all for laughing and goofing around, but he was serious. he needed one on one adult play time. Without the kids bothering them. He'd figured that alone would have been enough to have Angela caving and taking him on his offer. After all that had worked in the past, it'd worked everything...Actually now that he thought it...hadn't that little strategy led up to him conceiving his kids? Oh snap...he needed new tricks. Badly. Actually he needed Angela. He swallowed thickly watching her leave the room-holy crap she was trying to drive him crazy. how could she leave him hanging with words like that?! Groaning he leaned back against the couch silently counting and trying to get himself under control. Key word there: TRYING.

Dinner was almost ready, it would have been done by now if he hadn't gotten things of to such a rough start though. Although to be honest, it wasn't his fault, it was his parents! They were only a few rooms away ad all emotion..it was like slamming into a wall or j umping into a pool and not knowing how to swim. it had literally shocked him. And traumatized him. His parents still did that?! Call him immature but but as an empath the last thing he wanted to feel/think about was his parents considering rocking the bed. Seriously, he had three younger siblings, did his parents really wanted another kid at this age? Wait..could t hey even do that? Agh! He let out a muffled oath as a dark tendril of smoke welled up from the stove.

He'd just barely managed to save the meat loaf before his mom's soft voice registered on his senses. He didn't even bother hiding the look of mild trepidation his face as he felt her other emotions rolling off of her. Thank goodness dinner was almost done he did not want to be the source of all that frustration-sexual or otherwise-. Giving her his sweetest grin he set the meatloaf down to let it cool. The kitchen itself didn't even look to bad, it didn't resemble the war zone it usually did but it wasn't exactly spotless either. But hey he couldn't win every battle. "Its done. Just needs to cool off a little. Although..I wouldn't say that's the only thing that needs to cool off in this house." he commented sagely before flashing his mother an impish grin and slipping past her before he could see her reaction.

Bryan and Lucas had been put on dish washing duty. Bryan looked up hearing their moms entrance and snickered softly at the eldest comment. "Dude it's gotta suck being an empath at times like now. Too bad you don't have a girlfriend..." he taunted only to let out a grunt as the eldest of the three brothers smacked him soundly on the head before retorting. "This coming from the guy whose only girlfriend exists in his imagination. I'd say you were married to your computer...but that just seems wrong. For the computer I mean." Jaden retorted with a gentle smirk. That comment alone was enough to shut up the younger brother. Lucas didn't say much, he just continued washing dishes an amused smile on his face as Jaden and Bryan continued to bicker.

Angela glared at Jaden "talk to your father about that one, he's the one having issues. I think I'll go get Dawn, then. Clean this place up. I do not want to see a speck of... whatever it is you did later. Yes, you can wait until after dinner, but no getting out of doing the dishes. You offered to cook dinner, so you will. Now you see my suffering. Watch that stove, something's about to burn" she warned and walked off to go wake up Dawn.

With a gentle knock, she walked into Dawn's room and gently shook her awake. "Sweetheart... dinner's almost ready. Did you sleep alright?" she asked in a soft voice as she brushed her fingers through her daughter's hair.

Jaden couldn't hold in his snort as he laughed at his moms retreating figure. he couldn't help but shoot one last remark:"Mom I don't think he's having issues. Even for someone his age everything seem to be in working order!" he teased after his mom. His goodnatured grin disappeared though as she pointed out that something was burning. Ah! no! He groaned and glanced at the pile of dishes. Why did he have to do dishes? he'd been nice for pete's sakes! How many parents had a son, a straight one at that, who offered to cook and give his parents alone time? Not many! Grumbling, he switched off the burner and removed the nearly burnt food. Sheesh he was in college, he shouldn't be expected to cook like this, he lived off of microwavable food and yet he still got nothing. not even an 'oh thank you Jaden for coking me this wonderful meal when I am clearly starving' from his mom. It was times like this that he missed being a kid where he had not just his dad but his mom wrapped around his finger. Then again..he could just play with their emotions a little....but that was wrong. And he'd get busted. So he'd just be quiet and do what he was supposed to.

Dawn mumbled softly as she was shaken away her blue eyes clouded with sleep as she looked up at her mom. Yawning she cuddled closer to her mom her drifting shut again. She'd been sleeping so soundly and that dream..it had been awesome. She hadn't ran away from home, and Justin hadn't kissed someone else and everything was right...Which was how she knew it was a dream because she wasn't with Justin anymore, and everything wasn't alright! Sighing softly, she wiped the last remains of sleep from her eyes and met her moms gaze. "Yea...it was ok I guess. I'm not really hungry. Would it bother you if I went outside and walked around some? I won't leave the yard and I won't even go near the woods." she explained. She didn't think she could run away again. She was too tired. And right now..well it felt nice to be home. Near familiar things and people. But at the same time she didn't really she fit in here anymore. Honestly had she ever truly belonged here in this house? In this family?

Angela smiled and kissed Dawn's forehead "I trust you, baby. But if you're going to skip out on dinner, then I expect you to say hello to your father before you leave, alright? He's been worried sick about you, and I do mean sick. I want you to tell him what you told me, because I can almost guarantee that he'll flip out if his little girl--that's not so little anymore--wants to leave after she's just come home again. Do that and you can go ahead and have your alone time. I'll make sure we save some food for you, alright?" she asked. She was firm in her resolve. If her daughter wanted to miss dinner, then she was going to let Nick have some happy moments. He just got her back and he'd probably freak out more if she didn't come to dinner and he didn't know why. "He's taken this really hard, you know. He never stopped looking for you... I barely got him to sit down and eat, let alone get him to sleep. It was always one more trip. What if that time that he went out, dead on his feet, he found you? He didn't know if you were safe, or scared, or if you wanted to come home but couldn't. Nothing I could do could put a smile on his face" she confided. She wasn't trying to make her daughter guilty... she just wanted her to understand what Nick went through... what they all went through.

Dawn's nose wrinkled adorably and she shook her head opening her mouth to argue only to stop and give in. It didn't have anything to do with her mom guilting her into it. Her mom wasn't..not completely anyway. "He was worried? Heh, thats funny considering he never seemed that worried before. He was more worried about the bills than he was me. But I don't guess it was his fault. Fine I'll talk to him. Is there anyone else you'd like me to talk to?" she griped softly as she stood up another fleeting yawn escaping before she quietly walked downstairs.

Once downstairs, Dawn's attention was instantly drawn towards the kitchen by the sound of her brothers laughing and goofing around. Yup...still a bunch of goofballs. But they were her goofballs..or they had been at one time. She didn't have bad brothers, if anything she'd been lucky to have an older brother as cool as Jaden and Bryan..well he wasn't cool but he was alright. And Lucas..he was adorable. He'd always been the sweet one. Was that still true now? A tiny part of her wanted to go in the kitchen and find out, see if she could slip back into her role as the younger sibling again but a larger part of her just wanted to go, to run as fast and as far as she could. Sighing softly she shook of such thoughts and turned to find her dad, only she didn't have too walk far. She let out a soft grunt as she collided with her dad.

Nick had finally grown tired of waiting (and hoping) to see if Angela came back bu she didn't-there went those romantic ideas! Later she said, later after I eat. He might be a good guy, but over all he was still a guy....He was jarred out of his thoughts by the feel of someone running into him. He blinked mildly in surprise before realizing just who had run into him. Dawn! A bright smile flickered across his face before promptly disappearing as he noticed her gaze flying towards the door. Oh no, she wasn't running again was she? Was she upset again? Was something wrong? If so what? What was he going to have to do to keep her here safe and sound where she belonged? He'd just opened his mouth to start firing off these questions when Dawn spoke up while slowly edging towards the door.

"H-hey.. I'm just going out for some fresh air. I'm not really hungry. Mom said it was ok fro me to miss dinner...I won't leave the yard and I won't go near the woods. I promise. See you later." she rattled off the details before running towards the door, but Nick despite his age and bigger size beat her to it a faint smile gracing his features a she opened the door. "Oh? Well if you don't mind I'll come with you. There's something I wanted to show you. But..we'll have to leave the yard. That won't bother you will it?" he asked in a teasing tone.

Dawn hadn't expected that at all. She'd expected her mad to be somewhat upset or even worried. What ever the case she'd expected a speech or a rant. Or even a barrage of questions. Instead she only got that one. And he didn't seem mad, he just seemed happy..She hesitated slightly before slipping outside with her dad. it wasn't long before they stood at the edge of the woods, "So what did you want to show me?" she asked curiously. Nick gave her a soft smirk before he bounded forward. "You've gotta catch me to find out!" he called over his shoulder before easily shifting into his favorite form and disappearing further into the woods. Dawn didn't hesitate long before she shifted and took after her dad. It felt good to run again, earlier that day she'd ran out of fear but she wasn't now. Now she was just running for the joy of it. Actually she was running for her dad. Where had he gone? She'd just seen him and heard him..Whimpering low in her throat she turned in a circle her delicate canine nose twitching as she tried to pick up his scent. She'd just gotten a good hold on it when suddenly she was pinned to the ground by Nick...

Angela smiled softly and went into the kitchen "Thank you for cooking dinner tonight, it really means a lot to me. Your father and your sister are going to miss dinner for awhile. Let's go ahead and set aside some food for them now so we won't accidentally eat their portion" she suggested and began cutting up the meatloaf. "So... I think Dawn might be sticking around... maybe even permanently now. She'll probably feel out of place for awhile. She ran away because she felt like we didn't care about her anymore. You make sure that you make her feel loved when you see her. But don't overdo it. We want her to stay, not run off with fear" she instructed and began making a plate for herself.