Billy shook his head. "No no, you're my guest, you don't do any bit of work while you're here. Besides, I have to put it all away so the children have something to eat when they come home." He stood. "Speaking of my children, my Gavin is 18, is that closer to your age? Maybe I'll introduce you to him the next time you're in town."

He took the dirty dishes off the table first and placed them into the sink before making his way back to the table and taking the pasta and sauce to the icebox. "He's a good man. Works down at the docks, mostly keeps to himself, not a big drinker or gambler. A father couldn't ask for a much better kid to be honest, but I'm sure there are things I've missed. My wife and daughters certainly know more about my son than I do. He is a mystery to me. Just too quiet. I'm sure you can tell, I'm not exactly the quiet type myself."

He chuckled as he began to wash the dishes they had used for the evening.

"Do you like to read, or listen to music at all? We could sit in the den quietly or listen to the radio for a bit before we head up to bed if you'd like. My Tara had a good number of books stored away all over the house, maybe there's something that will match your interest."

She really wanted to help but he wouldn't let her, he basically snatched the plate of her hand. Clearly he wasn't kidding, he was quite persistent and she wasn't going to fight him on it. So she sat back down and listened to him talk while he was cleaning up. He started talking about his son Gavin, which piqued her interest. Especially when he told her that he was 18.

"Oh, he's my age. I turned 18 a couple months ago."

He looked back and gave her a smile then continued to talk about him. He seemed to know quite a bit about him even though he claimed he was a mystery to him. She knew that he knew more then he thought he did. It was something that made her smile, it was the little things about this guy that she really liked. She had only known him a couple hours now but already got the feeling he was quite in tune with his family. It was a great quality to have and the topper, he made her feel truly welcomed in his house. A complete stranger to him mere hours ago.

"I think I may just have to come back to meet everyone, sounds like you have such a delightful family. That is if you'd have me back of course." She wasn't sure if he had heard the last comment she made as he went back into doing the dishes.  

"Do you like to read, or listen to music at all? We could sit in the den quietly or listen to the radio for a bit before we head up to bed if you'd like. My Tara had a good number of books stored away all over the house, maybe there's something that will match your interest." Billy asked her as he paused while cleaning up.

"I mean I like music but I don't have a radio so I don't listen to much. I do like to read when I have down time, which sadly hasn't happened in a while. It's ok though, we can do whatever you usually do before you sleep. I'm down for whatever, don't let me disrupt your routine."

Billy frowned then. "I'm afraid my routine has already been disrupted. My wife and children aren't home and I have no way to contact them. You're not a wife or mother yet, but I'm sure you've got an idea at least of what that must be like."

He dried his hands on the towel hanging there for that purpose and then turned and gestured toward the Den.

"Why don't we put on some music then, and listen. Maybe have a drink and talk about something about you for a change. I've bored you enough with my family for tonight." He smiled and started in that direction.

The den was a simple affair, a couple of couches, bookshelves lining the room, a single desk tucked away against the window clearly full of paperwork that Billy hadn't gone over yet. The liquor cabinet was on the opposite side of the room as the desk, closer to the fireplace, and next to it sat the radio and record player.

"Go ahead, put on whatever you'd like, and get yourself a nightcap. I'll start a fire, I doubt I'll be able to go to bed until my family gets home anyway."

Melanie shook her head from side to side, she really didn't know what that was like. It was a well distant memory of the good part of her childhood, memories that almost didn't exist inside her mind anymore. She didn't comment any further on it though, she just made her way over to the radio. It was a rather big unit and quite fancy, it was an Atwater Kent. Was a brand she hadn't even heard of but regardless it was nice. There were a lot of buttons and she really didn't know how to use it but wasn't going to ask how.

Firstly she searched for the power button, which wasn't too hard to find. Once it was on music already started playing, it was from whatever station it was on from the last person who used it. It wasn't the best music but it was music so it worked. "How's this?" She asked Billy, he gave her a simple nod and continued to work on the fire.

She then made her way over to the liquor cabinet, found a bottle of red wine that was already opened and poured a small bit into a glass. She took the glass in her hand and walked over to the chair next to where Billy was tending to the fire. She was about to sit down but figured she'd ask him if he wanted something to drink as well.

"Do you want me to pour you something?" He nodded, "Whiskey please." Melanie placed her glass on the table next to the chair and went back to the liquor cabinet to pour him a glass. She got back to him just as he was sitting up from getting the fire started. She extended the glass to him, he grabbed it and thanked her then ushered her to take a seat. He then took the seat adjacent to her. They both sat there silent for a couple moments, just listening to the music softly playing in the background.

After a moment she took a sip from her glass, keeping the glass in her hand when she was done.

"So, you said you want to know about me? There isn't much too my life but what would you like to know?"

Billy sipped at his whiskey as the music played in the background, but his ears were trained to listen for a car engine, a door, the latch on the front door of the house, anything. It's why he almost forgot Melanie was there, almost jumped out of his skin when she spoke up.

"Um, Seattle. Tell me about Seattle. I had a friend from there once, she was a doctor, well, sort of. She was also the owner of a span and restaurant. You ever been to a place like that?"

He sipped again, and did not close his eyes this time as he listened to Melanie with one ear, and to the night outside with the other.

Him jumping made her jump slightly, well she really didn't jump but her heart definitely started beating just a bit faster. He was definitely in his own head about something, probably his family. She was about to inquire to him about it but just before she could he asked her about Seattle.

"Seattle..." She had to give it some thought, she had been living there for about 11 years now and well she had a hard time putting it into words.

"Uh, well Seattle is... Seattle... It's hard to explain, I mean it is nice or has nice parts to it. Really it's just like any other place I would imagine, well then again it's not like New York. At least what I've seen of this place. Seattle isn't nearly as big but I'm sure they're a lot a like?"

She sat back and tried to think of the place he had mentioned but it didn't ring a bell to her.

"I've never heard of that place, it sounds rather fancy. Probably was somewhere downtown, I didn't frequent downtown."

She was gonna go more into it but could see Billy glaring out the front window.

"Everything ok?" She asked him.

Billy nodded. "Just worried. You'll get there one day too. Care enough about someone and you're bound to worry." He turned back to her then and shook his head. "Wasn't downtown though, for the record. It was actually on the outskirts of town, up in the woods. Redwoods actually. The place was built out of the trees that were felled to clear the land for it. And there was this natural hot spring it was built around, and a glass ceiling inside. Oh it was gorgeous. I only saw it once, but I saw it at night and it was really beautiful."

He felt himself getting choked up over the thought that Emily was gone. Just like Rayne was gone. Just like Kenzi was gone. Just like Bella was gone. Just like Gavin was gone. Just like Tara was gone. Just like his own father was gone. He downed the rest of his whiskey and got up to get himself another. All the while realizing that the irony of the situation was not lost on him. He was sitting in his den, his office, telling a stranger about people that used to exist in his life. Same as his mother-in-law once did to him. She had her list, now he had his. He was never less envious of Bella than in this moment, and before he knew it, the second glass of whiskey was half gone.

"Sorry, just a long night of worrying and thinking I think, and this helps." He raised the glass. "Liquid courage they call alcohol. I've never really needed it to be courageous when putting my life on the line. I've been shot, twice in fact, never needed drinking then. Nope, apparently I need the courage to face the world alone. Not sure anyone has the courage to do that."

He looked out the window again and whispered under his breath a plea to his wife. "Come home Roar, just please bring the kids, and come home to me."

As if summoned, the door flew open in the front parlor.  Isabella ran up the stairs, sobbing, Jack marched dutifully behind her.  Aurora came in, flanked by Dewey and Fin who looked ready to be sick.

"I expect to see you at seven-thirty sharp tomorrow morning."  She said putting her leather jacket on the coat rack.  

The two bodyguards looked at each other, surprised, but simply mumbled - "Yes, Ma'am."

Aurora waved her hand dismissively and the two exited the building without further question or comment.  Rora dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, guns in her shoulder holster walked into the room, not prepared for the presence of a guest.  She was already speaking to her husband before she took in the full situation, "You're not going to believe the night I've ha-"

Aurora stopped walking and pushed some of her long black hair behind her ear, "I'm sorry.  I didn't realize you had a guest."  She said to her husband, though her eyes remained on the other woman.

Just as she was about to speak up when the front door could be heard forcefully opening up. Followed by the sobbing of someone, the loud footsteps of another and the powerful voice of who she could only presume was Billy's wife. A slight sense of fear and panic went through her body, she figured eventually his wife would come home but the way she came in wasn't how she was expecting. 

Maybe it was the guns in her shoulder holster or perhaps just the entire situation at hand but boy did she feel out of place. Every part of her wanted to get up and just leave but she knew there was no way of doing that, not with her standing in the doorway. The only way to exit the room. Their eyes locked on to one another as his wife was talking to him but gazing at her.

It was quite nerve racking and she truly didn't know what to do, so she did nothing. Just sat there, her heart beating loudly. Almost felt like was about to explode out of her chest. Out of the corner of her eyes she gave Billy a look then focused immediately back on the woman in front of her. She wanted to speak but didn't know what to say.

This was the time for Billy to speak up, every second he didn't seemed like an eternity...

Billy sighed heavily and put his drink down before walking over to his wife and pulling her into an embrace.

"Until tonight I never realized how worried I would be while you weren't home till very late. Are the children alright? I heard Bella crying so I assume they are ok, but tell me what happ..."

He remembered then that Melanie was there, just waiting for some confirmation that this was going to be alright. So, he turned and looked to her and nodded.

"Melanie, this is my beautiful wife Aurora, Roar, this is Melanie, she works for John out in Seattle. We met in the park after I was visiting Brigitte, she was in some trouble so I offered to bring her home, get her showered and changed into clean clothes and feed her. We made pasta and my red sauce, do you want me to heat you up something?"

He held Aurora by the shoulders then and looked at her.

"You haven't eaten since lunch probably, judging by the fact that nothing was ready or taken out for dinner. I'll go get you something." He nodded and made his way out into the hall then to the kitchen to fix his wife a plate for dinner. "You two can come into the kitchen with me and we can talk together, or you can chit-chat in there, up to you!" He called back through the house as he pulled on his apron.

"Nice to meet you Melanie."  She nodded towards her husband, "Shall we..."  Aurora followed Billy.  

"So, you had some trouble in the park?  I am very sorry to hear that.  I'd like to think at some point we'll have things under control enough in this city that any woman will be able to take a walk at night safely.  We all need to make our bones but some things are reprehensible and the amount of violence done to women in this city is disgusting in the extreme."

Aurora slid up onto a barstool to watch Billy working.  "My husband and  I hope to curb some of that in short order though.  Already I know Catalina is hard at work.  Ideally, your next visit to New York will be a better one."

She looked out at Billy, "I'm sorry I didn't call the office to let you know about the kids.  I had hoped the trip to pick them up was going to be a simple matter but... when I realized what they had done, well, I thought maybe a point needed to be made.  Isabella took it harder than expected but perhaps that's for the best.  My hope is they never try something like this again."

She inhaled.  "God, that does smell good.  I guess I'm more hungry than thought.  How was your day, by the way; other than saving young women in the park I mean."

Billy shrugged. "Honestly, pretty normal an boring until I got home. I did get to visit Brigitte though. She said she might have lined up a..." He tipped some of the pasta back into a pot for his wife, heating it up for her with some sauce. "...I think she called it a part. It's a job from what I understand though. She tried to tell me it's not the same, but it's the same."

He looked to Melanie then. "You sure you don't want any more? There's plenty and I can heat some up for you too. Real easy you know." He looked to Aurora. "She was a nice help in the kitchen tonight, cut up the pepperoni and the onion for me, though she got real sad about the onion." He smirked to the young companion in the room and spoke to nobody in particular. "We were talking earlier about all the kids, and Melanie is very near Gavin's age it turns out." He let that hang in the air to judge what his wife might think about her little bambino and girls. He was an adult now after all.

"Speaking of which, where is Gavin tonight? I didn't see him at Brigitte's and I thought he was with you after I got home."

"Oh!  Well, you'd like my Gavin.  He's a good boy.  Strong.  Straightforward and polite.  A real hard worker who cares about people too, the sort of friend anyone would be lucky to have - just like his father."

Aurora winked at Billy.

"Though if you believe Clarence he's been visiting a certain diner for all his lunch breaks.  Apparently there's some waitress there who has been really nice to him of late."  She shakes her head.  "Not sure how I feel about that... I'm planning to ask him about this girl on Sunday."

She waves a hand dismissively,  "Anyway, it's my understanding he and some of the guys from the docks were going out tonight to someplace called Hank's?  I gather it's a billiards hall down by SBMT.  He's been making a lot of friends lately.  Spending less time with Brigitte I think."  

Melanie smiled then got up from the chair to introduce herself, glass of wine still in her hand. She followed the pair into the kitchen. She was still rather quiet, the whole situation had her a bit timid. She really didn't know what to do or how to even present herself after the introduction. Thankfully for her, Aurora seemed quite welcoming. It must have just been the stress of the day that led to the awkward initial moments or perhaps it wasn't awkward. Perhaps it was just how she perceived it.

They all made their way to the kitchen, Melanie last in line of course to enter but pulled up the seat next to Aurora. She sat there quietly as the two talked back and fourth. Billy made the joke about the onion which made Melanie chuckle then when he offered her some more to eat she shook her head. "No thank you, I'm still full from earlier."

After that she went silent once again and just listened to them talking to each other. It had been... well she couldn't even remember the last time she had been in a family setting like this. It was a bit foreign to her, odd but in the same aspect rather pleasant. Remembering she still had the glass of wine in her hand, Melanie brought the glass to her lips and look a sip.

That's when the pair started talking about Gavin, it was a conversation that she listened to intently.

Billy nodded as he pulled out a plate for Aurora and made his way to the bread box to get her a piece of bread for dipping into the sauce.

"Speaking of Sunday, Melanie, would you like to come to dinner? If you're in town it would be nice. We'll have the living room done by then and you can meet the whole family, Gavin included." He smiled and pulled a small metal basket from near the stove placing it over the pot with the pasta he dropped the bread into the basket so that the heat and steam from the cooking food would warm up the bread for her.

"Do you want butter for the bread hun, or are you just going to dip it in the sauce?" He reached into the cabinet and grabbed a bottle of olive oil too. "Or oil?"

"Oh, butter sounds amazing right now."  She said with a smile.  "And tell me we have something chocolate around here for dessert.  I have literally been thinking about chocolate for hours.  If not, I'm definitely getting ingredients for brownies tomorrow."

She glanced back to their guest, "So you work for John Walton, eh?  A damn fine man.  Was a business partner to our goddaughter Harlow.  May she rest in peace."  She crossed herself.

"Do you mind if I ask what sort of work you do out there?"  

Melanie placed the glass on the counter in front of her, they were both looking at her right now. It was as if she was on a stage and the spotlight was directly on her. Though this time for some reason she felt a bit more comfortable, perhaps the wine was having a slight effect or maybe she was just comfortable with the situation now.

Billy asked her about Sunday dinner, it was an offer that she would have loved to take up but just wasn't sure if she'd be able to get back to New York that quickly. It would have had to been a trip she would have to fund herself and just to be able to get away from Seattle was hard enough. "I'd love to come Sunday but I'm not I'd be able to get back here from Seattle that quickly. If I can somehow figure it out I will and would love to."

The smell of the food was in the air, it smelled just as good as it did earlier. Perhaps a little bit more wouldn't hurt she thought to herself but then again she didn't want to ask for it. That's when Aurora gave her a glance and inquired about John Walton and about what sort of work she does out there in Seattle for Mr. Walton.

"I'm sorry for your loss, I truly am." Aurora gave her a nod. "I uh... just sort of run errands for him. At least that's what I'm told they are, he actually never really asks me himself. It's usually one of his men that does. I'm just trying to get a head in life, doing what I have to in order to make a living. Working for Mr. Walton has been more financially profitable then anything else I've ever done."

Billy brought the butter over to the counter where Aurora and Melanie were sitting before he took the heated bread and pasta off the stove and put it on a plate for his wife.

"Financially profitable? That really all it takes to get you out here for a Sunday dinner? I could make a phone call and pay you whatever John could for a month just to get you out here if that's the problem."

Billy winked and then walked over and grabbed another loaf of bread, in case Melanie changed her mind and was still hungry. On the way back he grabbed the olive oil and the pepper grinder.

"So just running errands? You know, I might have an errand for you to run back to John if you're up for it." Billy quirked an eyebrow up as if to ad emphasis to the question.

There was a brief period of silence as Billy and Aurora both glanced over at Melanie. Seems this Sunday dinner was kind of a big deal, though it was something that she really didn't understand. More then likely it was just from her lack of a family for the past 11 years, she was used to fending and just being by herself.

"This Sunday dinner thingy is kind of important, huh?" Melanie questioned, both Billy and Aurora in a synchronized fashion nodded. She could tell Aurora wanted to say something but was waiting to finish chewing the piece of bread in her mouth. Billy in the meantime shot her a wink, then brought up her errands and then possibly running an errand for him back to John. It wasn't even a thought in her mind but it made perfect sense, basically double up the work and double the work meant double the money...

"Oh you do? What kind of errand?" Her interest was piqued.

Billy smiled his goofy grin then and put up a single finger. "Hold that thought, I'll bring it out to you." He made his way into the den and grabbed a briefcase carrying it back out into the kitchen again.

"Just deliver this to john for me. It's not a real big deal, all things considered, but he and I do well enough together. Problem is, since I've moved further east it's made it more difficult to find ways to get his investments back to him."

He slid the briefcase onto the floor by Melanie's feet and then stood again.

"So now that you have that, if I know John, he's going to want to re-invest, and that means sending something back my way. Since you've already got a relationship, well why not send you right?"

Billy winked and then took out an envelope from the drawer nearest the stove. "And this is yours for the trouble." He slid it across to Melanie and then nodded to his wife. "I know it's reheated, but how's the pasta?"