I'll be there for you: Cause you're there for me too -- TBD

I smiled at Elliot and thanked her for the picture.  "Thank you, sweetie," I said to her.  "This will be the first picture I'll have for the room I'm staying in!"  I heard Lincoln answer Abel and I tried not to read into the fact that he did not say 'we'.  I could not blame him.  He had no idea who I was... he had this idea of the boy I used to be in his head that probably never changed at all.  I understood it, though.

I grinned and looked at everyone.  "He should stay here!  He knows Lincoln, yea?" I said.

I laughed at Elliot's reason that Austin should stay and nodded. "Well, if Elliot wants you to stay, then you're staying." I said to him with a smile. I turned to Elliot. "And yes, Lincoln does know Mr. Austin, but it's a bit of a long story, okay sweetie?"

I turned to my husband and pretended to think about the options for dinner, "I vote pizza. We wouldn't want to scare Mr. Austin away with Lincoln's cooking now would we?" I asked the kids with a laugh. Of course I was joking, Lincoln was a pretty good cook, better than me sometimes, but I wanted to have a special dinner for the kids. "What do you guys think?"

When the vote seemed unanimous, I grinned.  "Alright, pizza it is," I agreed.  I knew the kids would always vote pizza.  I looked at Austin and could see that he was a bit surprised by me agreeing with them in having him stay for at least supper.

This was a lot harder than I ever thought it would be.  I knew that it was horrible what had happened to Lincoln.  He seemed to be doing alright.  "Since there's not much I can do to help with pizza... is there anything you'd like help with?  Perhaps getting the kids washed up before dinner?" I offered, just remembering the routine that had been drilled into mine and Lincoln's heads while we were younger and what Uncle Chris -- that bastard -- always had me do while growing up.

I looked at Mr. Austin and laughed a bit.  "You have to wash up, too?  Linc and June do that all the time with us!" I said, really liking this guy.

I looked at Austin and was a bit surprised.  "Erm, yeah," I said to him as Elliot was already trying to take him away to the restroom where they would wash up.