A Little Late

"Yeah, yeah, things'll be... fine." Alec didn't sound to reassuring, but he tried. Once off the phone, he wanders back over to the table, hands on hips, and sighs. "How long's it been since you've eaten?"

Mackenzie lifts her head and shrugs. "I dunno. Since yesterday I guess."

Alec rolls his eyes and goes to the refrigerator. Searching for a moment, he goes for the milk, an apple and some peanut butter. Making fast work of it, he pours a small glass of milk before cleaning and slicing the apple. Bringing it all to the table, he sets a plate with the apple slices in front of Mackenzie, along with the milk, and opens up the jar of peanut butter.

Mackenzie quirks an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"What? You've never put peanut butter on apples?"

Mackenzie grimaces. "No. That's gross."

"Oh for Pete's sake." Alec pulls out a chair to sit next to her and takes an apple slice, dipping it into the peanut butter. Taking a bite, he nods. "Call me weird, but I like it. Last I knew though, you had the weird Banks gene too, so you might as well at least try it."

Challenged with belonging to the family, Mackenzie finally tries the snack. Glancing at Alec, she grins a little. "I guess it's not too bad."

"Ah. There, see? I knew you were my niece. This definitely proves it."

Mackenzie giggles a little before reaching for the glass and taking a long sip of milk.

Alec waits a few minutes before finishing the one slice of apple and just watching her eat. "So... you said you ran away from home 'cause they wouldn't let you see your dad anymore - but you hate his guts for leaving Misty anyway, so... what's the real deal here?"

Mackenzie shrugs again. "Nobody lets me do what I want. They treat me like a kid."

Alec smirks. "You are a kid, Blondie."

"Well, I shouldn't be." She scowls as she licks some peanut butter off her apple.

"So that family of yours - they're that bad, huh? Locking you up in a dungeon, I suppose? Scraps for meals, sharing a bed with rats and they beat you for no reason, huh?"

Mackenzie's eyes narrow at him. "I never said that."

"They why, pray tell, are you sitting here right now wanting me to feel sorry for you? You're just gonna get us both in trouble."

"I didn't know you were here, remember? I just wanted to see Misty."

"And what was she supposed to do?"

Mackenzie shrugs once more. "Who said I had to have a plan?"

"A Banks always has a plan." Hearing the front door open, Alec ceases the conversation. "In here," he calls to Misty. Seeing her come in, he lets the scene speak for itself.

Mackenzie turns around, her eyes widening a little. "Misty!" Excitement was evident in her voice. "Yeah, I'm okay." As Misty sits down next to her, she moves, almost as if she wants a hug, but something holds her back. "I just wanted to come see you. I didn't know Alec was living here too now."

Alec sits back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. "She ran away from home again. They won't let her see her dad since he's being an idiot and-"

"He's not an idiot!" Mackenzie snaps.

Alec doesn't flinch. "He is, and you know it."

Tears pool in the girl's eyes. "Yeah well I've heard some not-so-great things about you, too."

Alec leans forward to rest his arms on the table, lowering his eyes to her level. "I told you once before that I was a bad person, so your observation doesn't bother me a bit. But you gotta know that your parents were probably smart in not letting you see Carson anymore. It was for your own good and you know it."

Mackenzie takes another sip of her milk, willing herself not to cry. She looks back at Misty pleadingly. "I just missed seeing you, and my parents don't understand. They won't let me do anything."

Alec straightens back up, catching Misty's eye. "She tells me they've been forcing her to see a counselor. She's got his number on her but she won't give it to me."

Mackenzie frowns. "Justin will just tell my parents anyway."

Alec looks back to Misty. Justin? Justin Hawks? The same guy who had worked with Scott? She probably knew about the guy, since it sounded like Mackenzie had been seeing him since before Carson had left. But did she know anything else?

Smiling at his daughter, Jeff reaches over to take Katie's hand, giving it a squeeze. "I'd like nothing more than some father daughter time."

He gives her a wink. "I'm gonna miss you too - but that just means that I'll have to visit all the sooner. Besides - I bet you're gonna be kept way too busy to think too much about back here. They're probably pulling their hair out down at the Elite without you there."

Maybe it was just a lame attempt to convince Katie she'd be fine and fall back into her routine at home again. He knew she didn't like being separated from her family, but that was life. She could always quit the Elite too, but he had a feeling she wouldn't. Last he knew, she loved her job too much for that anyway. Of course... that was when she'd been close to Jason.

Letting the subject go for now, Jeff eats breakfast with Katie, soon joined by Hunter as well. The three were able to chat a bit before Katie's other friends showed up too and the crowd became bigger. It would be later in the day when Jeff would catch up to Katie again for that walk.

"Hey.... Sis?"

Rosalyn continues to wipe down the dining room tables with the wet cloth, having taken the initiative to clean after lunch. She hadn't seen much of Chad except from a distance, catching his eye every once in a while, and dying to talk to him again. As luck would have it, Clint was interrupting her thoughts once more. "Yes, dear brother?"

"Uh... you got a minute?"

She looks over her shoulder to see him leaning on the back of a chair, shifting his weight rather nervously. "I guess so. What is it?"

Clint shrugs and continues fiddling with one of the chairs. "I, um... well I just wanted to talk to you about something."

Rosalyn sets one hand on her hip, the washcloth in the other. She really didn't have time for beating around the bush, but she holds back her annoyance. It wasn't often her brother looked so serious. "Yes? I'm listening."

"Well, it's just..." He shrugs again. "You know... me and Wendy... well, be both started out doing something stupid, ya know?"

Rosalyn blinks. Yes, everybody knew. "Uh... yeah. I sorta figured that one out."

"Oh, I'm happy now, don't get me wrong." Clint wouldn't trade Chase for the world. "It's just... well at the time, we sorta both lost our heads there in the heat of the moment and-"

Rosalyn holds up her hand. "Clint, spare me the details. You got your girlfriend pregnant. Now what is this about? I know she's pregnant again, but you are married, so I hardly have anything to be upset about."

Clint's face flushes slightly. He and Rosalyn were close, but they'd never talked about anything like this before. "It's not about me," he backtracks. "I mean, it was, so I know how it started off bad, and I do regret it, but not now. I mean it's not about me now."

Rosalyn's brow furrows as she tries to figure out what he was saying. "Okay..."

Clint purses his lips, his eyes showing genuine concern. "I just... don't want you to make the same mistake I did."

Rosalyn's eyes widen slightly. "Excuse me?"

"Or Wendy," he corrects. "I mean... since, you being a girl and... well..." His face grows redder. "I just don't wanna see you have the same regrets we do. You know..."

Setting the cloth aside, Rosalyn folds her arms. She really had no idea why this subject had come up. "I know.... what?"

"What I mean."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm just looking out for you!" Clint gestures with his hands, trying to explain without using blunt vocabulary. "Just making sure you aren't... you know what I mean!"

Rosalyn rolls her eyes. "If you're trying to explain the facts of life, I'm afraid you're a little late."

Clint's eyes widen. "I... I'm.... you've..."

"No!" Rosalyn's own eyes were just as wide. "That's not what I meant, pervert. I meant I have all the information I need, thank you. But why on earth are you telling me all this?"

Clint's cheeks had grown a little more hot. "I was just... worried."

"About me? With this sort of thing? Why?"

"Well I... I saw you leaving Chad's bunkhouse last night."

Rosalyn's face immediately transforms from light red to deep crimson. She had hoped that her brother's look to her this morning hadn't meant anything. But apparently when he couldn't sleep and had been out and about, he'd spotted her. "And you think that we... that I... you... seriously?!"

"It was three in the morning!" Clint throws up his hands. "I thought you were smarter than that, but it sure didn't look like it!"

"I can't believe we're having this conversation."

"I was just trying to help!"

"Well you didn't do a very good job." Rosalyn's eyes narrow. "Do you really have that much time on your hands that you sit around sticking your nose into other people's businesses?"

"I'm sorry!" Clint shoves the chair back into the table and huffs and frustrated sigh. "What was I supposed to think? If you weren't sleeping with him, then what were you doing there until the wee hours of the morning?!"

Rosalyn picks up the washcloth to resume her work - cleaning the tables a bit more vigorously now. "Not that you need to know, but we were talking and playing some cards. I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was asleep too, and I left. End of story."

Clint was relieved to hear that, and he did believe her. Except now he'd really made a mess. "I guess I'll never quit being the dumb one, will I?"

Rosalyn pauses her work and sighs at him. "I appreciate your effort, Clint. But you have nothing to worry about, okay? I don't plan on making that mistake."

"I didn't either..."

Rosalyn catches her brother's eye and gives him a weary sort of smile. "I know. Thanks for being my big brother. But as far as Chad and I are concerned, you don't need to think any more about it. Nothing happened, and nothing is gonna happen. Besides all that, he's leaving tomorrow anyway."

"Mm." Clint cocks his head. "Sad?"

"Who, me?" She rolls her eyes. "Guests come and go all the time. He's nice, I'll grant him that, and he's a flatterer, but I fell asleep while playing a game with him - what does that tell you? I'm sure it looked like something bad last night, and that was my own stupid fault. But really... there's nothing to worry about," she repeats.

"Yeah... okay." Clint gives her a sheepish glance. "I better get back to work."

"That's probably a good idea."

"And you don't need to... uh... tell anybody about... you know..."

Rosalyn grins. "Oh don't worry. You wouldn't catch me dead repeating this conversation." Only when she's alone again does her smile fade from her face. For one, she was more embarrassed than she'd let on - she knew she and Chad had done nothing wrong, but she still felt that same guilt, at least for what it had looked like. And for another thing, she'd led her brother on. She had unexplained feelings churning beneath the surface, and whatever had sparked between her and Chad was far from anything as boring as she'd implied. What was true though, was that he really was leaving tomorrow, and she knew that would end this little whirlwind of poetry and flattery...

...Walking amidst the small grove of apple trees, Rosalyn's mind wanders. She didn't usually just go off on her own, but today, it was too difficult to concentrate on her tasks. She was thinking about Chad... a lot. And her conversation with Clint was still bothering her. It all felt like one big mess, even though nothing was really going on at all. Maybe it was just all in her head. She was making a big deal out of nothing. Well... not really nothing. There was definitely something.

Leaning back against a tree, she looks up at the ripening apples. She should pick some to make something special. Although she didn't make as good of desserts as her mom did.

Sighing, she closes her eyes and just lets the warm breeze wash over her. What was Chad doing now? Where was he? Was he thinking of her? Did he want to see her again? Would she get to see him again before he left? Did he feel badly for her request to keep it all a secret?