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String Bean!










Kevin stayed downstairs for a long while, giving AJ time to calm Nicky down before he tried to talk to the kid. He felt horrible for putting his baby brother through that, but it had to be done. He took a deep breath still not believing how easily it had been to lure Nick away from the front porch without even yelling in to AJ. What if Matt were the real deal? He would have been gone before AJ had time to react. Then if AJ had jumped on a real kidnapper’s back he could have been taken as well or just left for dead. Kevin sighed again, seems like he would have to make two speeches today.



“I guess I should go up and smooth things over before my mom gets home and kicks my ass.”



“Are you gonna tell her about what happened?”



“I don’t want to, she’ll only worry about Nicky but she needs to know how easy it was to get him to walk away.” He felt himself getting mad at Nick all over again.



“Kevin, I’ll talk to him if you want. Sometimes it’s easier when it comes from someone else.”



“You are more than welcome to join us, but I think I should be the one to talk to him.”



Howie nodded, Kevin could still tell that he whole heartedly disagreed with what he had done.



They made their way upstairs, trying to be quiet as they reached the top. Nick’s door was a hair opened where he was sitting on AJ’s lap on the bed. His back was turned away from the door but when AJ heard them he looked over and smiled.



Kevin took in the sight of his little brothers. AJ always tried so hard to act like a bad ass, but seeing him now the way he was gently rubbing Nick’s back as the child cried brought him down to the sweet gentle hearted and kind AJ he remembered living with. Then there was Nicky who looked so tiny sitting there rubbing at his eyes while he wept silently. He was sad to see how hard his brother was taking this. He hoped he didn’t permanently scar the kid for life.



“Hi Kevin.” AJ whispered which had the little one turn around.



“Hey guys,” Kevin said slowly walking into the room with Howie following.



“Go away! You’re mean and I don’t like you anymore!” Nick huffed getting down off AJ’s lap and walking over to the corner of the room and sitting down facing his bookshelf.



“Nicky…come on buddy you don’t mean that,” Kevin said walking towards Nick who refused to look at him. In frustration Kevin turned back towards AJ and sat down next to him on the bed.



“Kev…Nicky seems to think that the reason you asked Matt to do that was because you don’t want him here anymore. He thought you were trying to give him away,” AJ whispered to his brother while Howie walked over and sat down on the floor next to Nick.



“What? How could he think that?”



“Gee…I don’t know maybe because a friend of yours tried to abduct him with your permission.”



“Nicky…hey!”



“I’m done with you!” Nick said in a serious tone sticking his hand up in a stop gesture, but because of the words coming out of such a small mouth, it came out sounding very funny which had both Howie and AJ laugh.



Kevin didn’t find it funny at all though, “Nick…I would never want anyone to take you. I love you, you know that right?” Nick got on his knees from a sitting position and grabbed a book off the shelf.



“Right?” Kevin said now allowing himself to drop to the floor and scoot over towards his baby brother.



Finally Nick glanced at all of the older people in the room before making eye contact with Kevin who looked lost.



“Why did you want him to take me away?”



“I didn’t want him to take you away. I was hoping you’d run into the house or yell for help or something. We talked about not going with strangers just the other day Nick…don’t you remember?”



“But he wasn’t a stranger, he said his name was Matt and he was my friend.”



“Nicky he wasn’t your friend. You didn’t know him and he tried to steal you!” Kevin raised his voice.



“Don’t yell at me! I don’t like when you do that,” Nick said turning back towards the shelf.



“Okay…sorry,” He instantly lowered his voice.



“Damn, I have to try that sometime.”



“AJ not now!” Kevin said turning towards his brother and glaring.



“So because I went with Matt you hate me right?” Nick said, a new batch of tears coming to his eyes.



“No, Nicky do you think I would ever hate you?” By now Kevin had successfully scooted over to his brother and pulled him onto his lap.



“I don’t know…”



“The answer is no. I love you and that’s why I did that. What if Matt was a bad man and he took you? You’d never see me or AJ or Brian or mom again.”



“He only wanted to show me puppies,” Nick sounded confused. Kevin wasn’t sure how much of this was sinking into the second grader’s brain. Nick tended to get his feelings hurt very easily. The type of kid who would cry if the teacher started screaming at the class thinking it was all directed at him. The fact that he was focusing more on Kevin wanting Matt to take him wasn’t sitting right with the FBI agent.



“Did he show you puppies Nicky?” Now it was Howie trying to come to the rescue. Nick looked over at Howie and shook his head.



“Just because someone says they have something for you to see or just because someone introduces themselves to you doesn’t make them a friend.”



“But he was nice.”



“Nick there are a lot of nice people out there who look at someone like you, this beautiful blue eyed blonde kid and say I want me one of those and they say anything they can to get you to follow them.” Kevin nodded at AJ as he sunk to the floor as well.



“AJ is right Nick…if someone wants something badly enough they’ll do anything to get it. Including you baby,” Kevin said pulling Nick into a hug.



“But he made it seem like he wanted my help and that he was a nice guy.”



“Hey you know what Nick…from now one let’s say we have a password just that we know and we’ll tell mom and Brian about it too and when you meet someone you don’t know before going with them you have to ask them for the password but if they don’t know it you can’t go with them.” Both Kevin and Howie looked shocked when it was AJ that said that.



“What? Don’t be so shocked I have a brain too you know. And it’s a much better plan then let’s say… abducting the kid! Jerk!” Kevin ignored AJ’s last statement and turned back to Nick.



“I think that’s a great idea AJ, so what should our word be Nicky? You can pick it.”



Nick put his hand on his chin and looked up towards the ceiling trying to think of a good word to use. Finally he smiled and said, “How about string bean!”



“String bean?” Kevin asked laughing.



“Yes, I always thought that word was funny.”



“Would you remember that word and remember to ask someone you didn’t know what the word was before you trusted them?” Nick nodded, so Kevin looked over at AJ.



“What about you? Think you can remember that?”



“Kev…does he really need to ask me what the password is? Now that’s a bit anal don’t you think?”



“Anal…I like that word too.” Howie and AJ both laughed.



“No way Nicky, string bean it is,” Kevin said glaring back at both of the guys.



Nick pressed his head into Kevin’s chest looking up at his older brother, which melted Kevin’s heart. “So you aren’t mad at me anymore?” Kevin asked glaring lovingly back down at the blue eyes staring him in the face.



“No, I guess not…but I don’t like when you yell at me and do mean things like that so please don’t do that anymore.”



“I promise as long as you promise that if a stranger ever talks to you that you don’t go with them! In fact I think you need to promise all of us that.”



“Even Howie?”



“Yes, even Howie. He loves you too and would hate if anything happened to you.”



“You love me D?” Nick said looking over at Howie and smiling at him.



“Of course I do Nicky and so does my mom. She wants me to squeeze you for her, so come here so I can do that please.” Nick stood up giggling and walked over to Howie who grabbed him into his arms and squeezed him tickling him under the neck as he did.



“Hey since when did the little munchkin’s room become the hot hang out in this house?” Brian said walking into the room and laughing at everyone all over the floor.



“Hey Brian…come join the party!” Nick said as Howie tickled his stomach.



“Actually I hate to break the bonding session going on here but Nick… mom wants you to help her put away groceries and AJ she told me to remind you to take out the garbage.”



“Way to come in and blow all the fun Rok! Why do I have to take out the garbage?”



“Because it’s your turn and I just went shopping with mom.”



“Whatever man.” It was weird to see the sudden transformation back to bad ass once Brian walked into the room.



“Okay let’s go squirt!” AJ said walking over to Nick and helping him off the floor.



“Kay…” Nick walked over to Kevin and gave him a kiss on the cheek.



Kevin lovingly pat Nicky’s shoulder as he passed by, “I still haven’t heard you say that you promise us.”



“I promise,” Nick said holding up the Boy Scout symbol even though he wasn’t a boy scout. Kevin nodded at him and Howie winked.



“AJ what does anal mean?” Nick asked as they walked out of the room together, which had Howie crack up.



Brian smiled too at that, “Should I even ask?”



“Long story...actually I need to talk to you for a sec take a seat on the floor here.”



“I’ll take a seat at the desk if you don’t mind,” He said scrunching down into the mini sized chair that was next to the mini sized desk. Once again Howie cracked up.



“Glad to see my family provides you with so much comic relief D.” Kevin shook his head at his best friend.



“Did something go down while we were gone?” Brian asked as he did his best to make himself comfortable in the teeny chair.



“Man I can’t believe I used to sit at this thing all the time when I was little. It’s elf small!”



“Brian focus please!”



Brian rolled his eyes at his big brother, “Sorry, so I’m taking it that something happened while we were gone?”



“Kind of yes.”



“Is everything okay now?”



“It will be as long as we keep an eye on Nick. He walked away with a complete stranger today!”



Suddenly all of the color flew out of Brian’s face; he gasped, mouth opened in horror. “AJ was supposed to be watching him!”



“I know and he was, I asked someone I work with to try to lure Nick off the porch and it took all of about 7 minutes for him to do that.”



“7 minutes? And you asked someone to lure him off the porch?” Brian said shock still evident on his face.



“Yes, so we came up with a password for Nick to use before he trusts people. He chose string bean.”



“Okay…yeah string bean, I’ll remember that. 7 minutes huh?”



Kevin nodded, “Oh and don’t yell at AJ, he already feels bad enough about it. I think he learned his lesson as well.”



“Mom’s going to blow a casket when she finds out.”



“I know, but maybe that’s what Nick needs, for mom to yell at him.”



“I wasn’t talking about him…I was talking about you!”



Kevin stood up and helped Brian off of the tiny chair before going down stairs where they saw Nick standing on a stool placing the boxes of cereal his mom was handing to him onto the shelves.



When she turned around and saw Howie she raced over and pulled him into a hug.



“Howie I’m so glad you said yes to my invitation!”



“I wouldn’t miss your cooking for the world Mama R.” She smiled and kissed the top of his head.



“I’m going to start cooking in a little while, why don’t you boys go put in a movie or something.”



“Actually mom I have to talk to you for a sec,” Kevin said hesitantly as if he was about to tell his mom he had gotten in trouble at school.



Howie and Brian walked into the living room and joined AJ who had already flipped a random movie on.



“Okay thanks for being such a good helper sweetheart.” She said turning towards her youngest son and helping him down off the stool.



“Love you mommy.” She picked him up and grabbed him into a huge bear hug.



“I love you more,” She said rubbing noses together.



Nick giggled, “Eskimo kisses.”



“Yes for my little polar bear, now go keep an eye on those kids in there Nick. Let me know if they get out of hand.”



She softly tapped his butt as he ran into the living room, and then she turned her attention back to Kevin. “What’s wrong baby?”



Kevin walked closer to his mom; he loved the way she smelled. She always wore this lilac body spray from her favorite store and even when he was still a child, when he took in her scent he always thought about spring, no matter what the season or weather outside.



As he told his mother what had happened earlier with Nick, her facial expression turned from shock to anger. She peeled the potatoes ferociously as he went on about how Matt was able to lure Nick off the porch and then she stopped and starred out the window when Kevin mentioned the password.



“Mom?”



She looked over at Kevin, “I don’t know who I’m madder at. You or Nick.”



“Me? Why would you be mad at me?”



“Because you decided to use my son as some kind of work experiment.”



“That’s not true mom, you know that.”



“You put him through that experience without even consulting with me Kevin.”



“He’s fine now mom…sorry. It was a spur of the moment thing.”



She didn’t say much more until Kevin kissed her gently on the cheek. “I love you mom,” He said.



“I love you more sweetheart…” She smiled at him but he could tell she was deep in thought about what had happened.



“Mom, he’s okay…now he knows better.”



“Thanks baby,” she said placing her hand on top of his.



“It’s just that…well if your dad were alive…” She couldn’t finish the sentence so all Kevin did was nod in understanding.



They had a great dinner of stuffed pork chops and scalloped potatoes. Nick’s escapade wasn’t brought up at all, instead talk of movies, Brian’s college plans, AJ’s smoking which he loved by the way, and Kevin and Howie’s high school antics were the main topic of discussion.



Afterwards the boys all went outside to shoot some hoops, Howie and Kevin against AJ and Brian.



“What about me?” Nick asked when he came running outside with Mama R putting his jacket on him.



“How about you come on our team?” Brian said throwing Nick the ball as he let it roll between his legs.



“Yeah that seems fair since Howie and Nick have about the same amount of skills,” AJ whispered into Brian’s ear but loud enough where the Latino could hear.



They played for quite awhile, Brian constantly lifting Nick up to get the ball into the basket, they of course won by a landslide.



Just as they were about to call it a night, Kevin squatted down to Nicky, “Okay little man how about you shoot one more basket and then we go inside for the night?”



“I can’t go with you unless you say the password.”



Kevin smiled and then looked over at AJ with pride, not really trusting the evil grin he saw appearing on his brother’s face.



“String bean!” Kevin said winking at Nick and ready to take his hand.



“Nope, that’s not all!”



“Not all? Nick I thought we decided on string bean. You can’t change it already!”



“I didn’t change it I added onto it!”



“You did?”



“Yup, now you have to say anal string bean!” All of the boys lost it as they high fived Nick.



“I’ll anal string bean you! Come here kiddo,” Kevin said jokingly chasing after his baby brother as the others joined in, all of them unaware that they were being watched from a distance.


I'll be back on Friday with another chapter! Have a great week evedryone!