Best Man

The first night spent at Alex's home was an interesting one to say the least.

There were three bedrooms. Since the house was a one-level ranch, two bedrooms were beside each other in the hall around the corner from the living room while the third bedroom was off a finished family room in the basement; just beyond the black, spiral staircase that led one to their lower destination.

The upstairs couch folded out into a sleeper sofa, as did the basement family room's couch. So that gave both Tre and Billie Joe places to sleep, and that left the third bedroom in the basement for Mike and Caroline.

The interesting part all began at dinner, when the six sat, cramped, around the small table and Tre failed to enlighten anyone about why his lip was bleeding and starting to bruise. And then when Billie Joe was questioned, and he shrugged, it got a bit awkward. But nothing was said to delve any further into the subject; instead changing it to talk about the studio Alex had set up in a room off the basement's family room.

After dinner, dessert consisted of fudge bars, and everyone sitting around to let their full bellies settle with contentment. Everyone began to abandon the table to bring all their cups, dishes and silverware to the dishwasher like good boys and girls.

But, despite the jovial mood that a full stomach brought, there was a noticeable tension that couldn't be denied.

Everyone was feeling it now, and it was starting to bum Caroline out.

When her newfound blood relatives, along with Mike and Tre, disappeared back into the living room, Caroline grabbed Billie Joe by the arm and yanked him back toward the sink and lowered her voice to a dull whisper as she spoke to him.

"What happened before dinner with you and Tre? Did you hit him?"

"It's a possibility," he whispered back.

Caroline sighed and looked up at the ceiling briefly before bringing her hazel eyes back down to lock with his green ones. "Why did you have to do it before a meal? Couldn't you have waited until tomorrow when Alex took Mike and me to see my mom's grave? When Timmy will be at school?"

"He needed to know I mean it. If I'd hit him and spoke my mind when I had him alone, it wouldn't have made the same impact," Billie Joe muttered; his hushed voice wafting past his lips. "For him to realize I'd do it when I did, it showed him I meant business. And that next time I might hit him right in sight of everyone."

Caroline didn't reply with an exasperated huff by the manly brashness of his actions, but instead offered a rueful and partially thankful smile. "You have no idea how it feels that I have someone I can confide in who's sort of an outside party, yet...not." She lifted a hand and moved it to his shoulder to straighten out his shirt, even though it was already virtually impeccable. "This confidence between us means more to me than you'll ever know."

"Well, I want you to understand that even though this is a rough place for me to be in -- to be stuck between loyalties to two of my best friends...three, including Mike -- I need you to know that no matter what happens to you or whatever you're going through, you can always count on me to be there for you." He smiled at the brunette who made him feel like he wasn't as short as he was because she was in fact about four inches shorter. And then he gave her a devilish grin with a wiggle of his eyebrows, adding, "And if you ever need help disposing of a body, I'm your man."

Caroline laughed. "I'll keep that in mind."

"What are you two doing in there?" Alex called out suddenly. "If you're in there any longer I might as well put you to work cleaning all those dishes in the dishwasher by hand." His second comment was muffled as he had clearly turned his attentions away from Caroline and Billie Joe who were a room away. "I tell ya, I hate those damn washers. You got to give dishes a good rinse before you put 'em in the washer to loosen up the food still clinging on for dear life, and then when they're supposed to be finished cleaning, there's still residue..."

Caroline attuned her ears and shook her head with a small chuckle. "I just met the guy today and I already feel the need to roll my eyes and say, 'That's my dad' as if I've known him all my life."

"You have, in a way." Billie Joe shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled back at her. "In your heart. In your blood."

"True." Without missing a beat, she gestured for them to leave the kitchen. "Well, let's join the others."

"Yeah..." Placing a hand on the small of her back, he wrapped it around her waist to give her a platonic side hug. "Let's."



Waking up the following morning, Caroline was horrifically surprised at how cold she was. With closed eyes that refused to open for fear of having to admit she was no longer asleep, the 5'3" woman decided to feel around to pull the blanket up to her a bit tighter only to find it was nowhere in her vicinity.

Slightly disgruntled, and not because she wasn't a morning person in the least, Caroline let her eyes open to reveal the fact that Mike had every last blanket tightly wrapped around his lean, sleeping form as he clung to the edge of the bed; as if he were a moment away from falling to the floor.

A part of her wanted to give him a swift kick to the ass and then to take the blankets back from him as he fell and unravelled from their security, but then the sane part of her realized that, with his recent condition, such aggressiveness would not be appreciated.

"Mike..." she whined with a groggy voice as she smacked his very cocooned shoulder. "You got all the blankets and I'm freezing."

Mike stirred. But didn't wake up.

"Don't be a shit. I know you can hear me. And if you don't fork over at least one blanket I will go marching into that family room right outside that door and jump in bed with Billie and sex him up to get warm."

That did it.

Turning around with very awake blue eyes, Mike flashed her a 'don't you even dare think about it' look.

"That's what I thought," she grinned triumphantly when he opened his arms and many layers of blankets to her.

Scooting closer to him, Caroline curled up against his chest as he enclosed the warm coverings around the two of them, as if forming a Mike and Caroline burrito.

"Mmm...now I'm toasty," she cooed.

"Does that make me burnt toast?"

"I like burnt toast."

"No, you don't."

"I like your burnt toast.

Mike snickered as the pair of them snuggled together and she closed her eyes to rest happily against him. Meanwhile, his eyes remained open as he did his best to study her peaceful face from the angle he was at.

"You're beautiful."

"I know."

"You're also very smug. You know that?" he laughed a little. "I think Billie's rubbing off on you too much lately." Then as an afterthought he added, "But as long as that's the only thing where 'Billie' and 'rubbing' are concerned, I shouldn't worry."

"Billie's not the one you need to worry about," she mumbled to herself.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing."



Several hours later, Caroline found herself standing in a very snow-covered graveyard that looked to be a couple centuries old. At least two or three.

Some tombstones were so worn with age that the words on their surfaces were no longer legible.

The trees were bare and their branches were dry and brittle, like the skeletal remains buried and scattered six feet below.

And there she stood in silence while the late winter wind breezed by her, chilling her to the bone but swaying her not in the least as she slowly sank to her knees before the tombstone that belonged to the mother she'd never met and always longed to know.

"For the longest time I hated you," she began, quietly, staring at the name and dates carved into the gray, marbleized stone. "When I was old enough to know I'd been adopted and then when I learned what happened to me before I was adopted, I hated you. I hated you for abandoning me. For never being there. For giving me away without a reason why."

Letting out a small sigh, her ears picked up the slight, inaudible mumbling of Alex and Mike whispering to each other from several feet away while they waited for her to pay her respects.

"But then I found out the truth and I hated myself for assuming you never wanted me. Because you did. You wanted me so much that you had willingly left behind your world, your family and the man you loved to make sure I came into this world so that we could be together. And I hate myself for saying this, but I think I'm actually kind of glad you died. Only because I most likely would've never met the man I love and I wouldn't be carrying his child. So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for hating you all these years, I'm sorry for being a horrible daughter in being okay with you having died and I'm sorry we'll never meet in this life so we could've gotten to know each other. But I want you to know that even though we've never met, I feel you everywhere I go. I see you when I look in the mirror and I hear you when I sing. And I hope, that one day, when I die, you'll welcome me into your arms and hug me, and forgive me my thoughts against you."

Caroline hadn't been paying attention to the fact that she was crying and tears were rolling down her cheeks that were red from the cold air, as Mike slowly began to make his way toward her.

"I may've been adopted by great parents who are my mom and dad; whom I love so much...but you are and always will be my mother. And I love you, too." Tears blurring her vision, she added, "I love you, mom."

Reaching out a trembling hand, Caroline pressed her palm to the cold face of the tombstone, ignoring just how cold it felt against her skin. Leaning forward, she kissed her mother's name briefly and pulled back to read what it all said, as Mike finally approached her side.

Constance Marie DiChristina

March 1961 - July 1980

"...It is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

"Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi," Caroline muttered,

"Hmm?"

"The quote," she muttered, wiping her tears away. "It's the last line from the Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi. I only know it because Sarah McLachlan made it into a song for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer soundtrack."

Mike smirked as she gradually got to her feet to stand beside him; instantly grabbing for his hand. And, turning his face to the side of hers, he pressed his lips against her temple. "Ready to go?"

Hesitating for a moment, she began to nod as she pulled some stones out of her winter coat pocket.

"Wait..."

Letting go of Mike's hand, she took a step forward and dusted off the snow covering the top of the tombstone and set the stones down in a row. And then, stepping back, she reclaimed Mike's hand once more and smiled up at him.

"Now I'm ready."



As the day wore on, the overcast sky remained so. The sun never appeared; the white-grey clouds simply kept it hidden from view. But that didn't deter anyone in the least at the Leveille residence.

Running around the acre of land behind the ranch style home like young children with nothing better to do, the three members of Green Day and the three related by blood all spent time together, playing in the snow.

Keeping to his strict regiment of moderate physical activity, Mike decided to help Alex build a snowman while Tre, Billie Joe, Timmy and Caroline all ran in circles and zigzags, in an all-out snowball war.

They'd paired up in teams: Green Day vs. Sister Folk.

At least that's what Timmy referred to Caroline and herself as.

"Pack that snowball good and tight and aim for their balls!" Timmy shouted to Caroline while her purple ski cap with a pompom on top flew off her head as she ran around the lone tree on the slope of the yard, with a snowball in hand.

"In that case we'll aim for your boobs!" Billie Joe retorted.

"I'd like to see you try, little man!"

"No! Don't throw it at me!" Caroline squealed as she dodged a snowball from the green-eyed man. "I'm with-child and you could be putting my baby in danger!"

"Hey! No using unborn offspring as an excuse!" Tre complained.

"I'll do what I want," she replied, sticking out her tongue and throwing her snowball at Tre, but missing his crotch.

"You were aiming for my penis!" he growled playfully.

"Be lucky I throw like a girl or you'd have lost your last ball."

Billie Joe turned to look at Tre and stopped in his tracks to laugh at his friend's expense, only to be stunned and drop to his knees in mild pain when he realized he had, in fact, just been hit in the balls with, yes, a snowball.

"Fuck, my gnads," he groaned, allowing himself to fall sideways into the snow as Timmy threw her fists up into the air above her head and did a short victory dance.

"Booyah!" she exclaimed.

"Medic! Medic!" Tre cried out in mock worry. "Is there a doctor in the house?"

"Nope," Timmy muttered triumphantly, placing her mitten-covered hands on her hips.

Billie Joe lifted his head a little, which was now half covered in snow as he pouted. "You're ruthless."

"I have my moments," she laughed as Caroline laughed.

"I'm never going to be able to satisfy my wife after this," he whimpered.

"Oh, suck it up and deal. Just put an ice pack on it and you'll be fine. Or...maybe hard cold stuff isn't what you should use right now," the younger sister laughed as Caroline waddled through the ankle-deep snow to her good friend.

"C'mere, Billie. I'll help you up."

"Hey, no fraternizing with the enemy," Timmy scolded jokingly.

"Sorry, but I've defected in order to come to the aid of my fallen comrade."

As the four decided to call the snowball war off, they rejoined Mike and Alex toward the house where they'd finished building the snowman and were now sitting on the back patio, side by side.

"Have fun?" Mike questioned with a smirk as Billie Joe still cupped his balls.

"I've been wounded."

"So I see."

"She did it," he pointed at Timmy.

"I thought we called a truce?" the blue-eyed young woman questioned.

"Doesn't mean I can't hold a grudge."

Timmy rolled her eyes and nudged Tre. "Wanna make snow angels?"

"Do I ever!" he exclaimed loudly like an obnoxious circus clown.

The two of them walked off several feet and plopped onto their backs in the snow and began moving their arms and legs while the other four remained by the patio.

"Want something for the pain?" Alex asked Billie Joe with a slight laugh.

The 37-year-old front man shook his head. "Nah, I'll be fine. I've been in worse pain."

Looking between his friend and future wife, Mike smiled and pushed himself up to his feet as he stepped up to Caroline and encircled his arms around her waist; bending at the knees a little to reach her level as he brushed the tip of his nose against hers.

"You look cold."

"I'm fine. I grew up in Buffalo where seven feet of snow at any given moment during the winter is commonplace."

Smirking, he kissed her lips and she melted at his mere touch. "But I wouldn't mind going inside to snuggle in a blanket before a roaring fire and two cups of hot cocoa with you," she cooed.

"That can be arranged," Alex piped up. "I know the four of you are only up here for a couple more days and I'd like to spend as much time with you as possible," he directed toward Caroline. "But I know you two might want some time alone while here, too. So I already planned on taking Tre and Billie into Plattsburgh to show them around."

"Would that mean the She Beast is tagging along, too?" Billie Joe wondered, jokingly, gesturing over to Timmy.

Alex laughed. "No, every Saturday night her friends from high school and her get together and go out to dinner and then to the movies as a way of keeping in touch, even though they don't all go to school with each other anymore."

"Ah," Billie Joe nodded. Then added, "Good."

Alex laughed again.

"Well, then...it's sounds like a plan," Caroline muttered, already snuggling against her man. Looking up at him and resting her chin on his chest, she smiled.

She couldn't believe how refreshed she'd become since arriving to her birth father's home.

She was finally able to come to terms with her past, make new family ties and begin to move on...

...From everything going on in her heart and mind.