Good Man

One girl, one boy
Some grief, some joy
Memories are made of this (Sweet, sweet memories you gave me)
(Can't beat the memories you gave me)



As the warm sunlight beat down through the window's of the Orchard Park home, Caroline was suddenly aware that it was sometime just after sunrise, only because she was very sure she had gotten to bed late the night before, thanks in part to late night television. That, and she could've sworn that there had been no heat pulsing subtly against her exposed skin as she lay tangled in her bed sheets.

Lifting her head lazily, she squinted at the bedside clock and was correct in her thinking. It was, in fact, just after seven in the morning. And, yes, while she had gotten to sleep only just slightly over five hours before, she was quite surprisingly awake.

It's just like being tired and getting up on stage to play.

Mike's voice appeared in her head and it made her smile. The memory of him saying that on a number of occasions ringing in her mind, as if he were actually saying clear as day, as if he were laying beside her, whispering it in her ear.

But then she couldn't help but frown deeply, causing crease lines to form in her forehead as she remembered what day it was.

It was a Friday morning, and not just any Friday morning.

It was Friday, May 16th of 2014. This was supposed to be a day of more celebration in her life.

It was her fifth wedding anniversary to Mike.

Five years ago, this very day had landed on a Saturday and her and Mike had left their friends and family in the lurch at the church in Oakland to elope to Reno to get married; just the two of them, as simply as possible.

What a great wedding it had been, too. For them, it had been so perfect.

It was only after the fact that they had considered renewing their vows at some point, actually in front of the family and friends they physically excluded. They had talked about when would be the right time, and they had originally decided upon their fifth anniversary.

But now that plan was moot.

There was no more Mike. It was just her. She couldn't renew her vows without him there as well.

Sighing heavily, she picked herself out of bed and went to the bathroom to do her morning constitution. Afterward, she jumped quickly into the shower and proceeded in getting dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a somewhat dressy tank top. After all, just because Mike wasn't here, in the flesh, for their anniversary to celebrate with her, didn't mean she had to still dress like a frump.

She went into the hallway and pressed her ears against each bedroom door belonging to her kids and heard nothing. Quietly, she turned the doorknobs to peer inside, just to be sure. But, again, there was nothing. Surprisingly, at seven forty-five in the morning, they were all still asleep.

Hallelujah.

Caroline went back to her room, but this time she left her bedroom door ajar as she sat down at her vanity table and proceeded to put on a bit of make-up and a pair of small diamond earrings in her ears. Aside from the latter, the only other jewelry she wore was her engagement and wedding rings on her left ring finger. She went to her bathroom where she had left her curling iron plugged in on the edge of the sink to warm up, and when she touched the hot metal very quickly to check its hotness, she began to give her hair a bit of a curl before spraying a light sheen of hairspray over it.

When all was said and done, she flipped her head over, shook her hair all over the place, and ran her fingers through it as best as she could to remove the actual curl from her hair and to instead leave it with more of a volumed look.

And then she heard the voice.

"Mommy?"

Caroline poked her head out of her bathroom and found Chloe standing in the bedroom in all her three-year-old glory.

"What's up, honey?"

"I'm hungry."

"You want breakfast?" Chloe nodded. "How about mommy's famous pancakes?" Chloe nodded again, this time with a big smile as she approached her mother.

"Why you look pretty, mommy?"

Caroline smiled this time. "'Cause today is a very special day."

"Why?"

"'Cause five years ago, right before Mikey was born, your daddy and I got married. He became my husband and I became his wife. And you know what husbands and wives become when they have kids like you and your brothers and sisters?"

Chloe just shook her head, biting her lips together in a very Caroline way, but still managing to smile up expectantly.

"They become mommies and daddies," Caroline continued.

"They do?"

Caroline nodded. Holding out her hand to her daughter, she waited for the little girl to take it before leading her out of the bedroom. Mikey was old enough now where when he woke up he could find his own way downstairs and the twins were still asleep. There was a baby monitor downstairs that Caroline could listen to in order to tell when they stirred and woke up.



It was perhaps only an hour later when Caroline heard the twins starting to cry.

Chloe was sitting at the kitchen table in her booster seat, finishing up her pancakes and Mikey was sitting there now as well, but just starting on his because he had just woke up about fifteen minutes beforehand and moseyed on downstairs.

Now was time for the hard part.

Since her biological father Alex had already returned back to his home in the Adirondack region, Caroline was alone in trying to take care of twins and it was not an easy task. Sure, Mike's mom Lucy came over as frequently as she could to help out, but first thing in the morning was no small feat. If it had been one child, there wouldn't have been a problem, but it was twins and she had to try and juggle both at once.

Not literally, of course. Though, sometimes it felt like that.

While she changed one, the other had to remain in their bassinet and cried. Then she had to switch and place the child with the clean diaper back in their bassinet while the second child got changed. And it honestly wouldn't be as hard as it was, not if she had an extra set of arms but, if Rhiannon was more of a happy baby like her twin brother Lakota, it might've. Rhiannon always cried and whined and was colicky. Lakota gurgled and giggled and was the poster child for parents who wanted more children.

And when that was all said and done she had to carry them both downstairs at the same time and place them in their car seats which were sitting in the center of the long, kitchen table to feed them their bottles, also at the same time. And just when Caroline thought she couldn't get any more stressed with juggling all her mommy duties at once, the goddamned doorbell had to go and ring at that moment.

Groaning, she glanced at Mikey and told him to go take over feeding Rhiannon and Lakota for him. Ever the dutiful son, even at almost five years old, he set his syrupy fork down on his plate and pushed it all aside so that he could sit on the table and take the bottles from his mom and hold one in each hand; holding them up at a high enough angle so that his baby brother and sister had no problem getting their Enfamil formula.

Placing a kiss on her older son's head, Caroline murmured her thanks and her love for him before heading toward the main door to the house which was off the driveway. She padded gently across the floor and down the couple of steps in the side hall to the door and as she pulled back the heavier of the two doors, she stopped dead in her tracks.

The person on the other side, had the screen door open and it was resting upon his back. A warm, spring breeze was wafting up the driveway and ruffling through Caroline's hair as she took in the sight of the man standing before her with a small suitcase in his left hand.

"Tre," she muttered, and on instinct, went to shut the door in his face.

It was the first time she'd seen him in eleven months, since after Giselle's funeral. She hadn't meant to try and slam the door on him, but her sudden fear of facing him and all the hiding out she'd been doing was brought to the surface and she didn't really think her action through.

Fortunately for Tre, he caught the door with the toe of his shoe and his right hand, keeping it open.

"Hey," he spoke with a mix of amused surprise and a tone of being insulted. Pushing the door open a little more, he watched Caroline sink back a little into the darker recesses of the side hallway and let himself in; the screen door clanking closed behind him, then shutting the heavier door as well with a dull click of the knob mechanism. "That anyway to treat your ex-boyfriend slash friend slash brother-in-law slash uncle of your children slash father of your niece slash bandmate and best friend of your husband slash awesomely handsome drummer guy extraordinaire?"

Caroline looked him over, bit her lip and bowed her head. "Sorry. You just---"

"---Showed up unannounced and surprised the fuck outta ya. Yeah," Tre finished her sentence, agreeing. "People do that to you a lot, don't they? But, hey...it seems like the only way to see ya."

Stepping past her, Tre walked up the few couple of steps, hearing the muted attempts at her pleas for him to stop. He reached the kitchen before she could and when he looked to his right, he dropped his suitcase to the ground, taking in the sight of Chloe in her booster chair and Mikey sitting on the table, bottle feeding two infants in car seats.

"Tre..."

"I had to see for myself," was all he said as he looked over his shoulder at Caroline.

He took note of how her fingers fiddled in front of her, and her eyes scanned her mind for an explanation. He felt horrible not only for being left out of her loop, but for her feeling as if she had to keep people loopless. He knew it couldn't have been easy, and probably still wasn't. A single mother of four kids under the age of five, and they all looked healthy and safe? Damn, she should get an award for multitasking.

"I didn't want..." she trailed. She didn't know what to say. She hadn't been prepared for this.

"Didn't want any of us to know or didn't want me showing up at your doorstep at nine in the morning?"

"Slightly both," she replied, moving around Tre to take the bottles from Mikey and gesture for him to sit back down and finish eating, but Mikey was too excited from seeing Uncle Tre to care about his discarded pancakes. "I know Ramona was here, and I didn't invite Estelle up to Plattsburgh for Easter thinking she wasn't gonna go home and tell you guys what had been going on for nearly a year."

Mikey slid off his chair and ran over to Tre who scooped the boy up into his arms and placed a millions kisses over Mikey's face. Chloe, on the other hand, had kinda sorta forgotten what her Uncle Tre looked like and appeared wary of him.

"I missed you, squirt," Tre cooed against Mikey's cheek, then ruffled Chloe's hair, despite her grimacing up toward him. "You too, Chloe."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you or, uh...Billie." Caroline frowned. "I didn't know how to drop the bomb about the twins," she gestured with a nod of her head toward the two infants who were now pushing their bottles away.

"Estelle told us everything. About the in vitro," Tre muttered, letting Mikey slide down his body. "Go eat your pancakes," he told his nephew on behalf of the boy's mom. And then, to Caroline, he continued, "But to say we were surprised with you going about it that way is an understatement. I seem to recall you saying something about not wanting another kid who looked like Mike because it brought back to a head losing him."

"That was right after I lost Mike and I was a complete mess and I was feeling momentarily suicidal. I lost that baby I had with him the good old fashioned way, and immediately afterward I regretted it. I was at fault for severing my last tie to him," Caroline explained. She looked from Tre back to the twins and swallowed a lump in her throat. That child she lost would've been just over a year now. "I wanted another child of Mike's, so I had in vitro done with the sperm he had banked, for me and only me. Just as I froze some of my eggs, just in case something happened and down the line we physically couldn't have any further kids together and wanted to try other options, like in vitro or surrogacy," she lied for the bajillionth time.

Tre just watched her as she unhooked the infant from the car seat to the right who was dressed in a pink onesie that said 'If you think I'm cute, you should see my mommy.'

"What are their names?" Tre asked, following Caroline's actions by unhooking the boy infant from his car seat and lifting him up to burp him, since that is what Caroline was doing with the girl.

She looked at him with a mix of thanks and worry. "This is Rhiannon Giselle," Caroline spoke as she patted Rhiannon gently on the back, then rubbed soothingly in circles. "You're holding Lakota Alexander."

"They're friggin' adorable." He continued to mimic Caroline's movements, but stopped for a moment to look at little Lakota. "He has green eyes, you know."

"I know," Caroline muttered noncommittally, avoiding eye contact. "My birth mom's mom had green eyes. I guess it skipped a few generations."

"Or, Mike's not biologically the dad," Tre blurted.

Caroline snapped her head toward the man beside her and walked out of the kitchen with Rhiannon on her shoulder, muttering something to Chloe and Mikey, that when they were done with their plates, to place them in the sink. "That's a bunch of bull, Tre," she tried to huff as if his statement was completely fiction.

"Uh, no. Considering you were seeing Gerard kinda exclusively as either a boyfriend or a fuck buddy before you came here and you slept with Billie..."

Caroline's eyes widened with sheer horror. Her mouth dropped open and she suddenly felt as if her tongue had swollen three times its normal size. "He told you that?"

"On Mike's birthday, he told it to me in secrecy," Tre admitted. But there was no accusing tone in his voice as one would assume their might be. "I get you were outta sorts at the time and weren't thinking straight, or at least rationally. Hell, I wasn't either. We both lost the same two people and when Giselle died, I began to go down the path you took after Mike. I didn't want to see anyone, be near my own daughter. I was becoming a mean drunk and an absent father, and I knew what I was doing and it made me feel even worse," the blue-eyed drummer rattled as they sat down together on the couch in her living room. "It wasn't till the holidays that I began to see the error of my ways, I guess you can say. I'd watched you go through it with Mike and how you had begun to pull yourself out of your funk, and I think if Giselle hadn't have left us, I think you and I would be leading perfectly decent lives. But she did leave us and our lives did go down the crapshoot. Any progress we made in recovering from losing Mike was blown to bits."

Caroline simply nodded. "Yeah, it definitely sucked. Still does."

"Tell me about it."

"But you seem a lot better than you say you were," Caroline deduced, giving him a once over.

"'Cause I am. I mean, you were there when we got the news about Giselle. But I'm glad you didn't see me how I was after the funeral and almost up until a couple months ago. It wasn't pretty."

Caroline couldn't help but smile. She let her mind wander for a moment, until a bubbling burp suddenly burst forth from Rhiannon's little lips. "So why are you here, now?"

"'Cause it's your anniversary."

"You remembered."

"Uh, yeah. How could I not?"

Smirking, Caroline looked at her brother-in-law who had successfully assisted Lakota with burping. "But why are you here? I know it's not because of my anniversary. Because you just wanted to see the twins with your own eyes?"

"No," Tre shook his head. "Because I wanted to bring you home to Oakland."



Later that night, Lucy had arrived with Shawn, Mike's half-brother, in tow to help her watch all four kids while Caroline went out to dinner with Tre.

And not like that. Just as in-laws, as friends. Family.

They were sitting across from each other at a patio table at Mangia Ristorante & Caffé, smack dab in the heart of the village of Orchard Park on the corner of N. Buffalo Road and W. Quaker Street, not a few blocks from where Caroline's home was.

Both were dining on plates of lasagna and glasses of Merlot with their dinner. Their bowls of minestrone and salad plates had already been cleared away in time for their main course.

Looking over his wine glass at Caroline, Tre smirked. "Is it weird that I got you something for your anniversary?" he asked after he took a sip and set the glass back down beside his plate.

"A little," came her answer, followed by, "Why? What'd you get me?"

Tre pulled a small box out of his suit coat and slid it across the table to Caroline, waiting for her to pick it up and open it.

It was small like an engagement ring box, which piqued Caroline's curiosity, but she knew it wouldn't be an engagement ring. Tre wasn't that retarded. Carefully and slowly, she opened it up and saw that it was a silver locket. The front of the locket had some sort of brocade design around the edges with a heart etched into the center.

Clicking it open, her breath was taken away.

Inside were two, small pictures of both Mike and Giselle.

Her heart jumping into her throat, Caroline placed a hand to her chest and didn't mind the single tear that ran from the corner of her eye and down her cheek.

"Oh...thank you so much, Tre." She looked across to him appreciatively and smiled. "But now I feel bad. Your anniversary to Giselle was in February and I never got you anything. I didn't even send a card or call you. I feel horrible. I'm such a bad friend and sister-in-law." Then she amended, "I'm such a bad sister and a wife."

Tre furrowed his brow. "What makes you say that? You were a great sister to Giselle and an awesome wife to Mike. They were both lucky to have you in their lives."

"But after they were gone, I mean...I broke my promises to them. I promised Giselle I would be there for your child if anything happened to either of you, or both, and I didn't do that. I booked it. I took off in the other direction. My own niece doesn't know who I am. I wasn't there to see her first smile, laugh, word, steps. I wasn't there."

"Well, she's not even a year old. I'm thinking she'll forgive you."

"And I betrayed Mike by getting pregnant by someone else and passing it off as his," Caroline whispered so only he would hear. Tre's eyes widened. "I know, I know. I lied about the in vitro. But I had to. How do I go around telling people, 'Oh, hey, meet my twins. Their daddy can be any one of three guys who all happen to have green eyes. What a conundrum, right?' How do I do that? I can't. Especially when one is one of my best friends who happens to be married to another of my best friends and was my husband's best friend since childhood and the godfather of my oldest child," she rambled without taking so much as a breath.

Tre just blinked, absorbing the information and trying to think of something to say. "I, uh..."

"I'd be branded as a slut, or an adulteress, a homewrecker even. And what if I go and have a blood test done on Gerard, and it's not him? Then, I get Billie Joe to take the test, and it's not him either, and it turns out to be Dave? What happens then? I possibly ruin a marriage I admire over a one in three chance Billie was the father? I can't do that."

"So, you're planning on keeping this secret, the charade going for...how long? Until one day the twins start to really look like whoever their father is and there's no more denying their paternity?"

"If that's what I have to do, yeah."

Tre continued to stare across the table at Caroline. "Then why did you tell me the truth?"

"Because you already suspected it and I can't lie to everyone. Timmy knows the truth, so does my friend Val. She was with me last summer when I took the pregnancy test, so I ended up blabbing to her what had all gone down."

"And you figure that when you come home to Oakland, you'll have someone in your corner to back up your claim in case anyone doubts you?"

"I didn't say I was coming back."

"You also didn't say you weren't," Tre pointed out, a smile beginning to toy at his lips.

"I'm just...scared. Will they hate me? Will they turn their backs on me for turning mine on all of them without so much as a goodbye? Will they know instantly I'm lying about the twins and hate me because of the lie?"

"Everyone back in Oakland doesn't and will never hate you, Care. No matter what happens or goes down...or doesn't go down." He reached his hand across and poked her in the nose with his finger. "No one can resist a pretty face."

Caroline began to smile despite the worry in her eyes. She fell silent then, letting her thoughts stew in her mind for a while. Tre seemed to be doing the same as they both returned to finishing their lasagna, and eventually moving on to the dessert cart.



About an hour later, after Tre had paid their bill at Mangia, he and Caroline began to walk back to her home, since it wasn't all that far away. They even stepped aside afterward to sign a few autographs and have their pictures taken with local fans of both their respective bands they were both no longer active in. After all, Caroline had retired from The Sinners, and Green Day was no more without Mike.

Side by side on the sidewalk, with the warm spring breeze cooling down with nightfall and the streetlights coming to life above their heads, the pair walked along, chatting about this and that; making the most of the day's significance and reminiscing about their memories of and with Mike.

"I remember this one time---"

"---at band camp," Caroline interrupted with a snort.

Tre gave her a grin and shoved her playfully. "Funny, ha ha." Shaking his head, he continued. "No, seriously. I remember this one time when after you and I started dating and we were at my house I think. Or was it at Billie's?" Tre shrugged. "I can't remember now. Too many years ago. But...we were there playing Twister. Remember that? I was doing this whole 'No one can defeat the great King Kong' bull and Mike stepped up to contest me in another game...and you joined as a third."

Caroline nodded. "Yeah, I remember that day." A smile formed on her lips. "Good times, that."

"Yeah, well, remember how I lost, then Mike fell and you won?"

Caroline nodded again. "Yeah. What about it?"

"Well, a couple years after we broke up and you were already dating Mike, Billie Joe told me how he noticed Mike had a boner during that game. Or the beginnings of one anyway. Apparently it was very obvious to Billie and Adrienne from where they were sitting and they think that Mike threw the game so that he wouldn't get any more twisted with you on the mat and that you'd notice his, uh...situation."

Turning her head to stare at Tre, her mouth slightly agape, Caroline's eyes sparkled partially because of the streetlights overhead but also because of how the memory made her happy. "I almost forget sometimes how bad he was jonesin' for me while you and I were together. It just feels like it was always Mike and me that I forget there was ever a you and me." She then flashed Tre an apologetic look. "No offense or anything."

"None taken," he shrugged off as they neared Caroline's block.

"I remember something too, that always makes me smile."

"Hmm?"

"Two years ago, tonight, on our third anniversary, Mike's and mine, when he took me down to LA for a couple days. We went to dinner at Spago and dodged some pap..."

"Pap smears?" Tre questioned, jokingly with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Caroline threw him a grimace. "Ew, no. Pap as in paparazzi, dumbass. We dodged some paparazzi." Rolling her hazel eyes, she continued. "We went to some new club opening afterward for some drinks and dancing. He was wearing black jeans and a black, short-sleeved dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up just a bit more. I was wearing this red and black and white halter dress. We were looking good and feeling even better. We were dancing the night away, enjoying some drinks and good music." Caroline smiled happily at the memory as if it she were reliving it at that very moment. "We were enjoying each other, in general. And then there was this photographer who was taking photos of all the celebs who were at the club for the opening, and he was a really nice guy, and he asked if he could take a few pictures of us. We said yes, and I remember Mike pulling me close. I had an arm wrapped around him, our heads kinda pressed together. And, ugh..." she trailed off for a moment. "I can still smell the sweat and cologne on his skin. I can still feel his strong hands holding on to me. I can still feel his heartbeat pounding through his chest and against mine."

Tre looked sideways at Care, studying her profile as she dazed off at what she was recalling; recalling it with her as if he'd been there to experience it all with her. It brought a smile to his lips.

"Sometimes I walk into a room and still expect to see that he'd popped over for a bit, like he always used to," Tre admitted.

"I have conversations with him, still," came Caroline's admission.

Both looked at each other and smiled, ruefully.

"You know what, Tre?" she continued.

"What?"

"I've had a thousand more good memories in Oakland than I ever had bad ones."

Tre nodded at this. Then, he couldn't help but ask, "Does this mean you'll come back with me?"

Hesitating for a moment, as they turned head into her driveway, Caroline slowly nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm coming home."



One man, one wife
One love through life
Memories are made of this (Sweet, sweet memories you gave me)
(Can't beat the memories you gave me)
Memories are made of this (Sweet, sweet memories you gave me)
(Can't beat the memories you gave me)