PATCHES 3

Chapter 22

It had been a few days since Tim kicked Jenika out of the house. His friends were worried sick about him. He rarely came out of his room. When he did, the sadness in his red swollen eyes was heartbreaking. No one knew what to do to help.

"I don't know wad to do, Satchmo." Adam huffs as he sits down hard on his bed shaking the large furry dog awake. "Tim need my help. He tho thad. And .. and I mith him."

The large dog moves closer and lays his head in Adam's lap.

"You mith him too, don't you." Adam says as he rubs Satchmo's head. "Dare gotta be a way. Tim knows dat Mith Kit and Keben are taking good care ob me. And day don't mind. And I don't mind cause I lub dem a lot. But .. what...ip..."

Adam bites his bottom lip as he thinks.

Satchmo turns his eyes in the man-child's direction when he stops talking.

"I need hith help." Adam nods with a smile.

~~~

(two hours later)

Tim sits on the window sill as he stares lazily out the window at the beach below. His mind too tired to really be thinking of anything. That's all he's been doing for the past few days, is thinking. And he was mentally exhausted.

"TI!!" Patches yells as he knocks loudly on the door. "O DOE!!!" (Tim, open the door)

Tim couldn't help but smile and chuckle at the sound of the angry man-child.

"It's not locked, Patches." Tim says as he continues to stare out the window.

"Ti." Patches says as he stomps across the floor. "Mmm Hen die kay!"

It took Tim a few seconds to get his mind back in working mode to figure out what Patches was saying.

"Uh, Henry is driving you crazy?" Tim asks as he finally draws his attention away from the window.

"Hen die kay." Patches nods quickly.

Tim sees who he figures is Henry, standing next to Patches. His eyes full of tears as he pouted causing Tim's heart to break.

"Hen naaa pine Ti." Patches says as he shakes his head. (Henry couldn't find Tim)

"Oh, Buddy, I'm so sorry." Tim says as he gets up from his seat and goes to hug Henry. As he is hugging Henry, Tim looks up to see a very happy Patches grinning from ear to ear. "Thank you, Patches for bringing him to me."

Patches nods as he happily skips toward the door.

"Can you close the door?" Tim asks but Patches giggles as he runs out of the room leaving the door open. "You little sh*t." Tim mumbles as he shakes his head. "It's a conspiracy."

Tim leads Henry over to the bed and lies down. Henry quickly snuggles up next to him.

"Did you think I left you?" Tim asks as he kisses the blond on the forehead. "I'd never leave you or Adam."

Henry sniffs as he lays his head on Tim's shoulder.

"So, what made you decide to show up?" Tim asks as he closes his eyes. "Did Adam get tired of having babysitters?"

Tim slowly opens his eyes and he stares at the ceiling fan above him. The answer was obvious. It felt like a slap in the face.

"Well, I'll be damned." Tim mumbles.

Henry raises his head and stares at Tim with a blank expression.

"It is a conspiracy. You guys are working together." Tim says as he looks around to meet Henry's blue eyes. "Adam knew. He knew that as long as I knew he was being taken care of that I would stay in here and wallow in my self-pity. But you, on the other hand, don't want anyone watching after you but me. Adam knows that."

Tim sits up in bed and for the first time in days, he begins to think clearly.

"What the hell am I doing?" Tim asks himself as he runs a hand through his hair.

He looks around at Henry, who had sat up also and was still staring at him.

"You guys might have just saved my life." Tim says with a smile. "I love you guys so much."

~~

"Will you stop jumping on the bed." Kirstie scolds the green-eyed man-child. She huffs as she looks around at the clock. 8:00. It seemed that the evil child was determined not to let her sleep late.

"Mmm foo, Kit." Patches giggles as he sniffed the air in an over-dramatic way.

"Smells good doesn't it?" Kirstie smiles as the smell of breakfast reach her nostrils. "I love when Kevin gets up before I do." She giggles as she climbs out of bed. "Let's go eat."

"Well, good morning, stranger." Kirstie smiles as she and Patches walk into the kitchen and sees that it's not Kevin cooking breakfast, but Tim.

"Good morning." Tim answers glancing over his shoulder.

"Good morning, Sweetie." Kirstie smiles at 'Adam' sitting at the table. "How'd you manage to get him to leave his room?" She starts to rub Adam, or who she thought was Adam, on the head but he quickly gets up and hurries over next to Tim. "Oh, so we have Henry this morning."

"Yeah, Patches brought him to me and said that Henry was driving him crazy." Tim chuckles as he stirs the gravy.

Kirstie laughs and shakes her head as she goes to the refrigerator to get the boys some milk.

"So how are you feeling?" She asks as she set the glasses of milk on the table.

"Like an ass." Tim answers as he sets a plate of bacon on the table.

"Tim, you've been through hell...." Kirstie started to say but sees Tim shaking his head.

"That's no excuse for me acting the way I've been. Taking advantage of your's and Kevin's kindness. Dumping Adam off on you guys." Tim says as he looks up to see a surprised Kevin standing in the doorway.

"Tim, we didn't mind at all. We love Adam." Kirstie says.

"I know you do and he loves you but he's my responsibility." Tim says as they all take a seat at the table. Tim begins to fill Henry's plate.

"Well, we knew you needed time alone." Kevin says as he hands the bowl of gravy over to Tori.

"Actually, what I needed to be doing was getting in touch with my lawyer instead of sitting in my room with my head up my ass. Crying over that b*tch." Tim says as he feeds Henry a bite of eggs.

"Ohhhh, Ti." Patches giggles and covers his mouth.

"Sorry." Tim smirks as he takes a sip of his coffee. "But it took Adam and Henry working together to make me realize what I was doing. I need to be putting them first. They need me. Adam doesn't even realize what's happening but instead of talking to him, I lock myself up in my room feeling sorry for myself."

"Spoken like a true father." Kirstie smiles as she reaches over and squeezes Tim's hand.

Tim looks up meeting her eyes. He knew exactly what she meant by her statement.

"Thank you." Tim smiles.

"You also need to call your mom. She's called my phone several times. She said that she couldn't get through on your phone. She's worried sick about you. Apparently, she ran into Jenika." Kirstie says.

"Yeah, I had my phone turned off. I'll call her. No telling what that sleazy b*tch has told everybody in Nederland." Tim says as he gives Henry a drink of milk.

"Ohhhh, Ti." Patches says once again covering his mouth.

"Oh, hush." Tim chuckles.

Patches laughs and claps his hands.

*********

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