The Aria Within the Rhapsody **ON HIATUS**

Chapter 20: The Adventure Begins!

Freddie's POV:

I cannot believe this is happening again! First, Aria runs off due to the unfortunate circumstances caused by Paul Prenter. Now, Ash decides he wants to wander off and explore on his own. I thought I taught these children better than to wander away from me. Now, the world knows who they are which puts them more in danger. Apparently, we need another lecture on the matter. I keep pacing around the sitting room of the duck house with nothing but worry on my brain. "Uncle Freddie, please stop pacing. You are making me nervous." Olivia says stroking my daughter's hair on her lap. "I'm making you nervous?! Really, Olivia Marie?! How the fuck do you think I feel? Ugh! This is Aria's disappearance all over again! What's worse is that this time we are in a different country. My Ash must be so scared." I say about to cry. My little baby is out there all alone. Little did I know that he was having the time of his life.

Ash's POV:

I woke up the next morning thinking that this had been a strange dream and would walk out of the room to find Papa, Jim, Liv, and Ria waiting for me to have breakfast with them. I look all around and find it is not so. I see Bria sleeping in a big bed and the smell of biscuits catches my nose. I follow the smell to the small kitchen and see Shawn with messy hair making what he didn't know was my favorite breakfast. "Morning, sleepy head." He says. He doesn't look away from what he is doing, but I can tell he is smiling. "Good morning! That smells good!" I say rubbing my tummy. "Thanks. It's not much but they love it. We don't have bacon all that often so when we do, we enjoy it." he says back to me. He looks over at me with a weird look on his face before he asks me, "Want to help me?" My eyes go wide. Phoebe has never asked Ria or me if we want to help him cook. I have always wanted to so I jump at the chance to say, "Yes please!" I go quickly over to him as he pulls out a step stool for me seeing as I can't reach the counter. "Hop up." Shawn says as he lifts me onto the stool. "You, my friend, can help me crack the eggs. See there are seven people are in this apartment so we need a lot of eggs." I've never cracked an egg before. I watch Shawn do one, and I try to do it too. When I cracked my egg, it made a mess all over the counter. "Whoops!" Shawn chuckles, "It's ok. Accidents happen." he grabs the towel off his shoulder like Phoebe does and cleans up the messy egg. "Ash, have you ever cracked an egg before?" he asks me. "Uh. . . No. Where I live, we have someone do it for us. He doesn't let me or my sister help even though I really want to." I said looking down, "I'm sorry for breaking your egg." Shawn starts laughing again and I look up. "Don't be sorry. It's just an egg. There's more where that came from. Here, let me show you." Shawn helps me back onto the stool, puts another egg into my hand, stands behind me, and shows me the right way to crack an egg. "You are up early though. Did you sleep ok?" he asks worried. "I slept fine." I begin, "I'm used to getting up early." I splain (explain) "Got it." he says. Next one to join us in the kitchen is Caden. "Who are you?" he asks scared. I haven't met him yet. Shawn walks over to him and puts an arm around his shoulders to let him know it was ok and says, "Relax, little man. This is our new friend Ash. He got separated from his family and he's staying here until we can find them. Come and help us make breakfast." Shawn lets go of Caden and walks back over to me and I make room on the stool for him. "I'm Caden. Glad to meet you." Caden says as we begin cracking the eggs. "Same to you." I say back to him. I can already tell we are going to be good friends. Little did I know that once I get back to my Papa, I won't see them for a long time.

"Shawn. Where's Bri?" Caden asks worried about his sister. "She's still sleeping. That spell was the worst one yet. I expect she might stay the whole day in bed." Shawn answers his son. 'Yea, all because of me. If I hadn't run off, Bria would be ok.' I think to myself with a sad look on her face. She reminds a lot of my sissy when she has her fits. "Hey why the long face, bud?" Shawn asks me with a worried look on his face. I couldn't stop my tears from falling when I said, "I'm sorry that Bria had a fit. I know it's my fault." I look away when all of a sudden I feel someone lift my chin up. "Hey, it's ok." Shawn says soothingly, "Bria is ok. She just needs rest. She will be back to normal in no time. No need for the tears." "What is all that noise?" Bria comes into the kitchen rubbing her eyes. "Speak of the devil and the devil shall come." Caden asks laughing at his sleepy sissy. "Well, good morning to you too, sunshine. Care to join us since breakfast is finished?" Shawn asks bringing the breakfast to the dining room table. Bria smiles wide when she sees the food. "Breakfast!" Shawn calls as the other two come to the table. Shawn walks away for a mo and comes back with a small girl, "Ash, this is my littlest one. This is Kaylynn. She's two." he says. "Hi." I wave to her. She hides her face in his neck as he leaves a kiss to her forehead, "Can you say hi?" he asks her. "Eye. (hi)" she says not sure of me. He puts Kaylynn in a high chair and puts some tiny pieces of eggs on her tray so she can eat. "Kaylynn! No, sweetie! Put the egg in your mouth and not on the floor!" Shawn said annoyed, "See guys, this is why we cannot have nice things." He grabs his rag he left on the counter and begins cleaning up the mess of eggs on the floor. "Uhh, Shawn, we don't have nice things to begin with." Alex says while eating his breakfast. "THAT'S NOT THE POINT HERE!" Shawn snaps as we bust into laughing. "Hey Papa says that sometimes." I say happy. "Really?" Shawn asks, "Now that I think about it I don't think I asked you this, but, Ash, who are your parents?" I look at him. "I only have one parent. That's Papa. But um. . . " I begin to say when there was a rumble outside. Shawn goes over to the window and really looks annoyed. "Are you serious right now?" He says out the window, "Come on it's not even ten o'clock yet!" He throws his rag back onto the counter and goes out the front door. Once the door closes, everyone cept (except) Kaylynn gets up from the table and goes to the window. "What was that about?" I asked. "Oh it's just Leon. He does this all the time." Lilah speaks up. "Yea, he insists that he tinker with his skate boards and build a little park to use said board. Usually, he waits until 11 to start with the noise, but for whatever reason he's starting early." Bria goes on. "Usually, Shawn doesn't mind. But today, he hasn't had his coffee yet so he is a bit. . . unhinged." Oh boy. . . I know what Papa is like when he doesn't have his tea. . . He becomes a monster. Before we know it, we hear Shawn coming up the stairs and we hurry back to the table. He comes back in and sits back down and finish eating.