Sharp blades of glass pricked Sid's back. The sun beat down on her face causing more sweat beads to pop up on her forehead. Her chest heaved as she struggled to catch her breath. Closing her eye against the sun she tried to regulate her breathing. Out of shape wasn't the word for it. The human body was supposed to work better than this, she was sure, but the things she'd put it through the last year, hell, the last few weeks were insane. She still felt her poorly healed injuries from the bike accident. The mental weight of Phil across town in a hospital bed. The emotions of trying to set past wrongs right while wanting so badly to move forward toward her future. Right now she desperately needed to get up off of the ground. But her exhausted body wouldn't let her.

A shadow fell across her face. She tried to peel her eyes open and look at the figure hovering over but the sun blinded her. Before she could get up she felt the pressure hit her chest and warm liquid explode on her chest. She rolled away but still couldn't conjure the strength to get to her feet. She felt another explosion on her back.

"Ok! Ok! You got me." She coughed out as she gasped for breath, still trying to get away.

"Mommy's had enough, AJ!" She finally heard Aiden's voice from across the yard and said a tiny prayer. As she rolled over she saw that AJ was nearly upon her again. His hand cocked back with another balloon filled with water. The boy's arm wasn't only good for baseball. She watched as he looked back at his Dad who closing the back door and heading toward them. AJ's glee-filled eyes focused on her again like he was contemplating throwing that last balloon anyway. Sid took the chance to grab him and pull him down onto her lap. The excitement caused him to squeeze the balloon and it popped all over both of them anyway sending him into a fit of giggles.

"Thank you for saving me." Sid snuggled AJ close and buried her face in his hair like she always did. Breathing him in and locking it away in a place just for her. After seeing the brutality of Phil's injuries in the hospital Sid needed something gentle. She missed the simplicity and innocence that AJ brought her every day. Her visit wasn't planned and if it wasn't for their talk before she probably would never have even considered it. But she found herself on Aiden's doorstep knocking without even calling first. She batted away the piece of her brain that was screaming for her to run away, still stuck on autopilot after years of training. When Aiden opened the door and welcomed her in she was glad that she had fought against her typical ways. Glad something in her had shifted even though it terrified her. Before she knew it, hot dogs were on the grill, and her and AJ were locked into a cutthroat water balloon fight.

"No problem. I saw him going in for the kill. Here." Aiden passed her a beach towel and tried to wrangle AJ into another towel but AJ just snuggled deeper against Sid. She wrapped the towel around the both of them with him nestled into her lap. Her racing heart slowed and her breath leveled out.

"I'm glad you came. I was..."

"Worried?" She finished the sentence for Aiden. She'd jumped down his throat so many times just for asking how she was so she understood his hesitation.

"Yeah. How did everything work out with that?"

"Still working it out."

"There's no chance of you letting this go?" Aiden sat the plate of raw burger meat on the table and settled into the wooden chair on the patio.

"I can't."

"You can." He said, his voice cautious and measure but serious. Sid remained quiet. He took a breath before continuing. "Do you think your Dad expected you to avenge his death? Being mixed up with people like this is dangerous."

"It's about more than that."

"How so?" AJ wriggled out of her lap and went to inspect the plate that was on the table. Aiden held his little hands toward the seasoned burger meat before Aiden pulled him away from it. Sid hoisted herself off the ground and went over to the grill. The smell of grilled meat wafted up toward her as she pulled the sizzling food off of the racks. She threw a new batch of burgers on the grill. Looking back at Aiden and AJ relaxing on the patio chairs made her ache for this life. Her Aiden and their kid in the backyard playing and barbecuing on a hot summer day.

But she was surprised to notice that her vision had shifted. Instead of seeing Aiden in that spot, she imagined... Phil. She felt that tug in her chest and held onto it. For the first time in forever, she was able to see a future.

"Aiden, he's had our entire neighborhood in his grips for years. God...probably even longer. You remember Ahmed and Ahsan?"

"From the chicken joint?"

"Yes. This guy...Kru. He's taken over their whole business. Has them cleaning money for him. And so many others. He's trying to control them the same way he tried to control my dad."

"Jesus." Aiden blinked rapidly as he tried to process the information.

"Yeah. I can't just move on and let him keep doing this." Sid hesitated before saying the next part, but because she was on an honesty kick she forged ahead. "And...there's someone I really care about who's...involved." She busied herself with the remaining burgers to keep herself from looking Aiden in the eye. But after a few beats of silence, she ventured a glance his way and saw a small smile on his face.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing. I'm just...glad." It was all he said and Sid was content with leaving it like that.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I can't get to him. But I'm going to get to what he cares about the most."

***

As Sid stood on her mother's doorstep again, it dawned on her that she had been there more times in the past few weeks than she had in the last few years. Something about the current circumstances kept pulling her back toward unresolved things. It's the most uncomfortable she's been in a while. Like removing a tree from a yard it's been in for centuries. It wouldn't go down with causing a ruckus. The door swung open to reveal Regis in a green golf shirt and a mug. Time to cause a ruckus.

"Hi, Sidney. Come on in. I'll go get your mother." He said with that timid smile he always wore. Sid stepped past him and into the foyer before turning around.

"Actually, I came to talk to you."

Regis's mouth opened and closed as he tried to hide his shock. "Of course. Yes. Sure." He was visibly nervous as he led her to his office. Sid couldn't blame him. The angst anxiety-ridden daughter of your second wife invites you to have a chat after never speaking to you for six years is pretty alarming. He probably thinks I'm going to try to kill him, Sid thought. She plastered a smile on her face to seem more innocent but after catching a glimpse of herself in the sunburst mirror on the wall she realized she just looked devious. She dropped the smile as she watched Regis try to decide whether to sit behind his desk or stand near the edge of it. He finally decided on what he thought was a relaxed lean against the desk but he still looked ready to flee or defend himself at any moment.

"Umm...I know I haven't spoken to you much..." Sid started in, eager to get the feelings part over with. Regis released a sarcastic grunt. "Ok. Ever. But you came in so quickly after my dad died. It was too much, too soon. I...why? Why did you marry my mom so quickly? What was the big rush?" Sid could hear her heart beating in her ears. Slow down. Calm down. Regis remained steady. He clasped his hand together in his head and nodded. Like he knew this day was coming.

"That day when we first met? That was the first time I met your mother as well. A mutual friend of ours told me about your father's accident and I wanted to help." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He flipped the smooth leather toward her to reveal a picture. A wallet-sized photo of a woman. Beautiful. Her afro, shiny and uniform reaching toward the bent edges of the photo. Her smile was huge and radiating as a slightly younger version of Regis nuzzled his face in her neck. A man in love. They looked like this photo was snapped in the middle of bliss. "My first wife, Tabitha, was killed when a crane fell from a construction site in Bed Stuy."

"I'm sorry." Sid's eyes were already welling with tears. Regis waved it off and rubbed a sniffle from his nose.

"I was devastated to say the least. Even though I was a business lawyer I became super focused on getting people justice from city contractors and agencies. When I heard about you guys and your mom...it was almost two years later but I went over there to help. Let her know that someone understood that loss. The pain of it and could help. I mean...we just bonded after that."

"I understand that. But you guys just went to the court one day and got married. Whitney and I weren't even there."

"That was your mother's idea. She didn't want to make a big fuss. She especially didn't want you kids to sit through a wedding. She knew you guys were both struggling with it."

"And she wasn't? It was her husband."

"She was. So much. But people deal with grief in different ways Sidney. We were both still grieving so I think it helped. We held each other up and moved forward."

Sid wasn't eager to believe the story. We just fell in love. They were adults not two teenagers in High School. "It just so happened to be a week after the case was settled. Seems convenient."

"Sidney..." Regis seemed hurt. Sid felt guilty but pushed the feeling aside. She had a right to ask the questions she never did. Express her own hurt. He was involved. He was a part of it too. "Your mom and I have a pretty extensive Prenup. I can't touch her money. Any of it. And she can't touch mine."

"Yours?"

"Your mother's case was the fifth wrongful death case I argued. Tabitha's was the first...and I won."

Sid's head sagged. She was disappointingly wrong about Regis. Painfully wrong.

Changing the shape of him in her mind was causing a headache. The way she read this man as a leeching ambulance chaser when he was really... He managed to somehow restore her mother. Maybe it was fast, but she knew now that you can't control how fast someone comes in and changes your entire life. Who's to say what's too fast when you're being rescued from yourself?

"I don't hold anything against you, Sidney. The loss you experienced is unimaginable. I just always hoped that we'd get our time to talk about things. I'm happy that time is now." He was letting her off the hook.

"Thank you." She put on a weak smile through her embarrassment. Regis nodded and returned the smile. Sid saw him rest his weight on the desk a bit more.

"There is something I wanted to ask you." Sid started but didn't want him to think that was the only reason she'd come. But when she saw his smile widen with eagerness she pushed on. "I wanted to, umm, if I wanted to...acquire some businesses, what the process? Like how quickly can that happen?"

"If everyone involved is on the same page? Funding streams are locked in...it can be as quick as one meeting." Regis explained and Sid nodded. "Got some businesses in mind?"

"Yeah, a few."

"That's exciting. Well, I'll be more than happy to help if you need it."

"Help with what?" Tanya came into the room with her t-shirt covered in soil from working in the garden. Neither Regis nor Sid said anything. "You two?" She pressed again. Sidney looked at Regis who was shooting a look her way. His eyes told her that his lips were sealed if she wanted them to be. Sid appreciated it but she would also need to talk to her mother also known as the funding stream.

"Have you eaten yet?" Sid asked her mother. Tanya regarded her skeptically.

"I was just about to order something for dinner."

"Well how about I cook and we talk about a few things," Sid said. Tanya was obviously thrown off by her daughter's offer. She shot a look over at Regis. He gave a little nod. Tanya's eyes were back on Sid.

"That would be really nice, sweetie." Tanya smiled a genuine smile that warmed Sid to see. She placed a hand on her daughter's cheek before heading off to the kitchen. Sid took another moment there with Regis. Just to let whatever bridge they climbed over solidify and the water of their old turmoil run smoothly beneath it. 

Uh oh, that was two updates in a row! It seems like Sid has a plan and she's not going to let up until she gets a piece of Kru. But we all know Kru...will he get a piece of her first?