Current day, North of Mount Silver, Virginia.

The little dog growled, baring its tiny teeth at the man standing ominously over the family. The four of them seated at gunpoint in their living room.

"Keep that ugly thing quiet!" he commanded.

Raven looked up at the man, her eyebrows furrowed. "Mr. Buttons don't like you none. You're mean."

"I'll show you mean, pipsqueak," he shot back.

Another man standing parallel from the first shouted, "Shut the hell up, Ben. Kevin told us to..."

Frannie stood. "I should've known it was that bastard Kevin. What's he and my no-good ex up to this time?" she asked with her hands on her hips, the woman's pretty face a mask of contempt. "What did they go and do, piss someone off and now whoever it is wants to kill me and the kids?"

"No, ain't nothin' like that, ma'am."

"Ma'am? I'm not your momma, asshole!" she replied sharply, crossing her arms. "If I were, I'd a done beat your ass..."

"Ain't nothing stopping that, lady," Ben replied with a smirk.

"Uh oh, you and the bad man are gonna make Jesus mad at all of you, mommy," Raven said.

"Alright young lady, shut it, I don't need your business right now!"

"Yessum, momma!" the girl said sadly, petting her still very dirty and very hungry pet.

"Look woman, they'll be here in a minute and you can take this shit up with them then," he said. "But, right now you need to sit your pretty rear back down on that couch."

"Oh, nah uh, this is my house!" Frannie responded angrily. "You don't tell me..." Her voice trailed off as she heard the rumbling of an approaching loud engine. She recognized the sound of Kevin's old Camaro as it came up the driveway.

All eyes turned toward the door as the sound of footsteps and muffled voices emanated from the front porch.

The door flew open and one angry Cole stormed into the house. He pointed a finger behind him. "Get the hell out, both of you!"

Kevin stood on the porch holding the screen door for the two large men as they exited. He didn't dare cross the home's threshold and like a vampire waiting for permission to come in, just stood silently on the porch. He understood full well the fury of one mama bear named Frannie that was holed up inside and wanted no part of her.

"Benjamin Cole Hitchens, what in the hell are you up to?" the woman inquired furiously. She strode angrily over to him and forcefully jammed a finger into the man's t-shirt clad, very hard chest. "I can barely afford to keep a roof over these kids' heads with the small amount of child support you pay me! If you go and get your ass sent off to prison again...I, um, I don't know what I would do!" Frannie's shoulders drooped and her head fell. She lifted her hands to her face and began sobbing into them.

Cole felt his heart sink and his fear leave. He grabbed the crying woman on instinct and pulled her toward him, holding her tight.

Raven shoved the dog into Hunter's arms and ran over along with Kaitlyn to join in the hug. The boy sat back down, petting the dog, attempting to ignore the activity.

"You're a dick, Cole," the woman said with a sniff, snuggling deeper into his embrace. "I hate you for what you did."

The man rested his cheek on Frannie's pretty head, enjoying the warmth of her body against his. It was a feeling he had missed every day since he had been sentenced to prison.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, honey?" Cole replied, looking down into Raven's large eyes.

"Are you going to stay, now?"

"Not tonight," Frannie sniffed, breaking her ex-husband's embrace. She pushed the man away from her and knelt down to Raven's level. "No, baby. Daddy's actually gonna get on out of here and go back to not breaking the law. Ain't that right, Cole?" She glanced up and shot her ex-husband a sharp, pointed look.

He squinted back, "Ummm, yeah. That's right," wondering what the phrase, not tonight, meant.

"Why can't daddy stay?" Kaitlyn asked. "He ain't hurtin' nothing. He's still our daddy and this is his house, too!" She ran over and grabbed Cole around his middle. "Please don't leave daddy, I missed you so much!"

Cole inhaled and closed his eyes, feeling the tears beginning to form in them. He pried his oldest daughter from his waist and looked into her eyes. He could still remember the first time he did that. She was so small and helpless, looking back at him as he held her in his hands with no care in the world. "Sweetheart, I can't do that. Me and your mom, well, we can't go back, 'cause your granddaddy and me, we did some bad stuff and..."

"Don't bring my daddy into this, Cole! This is all you, I don't know why you keep throwin' him under the bus. Own it and be done with it. Daddy, was a good God-fearing man...an honest man! You need to point a finger at someone...how 'bout you point it at that son of a bitch out yonder!" Frannie extended an arm and a slender finger toward Kevin who was quickly backing off the front porch to safety.

Cole cleared his throat to argue but stopped, he chose instead to crack a weak smile at his ex. "Right, well, I have to go, uh, take care of some things." Cole released the teary-eyed Kaitlyn and sadly eyed his son, sitting alone, attempting to stay detached from the situation. "Bye, Hunter," he said.

"Will you just go on and leave, already? That's what you're good at!" the boy responded.

"I'm goin', but for what it's worth, I do love you guys and I'm, uh, I'm sorry." he said, his voice shaking. "One day..."

"One day? No!" Raven ran up to him and he knelt to give her a big hug. "Please come back and stay with us, daddy. Please, don't stay gone, again!"

Cole looked up at Frannie to see her standing across the room with her hand over her mouth and tears streaming down her face. She quickly turned away and walked toward the window. He squeezed Raven tightly then stood and opened the squeaky screen door to walk outside. He glanced once more at Hunter, then let it close with a familiar smack. Cole stepped down from the porch and approached the Camaro. He smelled the odor of pot in the air.

"That went well." Kevin said observing Cole as he approached. "Wanna hit?" he asked, taking another drag from the joint held in his fingertips.

"Nah." Cole quickly threw his right fist into the side of Kevin's face, the left to the other, finally burying his right into the man's abdomen sending the joint flying and Kevin doubling over to the ground.

"What the hell dude?" the stoned man said, spitting blood and tobacco from his mouth.

Cole reached down and helped Kevin up. "Now, we're even."

"The hell you say, bro," he replied, putting his hand to his jaw to verify nothing was too seriously damaged. "Not until we got that money in our hands."

"I know, but I had to clear the air."

"Hey, speaking of clearing the air, did you see where that roach went?"

"Just roll yourself another one, you lazy bastard," Cole laughed. "...but give me the keys. I'm driving!"

***

Frannie watched the strange activity play out in her front yard. She knew that Cole had kept his distance from the troublesome Kevin Monroe ever since he had quietly gotten out of the slammer. It was concerning to her that he would suddenly become so friendly with the man out of the clear blue like this again. Her ex had practically became a hermit of sorts after release, shying away from any place but Reno's Garage, where he worked as a mechanic or his little apartment in town, right above his old friend Tom's pizza joint. That simple circular path had become Cole's sad and lonely existence after prison. In fact, he had avoided all of his old haunts, including, sadly, her house and the four people that lived in it.

Their divorce was his idea, not hers. She had made every opportunity to keep in contact with him, to let him know she was waiting, his kids were waiting. She tried every way possible to make sure he knew they loved him and wanted him home. Then something happened, he quit writing back, stopped calling to talk to them, and even quit showing up when they would visit, almost as if he had vanished in plain sight.

Before he went to jail, his family was his everything. Frannie was no doubt his soul mate, but their children were his sunshine to her moon and his relationship to the four of them all was as variant as the seasons. He was wonderful in that way. Cole made everyone in their little family feel special, no one of them considering themselves more precious than the other, but still each placed on a pedestal. Frannie herself would still occasionally wrestle with her jealousy when her husband would seem to ignore her in lieu of playing outside with the kids or running into town with them on some adventure, leaving her with a dirty house. Only to return later with a car full of sleeping children and some gas station rose in hand, sweeping her off her feet once more like they were in high school all over again. She would smile a sweet smile and forgive him of his trespasses and he would answer with one of pure lust, then relieve her of her tensions. They were beautiful together in this way...

Frannie felt something tugging on the bottom of her flannel shirt.

"Mommy, the puppy's whining, it's hungry, can we go now, please?"

"Yes, Raven, sorry baby, let's go."

"Hey, what's that momma?" Hunter asked, pointing at her bottom.

"What's what?" she asked trying to look behind her.

"This? Hey, this is a hundred dollar bill, momma!"

The woman lifted the note from the boy's hand and eyed it. Cole must have slipped it into her back pocket when he was hugging her. "Son of a bitch," she said under her breath.

"Jesus hears you sayin' them nasty words..."

"Hush, Raven!"

"Yes, ma'am."