Kitt

Soooo not fair...making me choose between two authors on my "gotta read immediately" list for king of the cliffies! At least the only other category I had trouble deciding in was best protagonist. Every single author on the lists deserve to be there. Thank you all for providing so much fantastic reading material. You should all be proud of yourselves.

Jumping Jimminy - how am I supposed to keep up with all that reading and do my editing too???

A nice calm uneventful chapter. Why does that make me just a tad nervous? Welcome back. It was a nice surprise to get home from work this afternoon and find your sabbatical was a short one! For what it is worth? While I do think some of the cast are acting a bit out of character, it isn't something that would be unexpected considering the stresses they have all been under. In fact, if they had gone about their lives business as usual it would have worried me. As it is I keep waiting for both JJ and Matt to have a huge melt down. Thinking about the way JJ reacted to his coaches death last Christmas, I keep finding myself wanting to check that there is a fully stocked first aid kit handy. Great as usual Mark. Thank you.

What ever your reasons for putting 911 on hold, please know that SOME of us love the story just the way you have written it Mark. Some may get a tad out of line in their alignment for or against a character, but I think you should take that as a compliment to your writing, the ability to evoke strong emotions in your readers. Your fans will be here waiting patiently for the return of updates.

Nice to see things go the way they should for a change! Too many times the bully wins. Great story Wayne.

LOL nothing is really off topic in this forum! We run off on tangents all the time! Damn well told!

It is really hard to support someone who does not want help and support. Matt has demonstrated that he has very little regard for anything that has been said to him so far. He has systematically pushed everyone away in one form or another. Like a drug addict or alcoholic - you can't help them until they WANT to be helped. I can't say as I can blame Wade for being too hurt and angry to want to deal with it any more. Even if we excuse all the screwing around Matt did as part of the agreement, since the tragedy Matt has done nothing but try and get as much distance between himself and Wade as possible. I can't fathom how he got from "I have to do something" to "I'm moving in with Tony" so fast, think the way he behaved when Wade found him packing was low, and he had no right at all to get pissed when Wade took his ring off. In my world that ring means something. Apparently it doesn't mean anything similar in Matt's world.

Oh my - where to start? How about with the words "GREAT CHAPTER". Are you TRYING to give me indigestion with my breakfast??? As much as I was hoping that Matt would pull his head out of his ass, it seems like he is intent on sticking it so far up there he can see out his belly button. Guess it's true what they say, have to hit bottom before you can climb back up. I have to wonder just how much of a mess he has to make of his life before he see's what he has been doing in alienating every member of his family in one way or another is not in his best interest. I also would love to have had a listen in on his last few conversations with his adoptive parents. Is he screwing up his relationship with them too? I don't get where Frank is coming from at all. I can certainly understand why he would want to help and support his grandson, but honestly? Coming down on Wade for the move out? Will may have lost it a bit at the dinner table, but no where near as badly as I imagined. I am sure some will use it as fodder for the "Will is an immature brat" fire, but I think he did fairly well with the whole thing considering everything that has happened. Kudo's to Claire for finding the words to talk Will down! Wade and Klip intrigue me. Not that it surprises me Wade would latch onto the first affection shown to him in quite a while, but Klip always struck me as a very straight dude who enjoyed a short walk on the wild side with Wade when nothing else was available. Seems he is exploring, and I hope Wade doesn't end up paying the price.

Hi Aaron. Don't be frightened of us. We are not as intimidating as it seems! And Ricky has an excellent point, there is definitely an "ask and ye shall recieve" thing going on, for example WL's Halloween and Christmas challanges and Comicfan's weekly prompts.

Hi Jon and welcome to GA.

Slowly but surely working my way thru all the good reading around here! Way to go Sam! Next time take a swing at the twit too! Loved it Wayne.

Maybe a subconscious hint that there SHOULD be a diner there and you should open one?

If its editorial and beta reading support you are looking for may I suggest the Editors corner or contacting the writer support team? Joanne and LJH are excellent with matching people up with editors they can work with. I have to second both Cia's and Zombie's comments - write everything you can down now while it is occurring, but delay publication till after everything is settled. The last thing you need is complications raised when some lawyer decides to try and use your own words against you.

I have to wonder about the general sanity of the entire Hayes family. Wally does nothing but rip Zach up about his game performance even when he hasn't actually seen the game. Words of praise seem non-existent. Will does what should be expected and clears an activity with the surrogate parents and gets called out on the carpet for not calling Ohio. Matt makes decisions in a vacuum, something we have seen yield disastrous results in this family in the past. Wade gets shut out of his partners world view and then gets criticized for continuing to try to move forward while Matt's goal seems to be to regress. I am beginning to think the entire lot of them needs not only one on one therapy, but group sessions as well. I always enjoy dinners at Escorial. They never seem to be your average meal, but swing from the wonderfully supportive (like Christmas dinner last year) to the wildly dramatic (like the year Matt was outted at Thanksgiving). It has been stated that eating promptly at 7 has become the norm due to JP's digestive system. I can't help but wonder how many dinners he heads for the bromo? As always, your work has brightened what is a snowy and dreary day in the northeast! Thank you.

Catherine seems like the kind of gal would end up being called Cat and not Cathy. She seems a bit hard around the edges, but I get the impression inside she will turn out a bit soft and gooey! Looking forward to more!

I agree with everything you said except this. Someone like his mother would be detrimental to his career, his family as it exists outside the immediate relationship, and to his mental health. I think if he had a partner that wasn't sleeping with anything that smiled prettily at him that Wade could be quite happy and not be HAVING "personal affairs" to turn a blind eye to. And you are right Matt's being BMOC would not be a problem if it were not for the fact that he has (for now) Wade. I know the word fidelity just does not seem to fit into the CAP family vocabulary as it pertains to romance, but it certainly does as it pertains to family. Matt doesn't seem to get that. He needs to get his act together and start behaving like a member of the family. If he wants Wade to be considerate of his opinions on grad school, where they live, and the rest, shouldn't he be there for Wade too? Something else to consider that no one has touched on yet. Wade has a son that is about a year old. His partner SHOULD be looking at that child as his son too. Matt entered into that threesome with Tiffany with the intent to get her pregnant. He could just have easily turned out to be the dad. Yet we see no indication that he even admits Reilly exists. Had it been his little swimmer won the race, would he still be sleeping around and partying like a rock star? Kids just don't fit with the BMOC image i guess. Yes - people will say "well they didn't and he isn't the father," but I ask - isn't he? I would expect my partner to be a responsible parent no matter who's DNA completed the equation. Shouldn't Wade want the same thing?

Oh good gravy - there goes trying to teach kids to be discrete!

What Rustle said! We are all pretty friendly people.

All of that just reinforced my opinion. Spiders bad, vacuum good And someone else gets to empty the canister- just in case they survive the ride!

I stand corrected

Thank you for the info on grad school admissions Tim. I will bow to your knowledge. Other than that - YOU were the one who brought up top tier-B schools, and that Matt should have the grades for them. If you look - it was not a misunderstanding of what you said or a misquote. It was a direct quote of your post. I simply asked why Wade should settle for that if he has tier-A grades?

I would be interested in what went on during the weekend away with Frank. We already know Matt has blown off at least one of the instructions Frank gave him at dinner, to leave the hockey team. We know that the appointment with the shrink Stef made for him conflicted with practice. I would love to know if he kept it or did he put the team first again? Nothing has been said about him bedding anyone since Halloween, has he complied with Frank's demand he "stop being a slut"? He may have been trying to reach out to Will when he canceled the car and decided to pick the guys up at the airport, but it was a bit backhanded. Knowing Will is pissed with him and having been told to stay out of his face, I wonder why it didn't occur to him that changing the plan without telling Will would set off Will's temper again? Senior year as I remember is when decisions like this are made, and by the time the senior year had started 911 had occurred and things got out of control fast. It was said on several occasions in the text that Matt had been turning away from Wade, that they were barely speaking. Makes discussions about grad school very difficult when you cant get the other guy to talk about what's happening on the weekend, let alone next year. I also wonder why Tim seems to think Wade should compromise his academic goals for Matt's benefit? Why should Wade settle for a B-tier school when he can get into the A list?

There are some other easily done things too - Stay home if you can but if you have to go out - gloves and hats are necessary. Most of your heat loss is out the top of your head. If you MUST go out and drive - take a few things along with you blanket water cereal or granola bars A lot of southerners dont have things like ice scrapers even available in local stores. A plastic spatula, the ones meant for non stick cookware makes a decent substitute in a pinch. So does table salt on those icy front steps. Ashes from a fireplace or fire pit works well on ice too. Just make sure they are no longer hot, especially if you are scattering them on wooden steps or decks.

I'm a bit older than most of you, and can remember a time when there were what we called block moms. My mother was one of them. If a child arrived home from school and found no one home they didn't need their own key- they just came to our place, sat at the table with us and did their homework. When their own parents made it home they knew to look at our house first. It was never something that was organize and set up - it just sort of happened. I had two friends within 5 blocks that I called their mother mom and they did the same with mine. All the ladies just mothered us all. LOL could be a tad annoying occasionally since the mom's all stuck together.

The glitch with that is seeking help is not a strong point of anyone in this story. Every single one who is in therapy had been more or less forced into it by someone that cares about them. Therapy was recommended, and an appointment made for Matt by Stef back when Matt had his discussion with JP. The only hint we have had about it is Matt's whine about it conflicting with hockey practice. As it the usual for this family, when help was offered, in several different forms, it has been firmly rebuffed. ok - Mark said the same thing in one word LOL