Mark Arbour

Ooooo! Different colors! Pretty! Merry Christmas to you too, and thanks for the review.

Thanks for the Christmas wishes (they are returned), and thanks for the review!

And a Merry Christmas to you as well! You should worry about Matt.

Thanks Terry. Isn't that really a huge part of maturing? Getting those filters working so we don't react right away? :-)

Thanks for the review, and for all the nice things you said. I have to agree with you. I really liked your observation about Brad. He is doing much better with Will.

Zach is an enigma. We're getting real positive signs from him, based on the way he treats and acts around Will. We've also seen him as the cocky "player" type. And of course, we've seen Gathan's less-than-charitable views. Hard to know.

This one is actually easy to explain. The reason why Brad has to tiptoe around about inviting Wally and Clara is because it's not Brad's trip. He invited himself along in the first place. It's the equivalent of you inviting yourself along to a party a friend is going to, and volunteering to drive. Then you decide to bring other people along without asking the friend who invited you if it's alright. Especially if the friend isn't overly fond of the people you decided to invite along.

Thanks big guy. Glad I could provide some sin to balance out the holiness.

Thanks. It hasn't been fun writing all this grieving, but it has been strangely therapeutic. I think that Brad is approaching things a lot differently now that he doesn't have Robbie to anchor him.

You're welcome, and the same to you!!

You win! Thanks for the review!

October 14, 2001 Escorial Sunday night dinners at Escorial were usually pretty formal and well-attended, but after the long weekend with Ethan and Joe, this one was pretty mellow. Darius was out on a date, JJ was still in LA with Tiffany, the Hobarts were busy with various shit, and Frank and Grandmaman had gone over to Santa Cruz for a few days to see if that would make Frank any happier. So that left me, Dad, Stef, and Grand, along with Matt, Wade, and Nana, but we were still dr

Very Cool Jeremy!

No matter what holiday you celebrate, I hope it's wonderful! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank two groups of people who are undoubtedly more important to me than they realize. If I were to visualize my efforts here at GA as a vehicle, I would obviously see myself as the driver, because I'm a vain control freak. But to carry that analogy on, those of you who read my stories and post reviews or comments in the forum are like the fuel. You keep me going. Without your interest and support, I'd be a lot less productive, a lot less motivated, and a lot less satisfied with my writing. And furthering the analogy, my team is like my mechanic, making sure everything works right, seems right, and looks right. They are an invaluable group to me, and I cherish them. From time to time, a snarky person - usually someone who wants to write and be appreciated, but isn't - will whine about the number of forum posts I have, the reputation points I've gathered, the Reader's Choice Awards I've won, etc. I generally roll my eyes in a contemptuous way, because those aren't things I generate, those are things my readers generate. They are a sign of the incredibly loyalty of my readers, and the incredibly hard work my team puts in. I appreciate all of you. As for me, I've escaped from the miserable St. Louis winter for a few weeks, and am enjoying sunny and (relatively) warm Arizona. Some good family time, then I'm trekking to the Cotton Bowl, to watch our Missouri Tigers stomp the living shit (hopefully) out of Oklahoma State. It's been a trying year for me, with a lot of ups and downs, but I'm heading into the new year with a pretty optimistic feeling. I hope all of you can do the same.

Grienne, Thanks for that excellent review! You've clarified for me what Tim probably meant by 'lack of compassion', but I think you're right in that it more realistically stems from Wade. I suspect that he's doing what he knows how to do, and it treating Ethan like he thinks he should. He hasn't really taken the step of empathizing with him. I think the rest of them, Nana especially, get credit for trying to help out. Sometimes, a tough love approach is needed, and that's what Nana is doing. Matt is much easier to figure out. He's got a fear of intimacy, so after losing Robbie, he's pushing everyone away.

Thank Kitt! These guys are all dealing with their grief in different ways. For Matt, it's like he's fleeing (or regressing) back to a different time, and he's pushing everyone away.

Thanks for the review, Jason. As with most of your comments, it's enlightening and thought provoking. I think that Wade is also seeing how he handles Ethan as a test of how he'll handle Riley when he gets older.

Thanks Miles! I think that the revitalization in Claremont is a good legacy for Robbie. Ethan is pretty immature for his age, but he'll hopefully grow up.

Hilarious and true! Tim: I'll PM you for death ideas for Tony if I ever decide to off him.

I can see how Ethan would have a lot of resentment, but on the other hand, he may very well want to be left alone. Actually, the person I can see really having a blow up with Ethan is JJ. Will would put up with a lot of crap from Ethan, just to make things better for Wade. JJ doesn't have Will's great bond with Wade, so he'd just see Ethan as some boorish idiot, and would probably not feel overly constrained in pointing that out to him.

Thanks for the review. I don't think I could adequately show this time frame after the attack and their losses without addressing the emotional issues they're dealing with. These are times when people often make major life-changing decisions, even though their minds are clouded with grief. To remove the grief and the clouds would be disingenuous.

You raise an interesting issue regarding the schools Ethan has attended and their training, but I think that if Ethan is raised exclusively around his peers, those lessons may not resonate.

You're too funny. I don't think Will has a lack of compassion for Ethan. After all, he's spending a good part of his weekend trying to be a good host to the kid. But it's hard to be nice to someone who treats you like shit. Will's flaw here is probably a lack of patience, not a lack of compassion.

Thanks for the review, and your nice words! I think you nailed Wade's frustration, and it would be easy to write off his concern as just worry about potential damage to his family's reputation, but I think he genuinely wants to prepare Ethan for what's ahead, what he'll have to deal with.

I think it's reasonable to expect that a guy like Ethan, who has been raised almost exclusively in a boarding school environment, would be unused to having a family around, and wouldn't necessarily appreciate said family.