Early the next morning a black stretch limo drives up and is allowed access into the LeBeau driveway. Upstairs, as Henri was taking the luggage down to the foyer, Jean-Luc walks into the dark room of his youngest son. He sits down on the queen size bed to watch his son sleep. A gentle knock gets his attention. " It's time t' go." Jacques whispers.

" Adieu, mon petite fils." Jean-Luc whispers as he kisses his son good bye. He quietly closes the door behind him as he and Jacques go down the stairs together.

" The tickets are in this envelope." Therese hands it over to her uncle before giving him a hug. " Henri and I will take good care of Remy."

" I know you will Fille, but if anythin' goes wrong I want your word dat you will call me. Comprendre?" Jean-Luc eyes her while picking up one of the suitcases. " I mean it T'erese, if dat boy starts havin' dose nightmares again, you better call me."

" I promise, Uncle." Therese opens the door for them. Outside Henri was engaged in a conversation with Vincent St. James. Once the two see them coming, Vincent shakes Henri's hand and gets inside the car.

Jacques puts the bags inside the car before getting in himself. " Henri, dis is important t' me." His father begins. " Keep your temper, don' give de Assassins a reason t' start a war. Marius is only lookin' for an excuse t' start killin'."

" You trained me well, Père. I will not let you down." His son answers. " An' Bernard is goin' t' be spendin' a lot of time over here t' assist me." He suddenly turns around to see Therese trying to hide a huge smile. " I knew dat would make you happy, Soeur."

" Take care of de family." Jean-Luc gets inside the car as Henri closes the door behind him. Both he and Therese stand outside as the car drives away into the street and down the road into darkness.

" The gate's locked!" Therese glances at her brother's wristwatch. " It's just three-thirty? I am going back to bed." She walks back into the house as Henri follows behind her. She punches in several numbers on the key pad to activate the security system. " You staying down here?"

" Non, I'm goin' back t' bed too. I can still get a couple more hours of sleep b'fore my meetin' wit' de Guild." Henri stretches before going upstairs. Therese right behind him. She goes into her room across the hall from her younger brother and closes the door. Henri decides to take a quick peek on his brother. Remy still laid asleep on his stomach, his head buried under several pillows. Quickly closing the door, he goes down to the next door to check on his young cousin. Lapin was twisted up in his bedcovers, walking over Henri quickly untangles the boy who amazingly remains asleep.

Six hours later, Therese wakes up to the sun glaring through her window and hitting her in the eyes. She quickly gets dressed to find Lapin coming out of his room. " You look like you been up awhile."

" I get up early all de time." Her cousin admits as he ties the shoe laces on his sneakers. " Been watchin' cartoons in my room so I wouldn' wake up anybody." He cracks a sly grin. " You want me t' wake up Remy?"

" No, you leave him alone today, Lapin. He's going to have a rough time after he finds out his father is gone." Therese puts her finger to her mouth before she checks to make sure her brother was still asleep. " Come on, I'll make you breakfast."

Downstairs, Henri and Bernard LeBranche were drinking coffee and going over several papers that are spread out across a table, the second Therese comes down the stairs with Lapin, she freezes, her eyes wide. Turning quickly she runs back up the stairs and back to her room. " What's de matter wit' her?" Lapin glances up the stairs before sliding down the rest of the way down the railing.

" Women!" Henri laughs as he stacks the papers together. He knows he will have hell to pay when she comes back downstairs after he didn't let her know that Bernard was in the house. " Bernard, when T'erese comes back you protect me from her, no?"

" Mebbe she t'inks since Jean-Luc is gone, she can take your place." Bernard LeBranche starts laughing. He glances up to see his friend glaring at him. " Hey, chill Henri, you need t' lighten up a bit."

Therese finishes putting the last of her make up on and heads back down the stairs but a slight moan tells her that her brother was waking up. She opens the door to see him stirring under the covers. " Good morning Sleepy head, you want to get up or stay in bed all day?"

Remy sits up in bed and shakes his head before looking at her. He tries to focus his eyes but decides he would rather sleep instead. Laying his head back on one of his pillows, he closes his eyes. Suddenly he opens them and jerks straight up in bed. " Where's Papa? He hasn't left yet, has he?" He jumps out of bed and runs down the stairs yelling for his father. He stops in the foyer and sighs. " I didn' get t' say good bye."

" He said good bye t' you while you where asleep petite frère. Père didn' want t' wake you up." Henri replies as he sits down on the carpet behind the boy and turns him around to face him. " Got a surprise for you, guess who is comin' over later dis week?"

" Tante?" The boy asks, hoping he had guest right.

" Oui, an' she gonna be stayin' wit' us until Père gets back." Henri stands up again and returns to his papers. " You better get upstair an' change b'fore T'erese starts yellin' like a banshee." He slaps Bernarde across the leg as Remy runs up the stairs. " See, even petite frère knows dat T'erese runs dis house wit' an iron fist."

" I heard that!" His sister's voice calls out from the kitchen. Therese walks into the living room. " You want some breakfast?" She smiles sweetly to her brother's visitor. " Bernarde, you are more than welcomed to stay, we have plenty."

" Non, we gonna be leavin' soon." Bernard returns her smile. " T'anks anyway, mebbe I take a rain check, huh?"

Therese nods her head before grinning and returning back to the kitchen. " Henri, tell Remy that breakfast is ready."

Remy runs into the Kitchen to sit down across the small table from Lapin. " What we havin' t' eat?"

" No idea, but I don' care. I'll eat anythin'." Lapin replies as he continues to read a comic book.

" Wanna bet? You ain' never ate T'erese's cookin'." Remy giggles as his sister turns around and hits him. " What you cookin'?"

" Oatmeal."

" Oatmeal? I hate oatmeal, everybody knows I hate oatmeal" Remy tells her and who ever was in hearing distance. " I want eggs an' bacon." As soon as Remy had gotten his request out of his mouth, Lapin wanted the same. Both boys decided that oatmeal was not on their menus.

" You're getting oatmeal and you are going to eat it." Therese pulls out a bowl and pours in the oatmeal and serves it to her brother. " Remy you are setting a bad example for Lapin, now I know you eat oatmeal."

" But I want bacon an' eggs," Remy pouts as he takes his spoon and sticks it into the bowl. He looks up at his sister and flashes a smile. " T'erese, you know your my favorite soeur, will you fix me an' Lapin some eggs an' bacon?"

" You are eatin' oatmeal an' if you complain one more time about eatin' it, you will be gettin' a second helpin'." Therese says. " That little smile of yours isn't going to work this time, Remy."

Remy looks at Lapin who only shrugs back at his cousin. Both boys know now that they were not going to win. Lapin goes back to eating his breakfast while Remy just plays with his spoon.

Several minutes later, Therese sits down by the boys and start eating. Glancing over at her brother, Therese sprinkles sugar into her bowl. " It's not going to disappear until you eat it, Remy."

" I ain' gonna eat it." Remy shoves the bowl away, leans back into his chair and defiantly crosses his arms. Therese pushes the bowl back in front of him and dares him to move it again. Remy decided to leave well enough alone.

" I'm finished, may I be excused?" Lapin asks.

" Put your bowl in the sink and you can go upstairs to clean your room." Therese tells him as she continues to watch her brother. " Remy, oatmeal is good for you, now eat up before it gets cold."

" Don' want it." Remy mumbles.

" Then you march yourself upstairs and clean your room." Therese waits until he comes around her side of the table before she grabs him. " I'll let you slide this time Remy, but the next time you act like a baby at the table, I'm going to treat you like one. Now go before I change my mind."

Lapin heads up the stairs as he hears his cousin stomping his feet behind him. He quickly makes his bed and runs into Remy's room to find the bed still unmade, so he makes up the bed. " Remy where are you?"

" Under de bed."

Lapin stoops down and looks under the bed to find his cousin stuffing his mouth with powered doughnuts. " Hurry up an' eat dat, I t'ink I hear somebody comin' up de stairs." He starts laughing as Remy stuffs the last doughnut into his mouth and swallows it down before crawling out. " Wipe your mouth, Stupid or dey gonna know what you been eatin'."

Remy runs into his bathroom to get a glass of water to drink. Therese walks into the bedroom to find a smiling Lapin sitting on the bed. She eyes him carefully, knowing the two boys were up to something before she knocks on the bathroom door. " Remy, come out here. I got something that I want to say to the both of you."

The door opens and Remy comes out drinking from a paper Dixie cup. He tosses it away as he sits down on the bed. Therese sits down in the rocking chair. " Remy are you hungry? I don't like the idea of you not eating just to win an argument." Her brother assures her that he wasn't hungry before she was convinced. " Why don't you two go outside and play until dinner is ready. It's just too pretty of a day for two boys to be staying inside."

Both boys quickly rush out of the room and down the stairs. Henri and Bernard are almost run down by the two as they hurry outside. Several hours later, the boys were up in Remy's tree house when they see the black lambergini pulling out of the garage. " Henri, why don' you take me an' Lapin t' town wit' you. We're bored."

" Bored already?" Henri gets into his car as Bernard hops in the passenger side. " You need t' stay here today petite frère, I got a meetin' wit' de Guild an' I don' know how long it is goin' t' last." Cranking up the car, he revs up the engine as the two boys approach the car. " Tell you what, tomorrow we will all go fishin' down at de bay."

" Fishin' yeah!" Both boys yell out the same time as the car pulls out and disappears down the road after the gate locks behind it. " You wanna go run down t' de store down de end of de road? Got two bikes an' you can ride one." Remy asks his cousin. They jump on their bikes and head out down the end of the driveway. Remy punches in the code to open the gates and then reenters it to lock it back. " I found de code book in Henri's room de other day, Papa an' him change de codes everyday so nobody can break into de house. I wrote dem down for dis week, so we can get out anytime we want to."

Lapin starts pedaling his bike as Remy catches up with him. " What if T'erese comes lookin' for us?"

" She's busy watchin' dose stupid soap operas t' know we gone." Remy tries to keep pace with Lapin, who seemed to be heading off in a different direction. After turning off several roads, he yells." Hey, where you goin'?"

" De junk yard down de end of dis road, c'mon it's not much further." Lapin shouts back as he pedals pass the end of the paved road and unto a dirt road. " I wanna get somethin' outta dis place." He jumps off the bike and throws it down to run to an opening in a high chain link fence. The fence was over eight feet high and the top was covered with barbwire. He waits until his cousin joins him. " We go in here an' dat way nobody can see us."

" What you wan' in dis place?" Remy asks him. Lapin ignores him and crawls through the small opening with Remy following closely behind him. Lapin runs out of view behind several piles of junk cars and crushed machinery. Something glittering close by caught Remy's eye. He tries to decide to chase after Lapin or do his own exploring. Pulling out the glittering object, Remy was disappointed that it only turned out to be crushed hubcap. Tossing it away, he climbs over several old tires looking for anything of value. Things were just about to get interesting when he hears something coming his way. He manages to climb down as Lapin comes running as fast as he can.

" RUN!" Lapin screams as he runs pass his cousin.

Remy stares at him for only a second when he hears something. He turns to the direction of the sound to see three Doberman pinchers coming straight from him. Dropping everything in his hands he takes off in the direction that Lapin had gone. He saw Lapin climbing the fence but the barbwire at the top prevented him from climbing over.

" Dis is all your fault!" Remy starts climbing the fence. He was only several inches from Lapin when one of the dogs grabs him by his leg, ripping the blue jeans off his right leg from his knee down. He screams before Lapin manages to grab his hand to keep him from falling. Remy climbs up a little higher as the dogs gather at the bottom of the fence. Remy eyes the dogs for several minutes, when one looks up at him, their eyes lock and the boy starts climbing down after keeping the dog's attention.

" What you doin', Cousin? Dose dogs gonna rip you apart." Lapin watches as Remy stares down the dog as the two others just watch, not moving.

Remy smiles slightly as he reaches out and touches the dog. The dog begins to lick his hand. " Good boy, dat's a good dog." He starts petting the two other dogs after befriending the first dog. After several minutes of playing with the dogs, he looks up at his stunned cousin. " It's OK Lapin, you can stop shakin' de fence an' come down."

" How did you do dat?" Lapin jumps down and follows his cousin's lead and plays with the dogs.

Remy shrugs. " I don' know. Dat dog jus' looked up at me an' den all of a sudden he started likin' us." One of the dogs tries to lick him in the face, he turns quickly to avoid it. " See what I mean! Mebbe dey know we were not goin' t' hurt dem."

" Well let's get outta here b'fore dey decide dey are hungry an' wanna eat us." Lapin walks towards the hole in the fence. Remy was close behind him with their three new friends following as well. " Non, you doggies gotta stay here." Lapin pets the dogs once more before going through the broken chain link fence. Remy follows behind and puts several rocks to cover up the hole to keep the dogs behind the fence. Finding their bikes, they head back down the road that they had came from. Lapin slows his bike down and comes to a stop in front of a Diary Queen. " You stay out here an' watch de bikes an' I'll go get us somethin' t' eat." He pulls out several dollar bills from his pocket and goes inside. Lapin comes back in ten minutes with four hot dogs. Giving one to his cousin, he had an idea. " You wanna go back an' give two of dese t' dose doggies?" After getting his cousin approval, the two go back and feed their pets.

" You wanna go home?" Lapin asks his cousin as they ride down alone side the river bank. They continue to ride down an off beaten path that only a few seemed to have traveled. Stopping, Lapin looks down the road. " I don' know dis place, mebbe we better go back, huh?"

" Non, I'm goin' t' get yelled at for rippin' dese pants so I ain' in no hurry t' go home." Remy starts pedaling down the dirt road leaving his cousin behind. " Not scared are you, Lapin"

" Remy, I t'ink we close t' Assassin territory." Lapin tries to stop his cousin with his warning but it didn't work. He decided against better judgment to go after Remy. Both of the boys had gone about a half mile down the road when they see a little blond headed girl about their age playing by the river bank.

She was filling up two buckets with water when she sees the two boys. " You two new 'round here?" She asks as she stands up to greet them.

" Non, we live on de other side of town." Remy answers as he gets off his bike. He looks around for a house that the girl might live, seeing nothing but trees. " Where you come from?"

" Oh 'round." Was all she says as she smiles slightly while eyeing the two boys. She looks right at Lapin. " What's de matter, 'fraid I'm gonna bite ya?"

" I ain' scared of no girl." Lapin throws his bike down in anger. " C'mon Remy, let's go it's almost lunch time."

" Remy! Dat's your name?" She asks him. After Remy nods, she glances over at Lapin. " What's your name?"

" What's yours?"

" Belladonna! Don' wear it out." She grins.

" Lapin, an' it's a nick name b'fore you make fun of de name." Lapin tells her while he picks up his bike. " Remy, we gonna get in trouble if dey find out we left de house, will you come on."

" Want some help wit' dose buckets of yours?" Remy asks the girl as he eyes his cousin. " Lapin, get over here an' help her carry dis."

" Yeah right!" Lapin rides his bike around in circles. " She's de one who wants dat water so she can carry it. I ain' helpin' no girl do nothin'."

" Don' remember askin' for your help," Belladonna's blue eyes twinkle in the sunlight as she starts laughing. " I can do anythin' any boy can do an' more." She tries to reach down to pick up one of the buckets of water but Remy grabs it first.

" I'll carry it for you." He tries to pick up the bucket but finds out that it is too heavy for him. Lapin starts laughing, only making Remy more determined to lift the bucket. Heaving one more time, he only manages to lose his balance and fall on his backside. This started another round of laughter from Lapin. " You t'ink dis is so easy, you come over here an' pick it up."

Belladonna walks over and picks up the bucket with ease before she carries the water back to the river and throws it in. She was about to make a wise crack when she notices someone coming out of the woods.

" There you are Chile, you been sick for two weeks an' here you are playin' outside. I want you back in de house dis very minute." Tante tells the girl before she notices the two boys, she was at first shocked but it quickly wore off. " Please do as I say, girl."

" Oui, Tante." Belladonna heads off back into the woods. " Mebbe we meet again another day boys." She grins again and disappears back into the trees.

Tante eyes both boys twice before she would even speak. " What are you doin' on dis side of town. Do you know what kind of danger you are in bein' here?"

" What you doin' here, Tante?" Remy asks her sarcastically as he gets back on his bike. " Looks like t' me dat you in a place you don' b'long, no."

" Don' you get sassy with me Chile. I've barred your bottom b'fore an' I am tempted t' do it again." She glances down at his ripped jeans. " What have you children been involved in?" Tante inspects his leg and satisfied that he was not hurt, she relaxes a bit but still remains angry. " I'm goin' to get my car an' take you both home. B'fore I do dis I'm callin' de house to tell T'erese an' Henri dat you two are alright."

" Tante, please if you do dat den dey won't let us outta de house." Lapin begs her.

" I hope dey do jus' dat Lapin an' rest assure dat your parents are goin' t' find out dat you were on dis side of town." She turns her attention back to the younger boy. " An' what you t'ink Jean-Luc is goin' t' do when he finds out 'bout dis Remy?" She lifts his chin up, for the first time, Remy could see fear in her face. " Chile, I don' t'ink I have ever been dis angry wit' you like I am now."

" You don' have t' take us home Tante, we goin' now." Remy turns his bike around and takes off down the road. Ignoring Tante's angry voice calling them back. When he was sure that they were out of sight from Tante, he turns to his cousin. " Lapin, I never seen Tante scared like dat, she was tryin' t' hide it but I saw it. What's wrong wit' her?"

" I don' know but I'm headin' back t' de house b'fore she calls." Lapin responds. Both boys continue their site seeing tour but with a quicker pace. Neither see the blue sedan trailing behind them.