The show she was watching moved to a cemmercial. Her friend Richelle sat next to her on a large couch. "So, tell me about them again. They sound nice."

"Hold on."

"And that Mike, from the way you described him, sounds pretty cute!"

"Shhh."

"Ben's cute, too, right?"

"Hush!" Kassy exclaimed. "I knew it! That IS his voice! And there he is!" She pointed at the screen. "Look, Richelle, you wanna see what Mike looks like, there he is!" She stared at Mike until the commercial was over. "Well?" she asked, looking at her friend.

"I have only one thing to say," Richelle replied solemnly.

"And that is?"

"Yowzers!"

Kasst started laughing, and so did Richelle. "Hey, you wanna take a walk or somethin'?" Kassy asked.

"Sure, but we gotta tell franny or sam. We got in trouble last time," Richelle reminded her.

"Yeah, i know. I'll go tell 'em now." Kassy stood up and climbed the stairs. She came back moments later with a package in her arms. "We have to drop this off at the post office, but that's ok. At least we can get out of the house, eh?"

"Kassy, hon," said Franny. "If you don't stop that, you'll make a trench in the floor." She shhok her head and went back to her knitting.

Kassy stopped pacing for a moment, the resumed. "I can't help it. We're going to be late. Where on earth is Richelle?" She demanded. The door opened and Richelle entered the room soaking wet.

"Sorry, it started raining on my way home."

"Well, get your butt upstairs and change," Kassy insisted, pushing her up the stairs. "We're going to be late as it is." She continued pacing as Richelle muttered at her on her way up the stairs. A few minutes later, she came back down, changed and mostly dry.

"Well," she asked, "Are we leaving, or what?" Richelle grabbed her coat off the rack by the door and put it on. "It's pretty cold out there, ya' know." She walked out of the house.

Kassy looked at Franny as she slowly rose from the couch. "Oh, this is killing me!" Kassy exclaimed. She grabbed Franny's coat off the rak and helped the woman into it. "There," she said. She held out her hand expectantly. "Keys?" she asked. "So i can start the car?" Franny set her keys in Kassy's hand and Kassy sprinted out the door.

Kassy was pacing once again as she waited for their flight to unload. Franny sat, knitting her blanket, and Richelle watched Kassy pace. "Kassy," Richelle remarked without removing her eyes from her friend, "You're a nervous wreck, and you're making me nervous, too." She snagged Kassy on a pass and pulled her down into a chair. Kassy tapped her foor impatiently.

"Kass, baby, you're gonna have a heart attack," Franny said calmly, without looking up.

"Hey, Franny, you've been knitting the same thing for the longest time. What is it, anyway?" Kassy asked.

"Here, it's done. Take a look for yourself." she replied, holding it up for them to see. "Well, actually, there's more than one." She displayed a series of multicolored blankets.

"Blankets!" Richelle exclaimed.

"Hey, give me something else to do," she paused, glancing at the scars on the girls' arms, "That's productive, and i'll be happy to do it, instead." She put all of the items back into her large bag.

"Flight 22 from Brooklyn, New York, now unloading," the heard over the PA system. Kassy nearly hit the ceiling when she jumped out of her seat. She grabbed Richelle by the arm and hauled her along. "C'Mon," she said with a grin. Franny sat quietly, smiling at the girls as they ran away.

"Well, wasn't that a lovely trip?" Carol asked sarcastically.

Jason walked off the ramp and glanced down at his clothes. "Maggie, why didn't you stop me from getting that second cup of coffee before we hit the turbulence?"

"Oh, Jason," Maggie sighed.

"Kassy!" Luke screamed, dropping his bags and running toward her. She met him halfway, and he picked her up and spun her around. He put her down and hugged her tightly. She hugged back and grinned at him.

"Oh," she said when she saw Richelle staring open-mouthed at Luke. "Luke, this is Rivhelle Sandz. Richelle, this is Luke Brower."

"G'day me lady," Luke said with a charming smile, taking Richelle's hand and kissing it gently.

"Richelle glanced at Kassy and grinned. "You never told me he was this cute, Kassy," she murmured. By this time, the other Seavers had caught up to the young, enthusiastic Luke.

Richelle stood by as all the hugging passed, then smiled poitely and shook hands as she was introduced. Mike slipped an arm around Kassy's shoulder as the walked back toward Franny. Kassy put an arm around his waist and they started talking.

"So," Kassy asked, "How's Kate?"

"Oh. Well, we broke up," Mike said, blushing.

"Oh, i'm sorry. I didn't know that," Kassy replied. "Ben didn't tell me. Neither did Luke." She glanced back at the boys. Richelle walked along on Kassy's other side silently. Kassy removed her arm from Mike's waist. "What's wrong, Richelle?" she asked, looking at her friend.

"Nothing," Richelle said quickly. So quickly, in fact that it made Kassy suspicious.

"You sure?" She asked.

"Uh-huh." Richelle crosed her arms in front of her and walked faster.

"She's just awe struck by my amazing good looks," Ben piped up from the back of the group.

Kassy reached back and slapped him in the back of the head.

"No see what you started, Carol?" Ben demanded, "You've got Kassy smacking me in the back of the head, too." He rubbed his head, looking injured.

"Nah, that's just something i do to people like you, Benjamin," Kassy smiled.

"Ben," Chrissy said, looking up at him. "I thought you said she had three dogs?"

"Um," he looked at Kassy. "Yeah. Where are the other two? And which is this one?" he asked, placing a hand on top of Chrissy's head.

"This is Sparky. Cody and Nissa are out back, i guess." She held a hand out to Chrissy. "You wanna go see them?" she asked.

"Can Luke come, too?" Chrissy asked.

"Sure, if he wants to," Kassy replied with a smile.

Chrissy loooked pleadingly at Luke and he grinned. "All right, let's go see those dogs." He hoisted Chrissy onto his shoulders and carried her away. Maggie and Jason talked to Sam While Franny showed the others around the house and to their rooms.

"Ok," Kassy said upon arriving in the backyard. She pointed to the two dogs lying together. "The smaller one is Nissa, and the big dog is Cody. You wanna pet 'em?" She offered her hand to Chrissy again, but the little girl clung to Luke.

Luke glanced at Kassy and smiled appologetically. Kassy returned a smile of her own that Luke couldn't quite translate. Luke led Chrissy over to the dogs and let her pat each of them on the head. Chrissy backed away when Nissa growled at her. She let out a little yelp of fright.

"Oh, don't worry. She doesn't bite. She's just warning you to stay away from her puppies. See?" Kassy drew back a blanket lying next to Nissa and revealed a litter of sleeping puppies.

"Awww," Chrissy said, kneeling. Nissa snarled again, but Kassy bent down next to her nad patted her on the head gently. She lowered her head, but watched Chrissy warily.

Kassy sttod, and decided to take advantage of Chrissy's preocupation with the dogs. She took Luke by the hand and led him a few feet away, behind Chrissy.

"She doesn't trust me, does she?"

"Um, well..... no," Luke replied, flushing slightly.

"Well, that's all right. Being me, I'm rather used to that." Kassy slid her hands into her pockets and chewed her bottom lip. Luke leaned forward and kissed her quickly on the lips.

"I missed you," he whispered, giving her another hug. Kassy hugged back.

"Ditto," she replied.

They heard Chrissy scream and start crying Luke's name. Luke ran over. "What happened?" he asked. Chrissy's hand was bleeding. Tears poured down her face and she was crying so hard she couldn't answer. Kassy looked at the two dogs and saw cody snarling and growling with the fur on his back standing on end.

"She must have done something with the puppies that Cody didn't like," Kassy pointed out. "Chrissy,i'm so sorry." Kassy stood up as Luke carried Chrissy into the house. Chrissy hugged Luke, sobbing into his shoulder.

"What happened?" Maggie cried, taking Chrissy.

"One of the dogs bit her," Luke replied.

Franny's eyes grew wide. "Kassy, which one?" she asked.

"It was Cody," she replied. "Mrs. Seaver, i am so sorry. If Chrissy needs and doctors care, i'll pay the bills. It was my fault totally." She opened her mouth to say more, but Maggie cut her off.

"Chrissy willbe fine, the dog just nipped her. And as for you, young man," she added, giving Luke a forbidding look, "What were you doing when this happened?"

Luke and Kassy both blushed. Mike grinned. "Mike, will you take Chrissy up to the bathroom and get her fixed up, please?" Maggie asked.

"Sure." Mike stood, scooping Chrissy up in his arms. She held on tight, still crying. "Shh, Chrissy. Big girls don't cry. Hasn't dad ever made you listen to that song?" He asked her as he climbed he stairs.

"Luke, i want to taalk to you for a moment pricvately." She looked at Franny.

"Oh, of course. The kitchen is the second door on the right," Franny replied, indicating a hallway straight through on the opposite side of the room.

"Thank you," Maggie said politely. Luke whimpered softly and Ben ran a finger across his neck, as if slitting his throat.

Kassy looked at ben. "Um, do you wanna tour the house again? Maybe the west wing?" she tilted her head slightly in the direction Maggie had taken Luke, and Ben caught on quickly.

"Sure," he said casually. They took a roundabout route to the back entrance of the kitchen and listened at the closed door.

"Luke, i expect you, and you alone, to watch out for Chrissy when there's no-one else around. I don't want you focusing all your attention on a girl when you're little sister is around."

"But, Mrs. Seaver, you don't weven know what happened. You never let me explain."

"Luke, you've been my son for almost six months now. You can call me Mom like my other kids do. And OK. Explaine." Kassy heard a chair scrape across the linoleum as Maggie sat down.

"Ok, i was hugging Kassy, and we were talking, that's it. We weren't making out or anything. I've never even kissed her!" he exclaimed.

Ben looked at Kassy, and then back at the door. "Why do i doubt that?" he whispered.

Kassy shushed him.

"Why do i doubt that, Luke?" Maggie asked.

Luke sighed heavily. "I don't know," he replied. "Can i go now?"

"Yes, you may. But,"

"There's always a "but"," Ben whispered.

"I don't want you going anywhere with just Chrissy and Kassy. You can go with just Chrissy, or just Kassy, but not both. Do you understand?"

More scooting of chairs followed. "Perfectly," Luke grumbled. Ben and Kassy sprinted back to the living room, now unnocupied and settled themselves on the couch pretending to read magazines. Kassy glanced over at Ben, thenreached across the couch and flipped his magazine the right way.

"Whoops," he whispered.

Mike came down the stairs with Chrissy. She was still crying a little. Mike sat down on the couch and handed her over to Ben. "She seems to like you better," he whispered.

"She does not!" Ben insisted, taking Chrissy and hugging her.

Mike just rolled his eyes and looked atLuke. "So, how much trouble did you get into this time?" he smirked.

"Shut up!" Luke said, playfully slapping Mike.

Where did Franny go?" Maggie asked, coming into the room and looking around.

"Oh, she's rpobably with Sam or Carol. Or punishing the dogs. She's around somewhere."

Ben gave kasst a smirk. "Hey, where's that blonde you introduced us to?" he asked.

"Her name's Richelle," Kassy replied," and she's probably out for a walk again, avoiding you. She smiled as Richelle walked through the door. "See?" She asked.

"How could i not?" Ben relpied, giving Richelle the once-over.

Mike reached over and smacked him in the back of the head. "Have some respect, will ya'?"

"No," Ben replied sarcastically, returning to his copy of Dog Fancy. He glanced at the cover to find out what he was actually reading. "Franny really likes dogs, doesn't she?"

"Yes," Richelle replied. Do you know where Carol went?" she asked of no-one in particular. She glanced over at Mike and her mouth almost dropped to the floor. "It is you!" she screamed, running over to him. "Kassy showed me the commercial you were in. You were great. And she said you were cute, too. Not this cute, though.

"Gee, thanks," he said with a smile. "You really go around telling people i'm cute, Kassy?" he asked.

"Only if it won't give you a swelled head," Kassy said severely, and everyone laughed. Richelle, Carol went upstairs, i think. East wing, where their bedrooms are."

"Hey Kassy," Ben asked from where he was still holding Chrissy in his lap. "You got a room for Chrissy, too? My arms are getting tired."

"Oh, yeah. Follow me,"she said. She walked up a winding staircase and down a red carpeted hallway. Right this way," she indicated the first door on the left. Ben looked down the hallway. Dorrs lined both sides. "You guys have this whole place?" he asked increduously as Kassy opened the door for him.

"Sorta. There's more kids, but they're all out doing something. Kassy peeked into the room carefully to make sure she had the right one. When she was certain, she opened the door all the way and flipped on the lights. "This was Lizzy's room," she explained. "She was Chrissy's age, so there should be a lot of toys Chrissy will like."

"What happened to Lizzy?" Ben asked.

"She was adopted about a week ago. Franny was gonna donate all the toys to the attic, but i told her about Chrissy and she decided it could wait till after your visit. Much to the joy of us kids who would have to do all the moving." She smiled and pulled down the covers so Ben could put Chrissy in the bed. "Will she be OK if she waks up in here?"

"With all these toys?" Ben asked. "She'll be fine."

Kassy covered Chrissy up with a little mermaid blanket and quietly left the room. Ben turned the light off and closed the door. Chrissy started crying again and Ben came back into the room, turning the light on and running over the the bed.

"What is it, Chrissy?" He asked, hugging and comforting the little girl.

Kassy ran into the room a few seconds later than Ben. "What happened?" She asked, worried.

"I wanted Ben, not you," Chrissy said, sniffling. "You let the dog bite me."

Kayy turned quickly and walked out of the room. "Chrissy!" She heard Ben shout in exasperation.