The Past Present

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae laughed lightly as she looked at the boy who was a barteneder at Raoul's. He was by far the best dancer she had hooked up with that day so far. He was so cute, too, and he was dropping compliments and telling stories like no other and it was only adding to her bright day.

The rooftop was beautiful, far more beautiful than the time Taro asked her to marry him. There was white every where, covering tables and poles and anything that could only add to the beautiful setting of a bright day on Coruscant with a magnificent view o the city. Jesimae couldn't have been more pleased with how everything looked and how much food they had. She knew that she and Taro got food catered, but friends on both side made food and brought it with joy to the newlyweds.

Jesimae had almost met everyone on Taro's side after an hour of being there at the apartment, sadly it only took Taro a few minutes to meet everyone she knew and invited. She didn't really care for now it seemed everyone was now linked to one another and it was such a great feeling in the world. Jesimae now had a family and it was a dream come true.

Her laughter finally subsided and the fast song faded into something soft and smooth. It was a Chinese song and she wasnt able to actually tell who was singing, but she knew that she loved it. She thanked the boy whose name was Yasuko, and searched out for Jiro. She had danced with a lot of people and now she was wantingin to dance with those most important to her, other than her husband of course. She saw the boy takling with Orange and she quickly hopped over to him and told Orange that she was stealing him away even if he hadn't liked it. She pulled him out into the middle of a lot of people who were also dancing and enjoying themselves. The sound of laughter and talking mixed with music just seemed to add to the marvelous day.

"Konnichiwa, brother-in-law!" Jesimae said happily as she put her arms around his neck and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. She looked at him and laughed lightly. "You know, if it weren't for you I would have never met Taro?" She glanced over her shoulder to see him laughing and talking with someone. God, he was so wonderful. She was so excited that he was finally her husband and that he was all hers. She found Jiro's precious face again and she smiled softer.

"Had you not saved this damsel in distress we would have never met. I owe you a lot, Jiro."

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro looked down at Jesimae as they danced, the song slow, and in a Chinese. He listened to it for a moment before Jes started talking, and then he turned his attention back down to her. It was true, if he hadn't had the balls to help her, she and Taro wouldn't be together today. Jiro was glad that he had been able to do that, glad that his brother was finally happy, even though it hurt Jiro like nothing else had.

Of course, Jiro was ecstatic to have Jesimae part of the family, but he and Taro had been together so long it would be strange for them not to be together, Taro looking after him. It hurt Jiro in his heart, but his heart was ready to burst with happiness. Jiro had never been happier and sadder at the same time. He grinned down at Jesimae.

"Well, if you hadn't been in a predicament, I wouldn't have had to save you and you wouldn't have met Brother," Jiro teased, tapping her nose with a finger. Then he chuckled, slowly quieting after a moment. Then he looked meaningfully down at her. "You'll take care of him, Jes. I wouldn't let him into anybody's hands but yours. You better take care of him, or you'll have little brother to deal with," Jiro said, breaking into a grin again, and leaning forward, resting his chin on her forehead.

The day had flown by, and Jiro felt like he hadn't slept in days, and knew he would crash that night, especially since he was so tired this early in the morning.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae looked at him sincerely and suddenly her heart sank deep inside her chest. All this time she and Taro had been so excited to start a life of their own and to be married, but this would be the first time for the two to actually be apart after not being without one another since Jesimae had met them. It was a bittersweet moment for her and she was sure it was for the Lawson brothers. She wasn't exactly sure how Haruko was taking it, but she figured he'd be better off than Jiro. She felt so sad for them, she felt like a bad guy stealing one of their most precious pieces of jewelry. She sighed out and smiled softly when he put his chin on her forehead. She hugged him tightly so happy to hear him say that. It meant the world for her to have Jiro's okay on this whole marriage, him above all others.

Haruko's thoughts had an impact, too, but he hadn't been with them long enough for her to really take his emotions to heart. Jiro, however, was her guardian angel and it meant everything to her. To have his blessing was the best thing to hear.

"I didn't just marry, Taro, I married the whole family." She leaned back and smiled up at Jiro. "So you can't get rid of us! You know we can't leave you alone for too long. Taro would die, I would die!" She laughed lightly and looked over at Taro and sighed out.

"I'll take care of Taro, just as much as you would." She looked back to Jiro and smiled. "We're family now! I am so excited!" She let out a tiny squeal of happiness and squeezed Jiro a little bit more. "I love you so much, Jiro! I am just so happy!"

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro laughed along with her, hugging her tightly. He looked up at his brother who was conversing quite animatedly in Japanese to one of his good friends. Jiro watched him for a long moment. He would miss being around Taro all the time as he had been for what seemed like forever, but he knew he was giving his big brother away to capable hands. He grinned and leaned his cheek down on Jesimae's head.

"I'm so happy for you two," Jiro said through a laugh. "You two belong together. You always have and you always will..." he paused then grinned. "And if he does anything that bothers you, just call me and I'll beat him up for you!" he said through a laugh, kissing her forehead. "I love you too, Jes."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae laughed lightly and hugged him tightly. Of all the families in the world she was going into the right one, she knew for sure. She had never met anyone who loved each other more than those brothers did and she knew that she would have never met anyone who taught her so much and were so in love with one another. People might think of them as a bit too touchy feely, but she loved it! She had never had a family before, but she knew that if she had she would have wanted it to be just like the Lawson's. Thankfully the drama that had occurred was in the past. No more brother's, no more fighting, it was all just smooth sailing with a few kinks here and there.

"You guys mean the world to me. Thank you so much for everything. Oh and Taro loved the Japanese vows. That was such a great idea!" Jesimae rambled on and on about meaningless things to Jiro until the song was over. She wa surprised he hadn't smacked her and told her to calm down, but he just smiled and listened and she loved him for that. The one great thing about that family was if someone was happy it was easily shared!

She gave Jiro another kiss on the cheek and told him she was going to go dance with Taro then Haruko. As she walked towards him she couldn't help but remember all the things that had happened in the past, the arguments, the surprises, the new Lawson's that never seemed to stop! Somehow they had all lived through it and she had been a part of it all! Jesimae just couldn't believe how lucky she eneded up being.

[Jin Lawson]

He was exhausted. Several months in space and eight weeks wandering around Coruscant was likely to do that to you. Plus the fact that his friend wasn't talking much, leaving all of that to him, and Jin Lawson's jaw was, for once, tired.

Jin was fifteen, and a fairly independant one at that. He had lived the past nearly a year away from his mother--whom if it was up to him he would never see again--and had survived quite well. He had always been slightly more independant than other members of his family, but when he had his best friend with him, he seemed to cope better. Zhou Yu Luo, his friend, had not said much the entire journey, but that was okay. He never really spoke much. He just ate and worked on his computer and watched and listened to Jin say everything. Zhou always said he preferred listening to Jin talk than anyone else in the universe, and that anyone else and he would have hit them, but he hadn't done so yet to Jin, so the fifteen year old figured that was a good thing.

The Nihongo District of Coruscant was larger than he had remembered it being, and when a shop owner had pointed him down the way to where the wedding reception of one Taro Lawson was occuring, Jin had wondered if it was Haruko with a different name. If it was, Jin had scored, finding who he wanted to.

He and Zhou were almost to the apartment, and Jin could already hear the music coming from the roof. The roof? What and odd place to have a reception. He looked over at his friend who was walking slowly next to him, a bag of something in his hand, munching away on it, his expression passive, his long body leaned back slightly as he moved. Jin smiled, not saying anything. Zhou was passive so much of the time, Jin wondered if he even had an opinion about anything at all.

Glancing up at the building as they approached it, Jin wondered if his search would end here, or continue on forever.

[Jesimae Lawson]

"How are you doing, baby?" Jesimae asked as she leaned over his shoulder and whispered it in his ear, enjoying the soft breeze that flew by swiftly, sending her the smell of his hair. She breahted it in deeply and smiled as she leaned on the table waiting for him to turn around. She was just floating around on cloud 9 and she was almost oblivious to what went on around her and everyone else. The only thing she saw was Taro and the Lawson boys. It was, to be honest, the best thing to have her mind on. She wa so happy that she barely could contain herself. She wanted the whole world to know, and it seemed everyone did. Asher had come by a few minutes ago before she began dancing with Yasuko telling her that they had gotten several gifts from random places from the Nihongo District. Nobody was complaining, but Jesimae found it a bit odd. Taro just knew everyone.

[Asher Perez]

Asher sighed out as she finally took a seat at an empty table that had a few reminents of wedding cake pieces and a few plastic cups with a drop of champagne in the creases. She let out a sigh as she grabbed the cups and stood up and took them over to a garbage can nearby and trashed them. She brushed her hands off and looked around for any more trash always being the one to keep things clean. God forbid if she ever married people were allowed to leave anything laying around! She smiled as a few people walked by her to go get some more food or drinks. She was enjoying watching everyone and she was absolutely loving being able to dress up and dance and celebrate a great event in her best friends life. She was happy for the two. It made her a bit nervous though weddings always seemed to make her panic as if that was in store for her and Haruko. Not that that wa a bad idea...it just...wasn't something she cared to think about right at that moment. So, naturally, it was making her nervous to even think like that for she had been daydreaming about it, that was, until, Orange came by and told her to "take over".

Apparently people had heard about this wedding and it must've been the biggest event in the Nihongo District for they were receiving gifts left and right with their names written on it in Japanese characters. She couldn't read it so she had asked Orange who informed her that all the foo, presents, and flowers were from people who obviously knew Taro and were congratulating the newlyweds.

Asher brushed a table free of cake crumbs and pushed a few chairs in being the anal retentive and obsessive compulsive girl she was known to be from time to time. She could hear Haruko and Jiro laughing up a storm in Japanese and it made her smile, but her mind was quickly diverted by the sound of a knocking coming from inside the apartment. She looked around and scanned the crowd for Orange's flame colroed hair, but found her dancing with someone Asher didn't know. She turned and bumped into someone and quickly apologized and smiled. She walked on by down a series of tiny steps and into the open apartment to see lots of gifts laying about. She sighed and managed to make her way through the maze to the door to where the person was knocking. She opened it quickly and smiled.

"Yes?" It was another gift. She took it happily and thanked them. She shut the door and looked around. Where was she going to put it? Any avaliable surface was now taken.

[Jin Lawson]

Jin had grabbed Zhou's hand as they had been pointed up a set of stairs on the outside of the building to get to the roof. His friend had just happily laced thier fingers together and continued eating with his other hand. Jin was nervous. He didn't know why, this was probably just another lead in a longer search. But his stomach was doing flips and would continue to until he found out for sure.

The small chains that hung off his black cargos clattered against the metal of the steps as he made his way up. He felt Zhou pushing on the black cut off gloves that adorned Jin's hand and he glanced down. They were falling off slightly, that was true. He smiled down at his friend who shrugged and dropped Jin's hand to hold the bag of snacks in it for a moment.

The farther they climbed, the closer they got to the roof, the louder the music and sound of people laughing got. But when he got to the roof and gazed over it, he was surprised by such a mix of people. There were Asians everywhere, but there were also several American descent people, as well as aliens, from places that Jin couldn't identify. He looked around as Zhou climbed up behind him, pressing into him as he tried to stand on the same step. His height, a little more than Jin's due to thier three year separation, gave him the ability to look over Jin's head and at the people.

Jin immediately spotted the bride. She was just across the way, leaning on a table, looking at a man in a yukata who was just turning around to smile at her. And by the way he greeted her with a deep kiss, Jin guessed that was the groom. For a moment, the boy looked around, unsure of whether he should go ask for the man he was looking for or just look around and try to play it by sight and ear. After a moment he felt Zhou's mouth next to his ear.

"Look, we're holding up the line, darling," he whispered, and Jin glanced down seeing that he was keeping a young dark haired woman from getting to the roof. She was pretty and appeared to maybe be someone who knew what was going on. Jin jumped and got to the roof.

"Sorry!" he said as she came up and he smiled at her, taking her arm to stop her. "Excuse me, but is there a Haruko Lawson here?"

[Asher Perez]

Asher pushed a piece of her long hair out of her eyes and smiled as she stared at these two people who appeared to be taking in the sights. She looked over at Taro and Jesimae and continued to smile. How cute they were! She saw one of the tall men move slightly and lean over and whisper to the other Asian. She hadn't recalled seeing them earlier, but she wasn't one who kept faces and names connected. Perhaps she had been briefly introduced earlier that morning.

Sorry! The boys voice came to a surprise as she moved up the steps quickly, not really taking in any obvious movements. She did nothing but smile up at him and when he grabbed her arm she began to frown, she didn't care anyone talking ot her but she wasn't one who enjoyed being touched by strangers. She was the one who did the touching! She ignored the creepy feeling and smiled at him

Excuse me, but is there a Haruko Lawson here? The name hit her quickly and she wanted to shiver. Apparently this person was either from Jesimae's side of just someone who happened to hear about the wedding, but how did they get past her? She had been asnwering the door for quite some time and Orange hadn't let anyone else in for the wedding.

"Ha-Haruko?" Asher said to him as she gave him the once over and then looked at the Asian who was eating something that wasn't from the wedding. It slightly bothered her. "Yes he is." She stated simply wanting to pry a bit more. "Who is asking?"

[Jin Lawson]

Jin's heart began to beat eighty billion times faster when she said that he was hear. He looked up and around, trying to see him. Surely he would recognize him? His mother always told him he looked just like his father. But Jin didn't have anything to compare himself to. His mother didn't have any pictures and Jin had not been able to find any when he and Zhou had gone file diving for him. He wet his lips and felt Zhou put a hand on his shoulder. When he looked over, his friend nodded back down to the woman, who, in the moment, Jin had almost forgotten. He smiled.

"Oh, sorry...I'm, uh..." he paused, still looking around at all the faces. Why didn't he see him? He should have been able to tell, some kind of feeling. But he didn't see anyone who struck a feeling in him. It was just a bunch of people Jin didn't know. He looked back down at the woman. "I'm sorry! My name's Jin Ji Law--er, um, Jin Ji Sup. I'm looking for Haruko Lawson. We've been pointed to here as being the wedding of Taro Lawson? Please, you have to tell me where Haruko is."

[Asher Perez]

Asher frowned at his delayed reaction. Whoever this person was he was very eager to see him. She looked at his stature and his body and tried to guess his age, but it was untelling when it came to the Asian's their bodies were much smaller and thinner than most humans and aliens, which made it a bit harder for her to guess. She assumed he was in his teens, so it was a bit odd that they were looking for him here. She nodded after he finally said his name, said his name with a few stammers of something else in between. She was unsure about it, his eagerness bothered her. It was like he was hiding something and was very anxious, almost like he were addicted to something. She nodded again and frowned gently and looked around, she spotted him but pretended not to. She smiled and looked back at the boy and held up her hand.

"Stay right here. I will go find him for you!" She smiled and turned quickly and pulled the forced smile off. Something was quite right, but she had no reason to freak out, but she was actually trying to have nothign bad happen during Taro and Jesimae's wedding. She definitely remembered names and one thing she knew, that boy was not there earlier and he had somehow snuck in. She wasn't exactly fearing for anyones life, but it did cause her some concern.

Asher glanced over her shoulder to see she was losing sight of them as the sea of people converged together. She made her way over to Jiro and Haruko and grabbed his hand, gainging his attention. He was smiling so brightly and for a moment she almost forgot what she was doing, but she kept her mind straight and she remembered why she was going over to find him.

"Um..." She squinted as she looked over the people and saw the boy named Jin Ji Sup, the sun blaring down on her and causing her eyes to constrict and nearly blind her. She sighed out and looked up at Haruko, still holding his hand. "A boy is looking for you. He souonds eager. His name is Jin Ji Sup. Do you know him?"

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko looked down at Asher, his face melting of it's wide grin. Did she just say the surname Ji Sup? No, he had heard her wrong. He had to have heard her wrong. There was no way that...he looked up and through the crowd trying to see who she was talking about. But he saw no one he didn't know as someone to have already been there. Then again, the crowd was getting so thick he could barely see anyone.

His bionic eye whirred slightly as he began to scan through people, trying to pick out who she was talking about. But not even his eye could get through the sea of people. He looked back down at Asher and smiled a little, shaking his head.

"No, I don't know anybody by that name. Take me to them, I'll see what he wants," he said, keeping his voice steady and reassuring. He was sure that if the person's name really was Ji Sup that it was some sort of twisted coincidence. Because there was no way...Haruko shook his head and squeezed Asher's hand slightly, trying to keep his heart from beating so hard as Asher began to lead him over.

[Asher Perez]

Asher swallowed in fear, why was she so nervous for? She had dealt with worse people who had wanted to see other people and there was no true need. Perhaps she was just a bit off considiering she had been forcing herself to not think of her own marriage in the future, if that was even happening. She was also trying to make things perfect for she had, at times, been so obsessive about cleanliness and smoothness of everything. She sighed out and smiled, still not feeling too good about Haruko never hearing of them and not smiling as he once had.

"Okay." She said to him as she turned and held his hand not really wanting to let go, not even when they reached their destination. But she wasn't the kind of person to truly pry in others business. But she wondered, considering their relationship was serious, that she had a right ot know. Right? Either way she just tried to stay polite and keep a smile on her face and give them their space. She could find out details later, if need be.

"There they are." She said to him as she stopped a few feet away, pointing them out. She began to walk again and she dropped his hand and smiled at the two boys, not knowing the others name.

"Uh, Jin, this here is Haruko." She offered her hand at Haruko and let it drop quickly. What was she to do now? Wait around? Walk away? Eavesdrop? Asher decided on the latter. She looked at Haruko and smiled. "I'll leave ou alone." She whispered and moved away from him, grabbing his hand once and squeezing before finding a nice spot at the food table near enough to hear what was going on, but not too close to be caught. What was going on?

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko's jaw was on the floor as he looked at the boy in front of him. It was like looking into a mirror. His face was shaped like his own, his eyes belonging to his mother. He was tall, thin, same build as himself, same hands, face structure, everything. It gave him the most frightening feeling inside to know that this...it was...

"Jin..." Haruko said breathily, unable to say anything more. He looked the boy up and down, not once looking at the boy that was with him. He didn't matter, only Jin did, only the fact that this person, this young person in front of him was his punishment for doing something awful so many years ago. How many had it been? Almost sixteen. And yet here the result stood, an amazing result, beautiful, and youthful, and perfect. Haruko chewed his lip watching the boy, unable to do anything else. It was as if he had suddenly been thrown back into his past, and Jin was there waiting for him.

"Jin, you're..."

[Jin Lawson]

"Alive," Jin finished for him as he watched the man grope for words. Jin did look like Haruko. That was for sure. It was like looking into the future at what he would be when he was Haruko's age. What was it? Twenty-eight. That's right. He shook his head, wetting his lips, feeling a lump form in throat for no reason. He gave a little choking noise and a moment later felt Zhou's reassuring hand on his shoulder, squeezing slightly. Jin shook his head.

"I didn't...mom didn't tell me who you were, anything about you..." he said, his voice quiet. "She told me my dad was a diplomat," he laughed as a tear fell from his eye and he wiped it away with a shaking hand. He shook his head. "I went file diving, and...found out who you really were. I know were a bounty hunter...and that..." he paused. "You had eye surgery done and..." Jin stopped looking the man up and down. He wasn't more than a kid himself. It was more like a big brother than a...

"Dad..."

[Asher Perez]

Asher kept her ears wide open and ready to hear any certain words that would cause some sort of turmoil for this reception, but so far it sounded like a reunion between two old friends, that was until Jin began to speak. Asher brushed away crumbs and what not, busying herself as if she were actually doing something important for Taro and Jesimae rather than for her own gratification and nosiness.

She sighed out realizing she was acting like one of the crazy patients she had helped a few years ago. She knew that this was unhealthy for bot hshe and Haruko's relationship. Trust was what needed to be in place here. It wasn't that she didn't trust Haruko, it was just...something. Asher really wasn't sure what that something was, but she did know that his past was still very sketchy and iffy. She really loved him, but there were times when she wondered what really happened in his past for he never talked about it and when she asked it was always a simple, stress free answer. Asher knew that it was good that she had the ability to just ignore what was going on. She grabbed a cracker from a tray and took a bite and began to move a few things. She did good for a moment or two but then the one word she never expected floated into the air.

"Dad..." Asher breathed in a gasp and suddenly cracker went flying into the back of her throat. She began to cough loudly and hit her chest. Did he just call Haruko dad!? She glanced over at Haruko and the boys who had turned to see her coughing like a mad woman. Her eyes watered with pain and she quickly swallowed. She glared at Haruko and turned to walk away. She had got what she wanted, when one eavesdropped it was only suspected that one would hear bad news.

[Jin Lawson]

Jin's moment was ruined by the sound of the woman coughing and by the fact that when he looked over, she was glaring Haruko down like something awful had happened. After a moment, he knew she must have heard him call Haruko dad, but what was wrong with that? Didn't his friends know? Haruko made a move to follow her, but seemed to think better of it. He turned back to Jin and sighed heavily.

"Come on," he said, taking Jin's arm. "I think we should talk..." Jin nodded following him, looking at Zhou who nodded, raising his hands and indicating that he was just going to fart around up here and would wait for Jin to come back up and get him. Jin mouthed a 'thank you' to him before they disappeared down the side of the building where they had come up from. Haruko lead him down and into the actual apartment, bringing him across a large, sparcely furnished living room to a table near the left side.

For a moment, Jin merely looked about, taking a deep breath, smelling the unfamilar smell that one always sensed when going into someone else's home. He sank down into a chair and Haruko joind shortly, asking him if he wanted a drink or anything, to which Jin responded that he did not. For a long moment, they sat there in silence, merely looking at each other, neither of them able to say anything. What did one say to the man they had just discovered was thier father? Or in Haruko's position, a boy that was his son? Jin had basically covered everything up on the roof in the short sentances he had squeezed out. Yet, he felt like there was so much more to say. He wanted to ask Haruko what he had been doing, wanted to tell him about what he and Zhou had been doing. Jin wanted to ask about these other Lawsons, they had to be kin! Were they uncles? Cousins? What? And what about that woman? Was she Haruko's girlfriend? And the newlyweds! What about them? Jin had a millions questions just about the present that he wanted to ask. Not to mention the ones about why Haruko left his mother, what happened to get him into bounty hunting, why he never contacted Jin. And so many other's that Jin's head spun with them. He wanted to tell Haruko so much as well. How he discovered his father's true identity, how his mother was, about his home near Naboo, about his best friend Zhou, about other things between he and his friend, about what he was doing for a job, about everything that he could possibly get out of his mouth at once.

Yet, he was sitting there, silent. Unable to open his mouth and say anything he was thinking. It was all too much. Like a dream he had had years ago finally coming true and being so surprising that he was stunned with it. That was truly what it was. For as long as Jin could remember he had longed to know his father and what he did. He had wondered about his history on his father's side of the family. But he had been under the impression for so long that his father was not only a diplomat--a very successful one--but that he was Korean, and had died heroically in a peace talk gone bad. None of these things which were true. All of them disgustingly false. He wanted to tell Haruko about that too. About how his mother had deceived him all his life, how she tried to change what Haruko truly was. How she had tried to hide Jin from his father. He wanted to tell Haruko how much he hated her for that.

"I didn't know if I would ever find you," Jin said quietly, looking at his hands that were clasped on the table. He shook his head slightly. "In all honesty, I thought you were dead. But we got a lead from a local computer on Coruscant that your eye was still active...and I figured that if your eye and bionic brain were active, then the rest of you probably was too..." Jin said with a little smile. He looked up, looking at the man once again. How awkward this felt. He didn't know how to act. "I'm sorry that I came during a wedding. I didn't know..."

[Asher Perez]

Asher stared blindly at a large champagne glass that was now empty due to the fact she had downed it considering she was choking to death. She didn't mean to bring that kind of attention to herself, but one had to admit that it was pretty shocking when you never knew such a thing about the man you loved. It didn't change how she viewed Haruko...right? She sighed out and leaned her head into her left hand and leaned on the table, her right hand playing with the thin glass stem on the champagne glass. She should have walked away, or stayed there at least to have a different reaction than choking on a cracker and then running off like someone horrified at such news. But how else was she supposed to take it? She was taken aback!

Jesimae had found her sitting there at an empty table by herself and made her way over to her and took a seat. She smiled at her and realized that Asher wasn't as happy as she had been earlier. Jesimae eyed the champagne glass and frowned. Asher drank? She touched her arm and leaned in to look at her.

"Hey!" She said happily. Asher only continuted to stare. What was she going to do? Say? What was Haruko going to do after such an awful reaction? "What is wrong, Ash?" Jesimae's words finally reached her. She leaned up and let out a long hard sigh. She glanced over at the bride and tried to think of some excuse, but she couldn't.

"I'm sorry. I just...I.." She let out another sigh and she leaned forward slightly and ran her hands through her hair. She glanced at Jesimae who was still smiling. "I didn't know that Haruko was a father. It kind of shocked me, you know?"

[Jesimae Lawson]

"What!?" Jesimae didn't know if she could have screamed that any louder. She quickly slapped her hand against her mouth and looked around seeing a few people had stopped to look over at her. She just smiled embarassed and leaned foward with all seriousness and grabbed Asher's arm.

"What?" She said again this time in the form of a question rather than a shocking scream. "What? Asher...how...what?" Asher let out a sigh and leaned back giving Jesimae a nod that she knew how shocked she was.

"Okay, I guess you didn't know either. Great."

"How did you find this out? How do you know this?" Jesimae looked around trying to find Haruko so she could ask him herself, but she saw no such sight of the tall man with the loud laugh. Asher had made a noise of aggravation and was quick to explain how she was stopped by Jin Ji Sup. The stammering, the eagerness, the way Haruko didn't know him, then...the bomb.

"He called him Dad!" Jesimae slapped herself on the forehead as she leaned back into a chair, shocked beyond all belief. She and Haruko were very good friends, they had connected immediately after they had met, sorta. She had always stood up for Haruko and she loved him so deeply that it was almost hurtful that she didn't know such a thing about him. Suddenly she wondered...

Jesimae stood up and walked through the crowd on a mission. She found Taro and Jiro sitting down at the head table talking quickly in Japanese. She could pick out their words and she was bit excited, but she didn't really care about that at the moment. She leaned her hands on the table and stared at the two with seriousness. They both quit talking and looked up at her.

"Did you know that Haruko had a child? A 15 or 16 year old boy named Jin Ji Sup? Or..something to that effect?" She raised her eyebrow and waited patiently for an answer. If they knew she was going to sock them one for not telling her that she was an aunt sooner.

[Taro Lawson]

Taro's jaw was on the ground. He stared at Jesimae like she had bugs crawling out her ears. Haruko had a...son? A real living, breathing child? Hello! That was news to Taro and when he looked over at Jiro the expression on the younger's face told him it was news to him too. Taking a deep breath and swallowing, he stood up, taking Jesimae's shoulders.

"A son?" he asked, disbelief laced in his voice. He shook his head. "I didn't know a thing about a son. Ah, hell..." he muttered, looking up and around for his eldest brother. It wasn't really such a big deal--except that Haruko had kept everyone including his lover in the dark--but Taro still wanted to ask his elder brother about it. Wanted to meet his...oh God, nephew! Taro was an uncle! He wasn't even a father! Hell, he'd only been a husband for a couple hours! And here Haruko was, with a son and a lover somewhere who was the mother of this child, and the kid wanted to see Haruko. Had they been in touch all this time without letting Taro, Jiro, Orange, Jes, or worst of all, Asher, know about it? He hadn't thought Haruko was really the silent type. Of course, he had his secrets, everyone did. But Haruko knew all of Taro's, Taro knew all of Jiro's, Jiro knew all of Orange's, Orange knew all of Jesimae's and Jesimae knew all of Asher's. There was a chain in this family, and it seemed to Taro that someone would have known about this odd twist that was being pulled on them. Yet it seemed, no one knew.

"Are you positive you heard right?" he asked. Then he looked around again. "Where's Haru?" then he groaned a little. "On our wedding day!" he couldn't believe it. Of course this would happen to the Lawsons. Then he shook his head. "Okay...let's go regroup with Asher, and let her tell the whole thing," he said, looking down at Jiro who nodded. Taro glanced around, spotting a guy coming towards them that he didn't know. He seemed to be interested in the drama. Taro's brow furrowed.

"Who's that?"

[Zhou Yu Luo]

Zhou had been watching everything from a distance, watching as the dark haired woman spoke to the bride, and the bride went over to talk to whom he had identified earlier as the groom. It didn't take the groom and his younger counterpart long to looked shocked. They conversed for a whole five minutes before Zhou decided to go over and maybe fill them in a little. After all, he was Jin's...best friend.

Zhou let out a sigh as he began over, still munching on some food he had brought from his ship. He looked down into it, there wasn't much left. He'd have to get some more when he went back to the ship. He'd have to make this last for a little longer. Zhou looked back up as he popped another bit into his mouth and crunched it down, watched as the bride and groom spoke to each other, and the groom glanced his way. He was an attractive young man, his new wife was a pretty young woman as well--they made a handsome couple. The boy with them must have been related, he looked too much like the groom for there to be any doubt about it.

As he got closer, he saw the groom look his way in a more suspicious manner and then glance at his wife and the dark haired woman Jin had spoken to.

Who's that? he asked as Zhou descended upon them and stopped between the bride and the dark haired woman. He smiled a little, raising the bag in a greeting, and showing them he meant no harm.

"Ni hao!" he said pleasantly. "I'm Zhou Yu, Jin's best friend," he clarified for everyone standing there. He nodded a little. "I brought Zhou here from a planet near Naboo. Actually, we really live on Naboo, my ship just happened to be elsewhere," he said with a small smile. "I apologize for Jin's tact, it isn't very developed, we're still working on that, I told him to come back tomorrow when there wasn't a wedding going on, but..." he shrugged, swallowing one last bite of food before rolling the bag up and stuffing it into a big pocket in his baggy pants. He nodded.

"If you like, I can fill you in while Haruko and Jin talk."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae was wanting to crawl into a hole and die. She looked over at the man and sighed out wanting to shoot herself in the foot. she ran her hands over her eyes and let out a groan.

"This can't be happening." She said lowly as she tried to take in the sudden turn of events. So far there the wedding had been interrupted, now the reception. "Not on my wedding day." She let out a sigh and looked over at the boy who had introduce himself with a big fancy 'hello' in Chinese. Something she knew due to her sister-in-law Mei-li, who ended up being a no show for the wedding. Jesimae blinked away the tears that were quick to well up in her eyes, she wasn't really crying out of anything being ruined, for it wasn't, she was just crying for frustration of how things changed so quickly.

"I guess an explanation is in order." She tossed her hands up lazily and looked at an empty chair and quickly fell into it. How many Lawson's were there? She was counting quickly, there were six. Six! If she and Taro had any children it was almost gauranteed that Coruscant was going to be overrun by them.

[Asher Perez]

Asher looked at Zhou and then at Taro, then to Jiro, finally to Jesimae. Apparently she was left out of the loop on some event for Jesimae's expression seemed to tell her that this wasn't the first time something of the like had happened previously. At least she knew that there were a lot of Lawson boys considering she had been in the middle whenever they had found two half brothers.

"So nobody else knew?" She questioned anyone who was willing to answer. Suddenly she felt crushed. Why would he hold such an important thing a secret? Why didn't his brothers, of all people, know about this? Asher felt sick so she followed suit and took a seat next to Jesimae and glanced over at Zhou waiting for something that would explain what was going on. Although they all knew the most important bit, Haruko having a son, they were just now waiting to hear how nobody knew!

[Zhou Yu Luo]

Zhou watched the woman in the beautiful dress fall into the nearest chair and say that an explanation was in order. He felt sorry for her, this was her day, after all. And Jin had probably ruined it. He smiled a little and walked into the middle of the circle that had been formed by she, her husband, his friend, and the dark haired woman, now sitting. He glanced at the other guests, making sure they were out of earshot before he began.

"Alright then..." he sighed. "Here's what I know..." he paused, glancing over at the groom to see him watching intently, a slight scowl on his face. Zhou was only the messenger! He looked back at the bride and then sighed again. "Jin and I met in a handover between the Chinese and Korean mafia in the HWANG District here on Coruscant. After that we were inseperable and he had me investigate his dad because I had better resources..." Zhou sighed out and looked around at his crowd. "I found out his dad's name was Haruko, that he was a bounty hunter, had a bionic eye, was on Coruscant and was Japanese. All totally different things from what his mother told him..." he paushed, shrugging. "Which was that his father was a Korean diplomat that died bravely in a peace talk gone wrong." Zhou sighed out and shrugged.

"That's pretty much the extent of it. For any details before Zhou was born you'll have to ask Haruko, or Jin's mother..." Zhou said. It was a lie, he knew more about what had happened before Jin had been born than he was letting on. Most of it was because he had felt up some of the old Korean gang members until they had given him information. He had wanted to get as much as he could for Jin because...well, for reasons he didn't want to share.

"Jin's been looking for Haruko Lawson for closer to a year..." he shook his head. "I didn't mean for him to crash the party...I really am sorry for this."

[Asher Perez]

Asher looked baffled an she couldn't think. Now why would he hide such an important thing from everyone? But most importantly why did he leave Jin? Why did he abandon him? Asher was feeling more disturbed than before. She felt so sorry for Jim and for Haruko, hell for everyone! One thing she knew was that this was far more uncomortable than anything. She wasn't part of the family and couldn't really say anything, but she was allowed to let Haruko know that she was hurt by his secretive past.

"Great." She said lowly to herself as she glanced around. She didn't know what to do or what to say. She wasn't mad, just hurt. Havingsuch a secret being held made her question other things...did he have a darker past than he had let on in the beginning? She sure hoped not, but she had to know, it was her right as his girlfriend, right?

[Zhou Yu Luo]

Zhou nodded, looking down at his feet. He chewed his lip, then sighed out of his nose. He pointed to the door that would lead down into the apartment. He looked around at them, wondering which of them actually lived here. He smiled a little.

"Um, mind if I go down and see if they're fairing as swimmingly as we are?" he asked, cocking his head slightly at the woman with dark hair, she being the only one he recognized since Jin had spoken to her earlier. Maybe if Jin and Haruko were finished bonding they could give these people a more in depth look at what was going on. Zhou didn't feel like it was his place to give them more information. He wasn't related to anyone standing here, but apparently, everyone else was, and this was a large, extended family that Jin was dropping in on.

And the one thing about tight knit families--they didn't like newcomers.

[Asher Perez]

Asher was more than willing to have the boy come to them and have Haruko explain himself, even though she wasn't wanting ot be the one to say it for it really wasn't her place. She knew to just keep quiet and if he wanted to talk to her about it then he would. Hopefully. Asher looked at Jesimae then over to Jiro and Taro. She was waiting for htem to look at her and tell her to go somewhere so the "family" could talk. She would do so without actually eavesropping for the last time she did it she ended up making herself look like a fool.

[Jesimae Lawson]

"Well I don't know about you all, but I am dying to meet..Ji? Jin? Was that it?" She frowned and looked at everyone, seeing Zhou nod slightly. She smiled and drew in a deep breath her own pity party finally fledding.

"Well, there is no better time than a wedding reception to meet the rest of the family, right?" She let out a light laugh trying to keep her spirits up. Haruko's son had found him, hopefully Haruko was willing to take part in his life and be a father! Suddenly Jesimae realized that this was more of a happy blessing than a burden from the past! Sure Haruko's past was still a little unknown, but everyone had some sort of deep dark secret! This might've been dark, but it at least had some happiness involved! Jesimae was an aunt! There was a new Lawson!

"I'd like to meet him! I'd like to see Haruko! I'd like to hear it all from the both of them!" She smiled and stood up looking at Taro. Hopefully they were as happy as she was for Haruko!

[Jin Lawson]

Jin and Haruko had not said anything yet. Of course, they had spoken a lot of words, but neither of them had really said anything to each other. Jin had talked about his mother, and how they had found Haruko. Haruko had told him about Jesimae and Taro and how he had come to find them. It was good to look at his father, talk to him, know him, but it was so awkward. Jin had never known his father, and he still didn't understand why Haruko had left his mother. Why he had never tried to contact Jin.

Before either of them had a chance to delve deeper into that, the apartment door swung open and a parade came. At the head of it was Zhou, flanked on each elbow by the bride, the groom, another boy Jin didn't recognize and the woman who had shown him Haruko in the first place. He ran his tongue over his lips, standing as they entered, his heart speeding up. They were coming to crucify him, it was obvious. They were going to tell him he had no place coming here like this and they were going to turn him out. And Haruko wouldn't do anything about it.

He looked at Zhou who walked silently to him, putting a hand on his cheek and giving him a reassuring look as he moved to stand next to Jin, his arm moving to rest around Jin's waist. The teenager watched Haruko, who was looking at everyone else with--was it fear?--in his eyes. Jin blinked several times, a quesitioning expression on his face. How would he explain all of this? He was still trying to think of something when everyone finally stilled.

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko stood slowly as his brothers, sister-in-law, and girlfriend moved silently through the door, being lead by the older boy who had accompanied Jin. He watched the other boy move over and stand next to Jin, putting an arm around his waist. Haruko's eyes lingered on the odd action for a moment before looking back to his family and his girlfriend. Asher didn't look happy, and rightfully so. Jesimae looked surprisingly unphased by the whole thing, Taro appeared flabbergasted, and Jiro? Well, Jiro had a smile on his face like he had been waiting for something like this to happen all along.

For a long moment after they all assembled in front of he, Jin, and the other boy, they all stood in silence, looking at eachother, his family waiting for an explanation. Apparently, Asher had overheard everything and had felt it necessary to share it with everyone but God. Although by this time, he imagined she had let God know too. It bothered him a little that she couldn't have let it be, allowed him to tell them later, after all the wedding festivities. But he would have to let that argument go for now, right now it was only important that his family knew what was going one.

"Um..." he began then sighed. "As apparently Asher had already let you know...this is Jin Ji Sup, Jin Lawson as an adopted name. He's my son."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae looked at the boy then to Haruko. The boy. Haruko. The boy. Haruko. Before she knew it she smiled and laughed lightly. she wasn't really prepared to do any such meeting on her wedding day or to even hear this kind of news! EIther way she wasn't going to let it ruin anything, she was in too good of a mood. Perhaps later she'll regret it all and smack everyone involved. She looked at Asher who was standing still, holding her left arm with her right hand, staring blankly at Haruko without a true expression, but Jesimae could see she was a bit shy of the whole thing after what he had said, like she had done something awful by mentioning it.

"And rightfully so!" She smiled and walked over to Jin and reached out her hand, not so sure if she was to give him a hug of joy or not considering she was iffy on how Haruko was handling everything.

"I'm Jesimae Lawson." She had to throw in her last name considering this would actually be the first time using it. She was either losing her mind or had a bit too much to drink for she was more bubbly than she ever had been in her entire life. "I'm your aunt!" Okay so she couldn't shake his hand. She just opened her arms and smiled. "Welcome to the family!" Yeah, she was a bit tipsy and the sun made it worse and with the whole situation thrown in it was shcoking she wasn't toppling over just yet.

[Jin Lawson]

Jin's eyes were as big as ping pong balls as the woman gave him a hug. It was certainly not the thing he had been expecting although...in a way...it was nice. His mother was loving, but she never just gave hugs for the hell of it, and certainly wouldn't have given him one unless she absolutely had to. She said he reminded her too much of Jin's father.

When the woman leaned away, he looked over at Zhou who gave him a little smirk and then to Haruko who didn't look comforted by the action. And the others? Well, the younger of the two men appeared not bothered, a smile on his face, and the elder looked as if what the woman had done had surprised him beyond all reason. How odd this family was! They didn't ask for any explanation...or, hadn't yet...

"N--nice to meet you..."

[Jesimae Lawson]

She smiled and turned to face everyone, their looks coming as quite a surprise for she figured everyone would at least greet the boy with open arms. She looked over at Haruko and suddenly her smile faded. He didn't look happy, but thn again he didn't look too disturbed by her actions. She cleared her throat and looked back at the boy and smiled. She moved away and decided to just let the brothers deal with it for she was never one to guess the appropriate way to respond, considering from past experiences she never asked questions so she figured that loving the boy immediately wouldn't have been a bad way to go.

"Well? Aren't you going to introduce yourselves to your nephew?" Okay so she wasn't really wanting to stick by the rules. If they ostrasized him before even knowing the whole story she wouldn't be able to live with herself if he wanted to at least have some relationship with them. Since she had no family it was almost a dream come true to have more poeple popping up all over the place. She was at least going to enjoy it for what it was worth.

She sighed and walked over to where Asher stood still silent and a bit uncomfortable. She glanced over at Haruko and gave him a smile. Hopefully all would be well without drama, but this was the Lawson family. Drama kept them alive.

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko let out a long breath, looking from Jesimae, to Asher, to Taro, to Jiro, to Jin, and back. This was going better than expected but was still not something he wanted to discuss. He really hadn't wanted Asher to know about all this. Especially not about the woman who had had this child...and in fact how young he had been when he had impregnated her. It was a secret he had tried to lock away when he had gotten rid of Mr. Lawson. Yet, here Jin was, opening old wounds again.

"Umm...Jin, this is Taro and Jiro Lawson," he said with a nod to each of them. "They're my brothers, your uncles..." he said the last part quietly. The thought of Jiro Lawson being an uncle at seventeen was a little odd. Then again being a father at twenty-eight was exactly normal either. He looked at Asher, and almost didn't introduce her. But he sighed and nodded to her. "And that's Asher Perez. She is my um...girlfriend," he said, looking over at Jin who nodded, looking a little uncomfortable. This was the strangest thing he had ever done...he would have to have a heart-to-heart with his family later about how all this had come about. But for now...

[Asher Perez]

Asher bit her lower lip the awkwardness of the whole situation finally hitting her like a ton of bricks, especially when Haruko had glanced at her and almost didn't even say anything. She looked at Jin and smiled softly, kindly. She didn't really need to e there and listen to everything, this was between the family and she knew that she had already done enough damage by letting everyone know. She looked at everyone and nodded.

"I'll let you all...sort things out. Excuse me." She brushed past Jesimae and towards the door that lead onto the roof. She glanced over her shoulder and looked at Jin. "Nice to meet you, Jin." With that she turned and walked back out into the crowd of people.

[Orange Diren]

Orange was wondering where the hell everyone went to! She couldn't find Taro, Jiro, Haru, even Asher was MIA. She had asked a few people, but it was to no avail. Finally she had seen Asher walk past her without giving her a second glance. She frowned at her and almost grabbed her arm to ask what was going on, but she decided to inspect it for herself. She walked down the small steps and into the door that was open to find everyone staring at two people she did not reconize.

"There you all are! I was wondering where you went to." She frowned when they all turned to look at her. Suddenly she felt the air thinning. "Is this...a bad...time?" She found Haruko and saw his expression. She looked over to the boy and suddenly something happened. The facial features were strikingly familiar. her heart stopped for a moment and suddenly she didn't want to go. If there was anything that she was, it was nosey.

"Um..hello." She said to the boy, unsure of how touchy this situation was for the feeling let her know immediately that there was a situation.

[Jin Lawson]

Jin looked at the girl who came in. She was young. Younger than Haruko, Taro, or Jesimae. Older than Jiro however. Eighteen? Nineteen even? Closer to his age. He blinked a few times, the way she looked at him giving him the chills. It was as if she recognized him. But he had never seen her before in his life. He chewed his lip and looked her up and down, giving her the best smile he could due to the awkward situation.

"Hi," he replied, glancing at Haruko who just sighed, giving him a short nod; the goahead to introduce himself. He looked back at the young girl with the fiery hair. "My name is Jin Ji Lawson...Jin Ji Sup by birth...I'm, uh....glad to meet all of you," he said, looking around at everyone. He shook his head. "I'm sorry about all of this. I didn't...think about it before I burst in here unannounced." Jin glanced back at Haruko who stood and looked at Orange.

"Orange...he's my son," he said bluntly, as if any other way would only make the news worse. Jin cocked his mouth, standing up next to the tall man, and gave a quick nod.

"I came here to find him, and..." he looked around. "Found an entired family..." he smiled a little. How odd this all was. How surreal.

[Orange Diren]

Orange smiled at him after it seemed Haruko had given him permission to speak. She tried to remain polite for she had no idea what she had walked into. She just waited for everything to explain itself, and whe the boy introduced himself she almost fell on the floor due to surprise. Did he just say his last name was...

"Lawson?" She said after a moment once Haruko drove the nail into the coffin. She looked at Haruko then back to Jin and she frowned a bit thrown off by this sort of news. This boy sure did find something....

"Oh my god..." She lifted a hand to her mouth and glanced at Haruko. She walked over towards the boy and looked in between the two. If this wasn't a great time to come in and find a family reunion. "Haruko." She said quietly. She raised her brow and let out a nervous laugh.

"Aren't I glad I came in here!" She said trying to lighten the mood, even if it was to no avail. "Nice to meet you, Jin. I'm Orange, Jiro's girlfriend." She pointed at him and smiled. "Always nice to meet another Lawson." This day was getting good!

[Jin Lawson]

Jin nodded to her, shaking her hand and glancing at Jiro who looked on smugly. That boy was amused by the whole thing! Jin couldn't help but smile at him, and Jiro grinned back. At least someone was finding this whole thing absurd. Of course, it was much more serious, but all these people in one room, finding about Jin all at once! Jin had expected it would just be his father, full stop. Yet now, he was meeting brothers, wives, girlfriends, lovers! It was a regular block party!

"I'm glad to meet you Orange," he said with a little bow. "My father told me a little about you a few moments ago," he said, trying to keep the words going so maybe everyone would loosen up and they could get some things done. He chuckled. "Actually, he told me a lot about you...and everyone else," he said glancing back around at everyone. Then he shook his head. "Look, I don't mean to burst in here and pretend like I'm part of the family...I'm not. I just wanted to know about my father and his side of the family." He looked at Orange and gave her a smile--the one his mother always told him looked identical to his fathers. He wouldn't know until he saw Haruko smile.

"It's nice to meet you, Orange," he said again.

[Orange Diren]

Orange nodded and smiled at him, this day really got good. Everyone was just now finding out about him it was quite amusig yet at the same time, not. She gave the boy a playful punch in the shoulder.

"You too, kiddo." She looked at Haruko. She wasn't sure if she wanted to ring his neck or give him a hug. Apparently he didn't tell anyone, not even her, about such a thing. That kind of ticked her off, but then again she was always ticked off easily. She looked over at Jiro and smiled and walked over to him and grabbed his arm. If anyone was going to enjoy this moment it was probably going to be Jiro for he always found some sort of humor in situations, that was why she loved him so much.

"Good goin, Haruko!" Orange stated happily as she looked at him.

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko didn't smile. He shook his head and looked at Jin and his friend. He nodded to them.

"Do you have a place to stay? I think it would be good if you gave me a chance to talk about all this with them first," Haruko said to him, being a little more short than maybe he should have. But this whole thing was giving him a serious headache. He needed to pain pills, his crazy meds, and a nap. The latter all the more now that Orange had found out. God knew she would proabably give him an earful about. He saw Jin glance at his friend and then nod.

"We have a ship over in the ship yard in the Hwang District...we can, go over there and stay," he told them. Haruko nodded, glancing around him and finding a pad of memory notes, picking up the stylus and quickly jotting down his comlink number. He handed it to the boy and nodded to it.

"It's my comlink number. You can...call me tomorrow, we can get together and...talk more," Haruko said. He watched the boy look down at it, his eyes scanning the numbers. Then he looked back up at Haruko and nodded.

"Alright," he said quietly. His friend took the number and looked at it, pushing it into his own pocket. Haruko watched as the older boy whispered something into Jin's ear, giving him a quick kiss on the ear and waving to all, bidding them goodbye. Haruko didn't acknowledge him but watched as Jin bowed, telling them all he was glad to meet them once again and turned to follow his friend to the door. For a moment, Jin lingered inside the door before pushing it open and going out. The sound of the door shutting echoed in the silence like someone screaming in a library. Haruko chewed his lip and ran a hand through his hair. He didn't look at anyone else in the room. His headache was getting worse by the moment. It was sad how such an upset would make his head hurt so damn badly.

[Orange Diren]

Orange let out a sigh as if she had been unable to breathe for an hour. She looked at Jiro and gave him a kiss for good measure and let out another sigh as she took a seat nearby and looked over at Haruko waiting for the stroy to start and the drama to begin.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae looked around and waited for someone to say something, but the silence was deafening to her and it seemed the air was thinning as time passed. It was becoming a very uncomfortable situation and Jesimae was still afraid of mentioning anything, but someone had to start somewhere.

"Well...what are you thinking, Haruko?" Jesimae asked as she took a seat at a table nearby. She was nervous for him and she could tell that this wasn't the best time to hear that you had a son and that he was actually right there waiting to meet him. And what was it that Zhou had said about Jin's mother lying? Did they get to discuss that before the barn party come and greeted the stranger? Suddenly Jesimae's buzz was wearing off and this was becoming a big elephant in the room.

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko looked at her and let out a sigh, rubbing a temple. He shook his head and got up turning towards the kitchen door. He looked back over his shoulder at them.

"I am thinking that I need a pain killer for this monster headache..." he paused. "And that there is still a reception on our roof that needs to be attended to." He turned and walked back towards the kitchen, trying to avoid anymore talk of his son. He just didn't feel like talking about it right now. Although he knew he should, he just felt like he needed some time to think about it. He patted his pockets for his crazy meds, but couldn't feel them. They must have been in his room, he'd have to take one later.

He pushed into the kitchen and looked around for a glass. He needed water and medication and he needed it soon.

[Taro Lawson]

Taro's jaw was on the floor. His brother had just turned the kid out to talk to his family about it, and now he was going into the kitchen to do what? Ignore them? He shook his head, looking at Jiro and Orange and making a fist like he was wringing the other man's neck. It was all in jest of course, but it was certainly bothersome to have his own brother avoiding them all like that. He looked at the kitchen door and scratched his head.

"Hey, Haru? Maybe you should, um...come out here and give us a little information on how and why," he called, his eyes looking at Orange, but his brain thinking through everything. If that kid was fifteen, Haruko had to have been...thirteen when he had impregnated the woman. Or around that age at least. How young. Not even Taro had been sexually active at that point in his life. And that was saying something. "I think we all should know about the boy, about how he happened, and about, um..." he glanced at Jesimae. "About his mother. We are your brothers and sisters." Well, kind of. Technically Orange wasn't, but she might as well have been.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae watched Taro talk, blindly really, trying to do the math of how old he was when he got a girl pregnant. How old had she been? He was 28 right? Or was he lying about his age? Suddenly Jesimae felt betrayed. One of her best friends in the entire universe had lied about certain things and it made her question whether or not he had been completely honest with anyone! But she knew Haruko well enough to say that he wasn't a liar and that he was probably keeping everything tight lipped for this particular reason. He didn't want anyone to know perhaps he was a ahsmed or he just didn't feel it was neccessary if he wasn't going to see Jin ever again.

Jesimae finally moved her glance to the floor as she waited on a response from Haruko. What was going through his mind? Was he embarassed? Ashamed? Nervous? Angry? Anything at all? Jesimae glanced over at Orange who wasn't giving away any indication whether or not she was mad or amused. She was just...there. Apparently she didn't know either. One thing she learned about Haruko Lawson, he was damn good at keeping certain secrets from the most closest of friends.

"Well, at least we will never forget this wedding reception." Jesimae joked trying to get the awkwardness out of the air. She pondered if she should go see what Asher was up to after all she was now the only person out of the loop for she hadn't been there to really hear Jin speak about what had happened. She imagined she felt a bit betrayed as well.

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko heard his brother speak and he shook his head taking the three strong pain pills and downing the water. He put the glass in the sink and sighed out, looking up at the cieling.

"I don't want to talk about it, Taro," he called back, his headache made worse by the raised voices. He looked over at the door as he heard Taro laugh.

"You have to tell us sometime, Haru," Taro said and Haruko chewed his tongue hard. He stared hard at the door as if he would be able to see his brother through it. He shook his head at it and licked his lips.

"I don't want to talk about it, Taro," he said more firmly this time, not in the mood to discuss it. He heard Taro laugh again and heard him say something to one of the other people in the room.

"Haru--"

"Taro Lawson I don't want to talk about it!" he snarled at the door, his head pounding even harder from the action. He rubbed a temple and looked back down at his hands. If Taro didn't shut up, Haruko would have to go in there and shut him up.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae jumped at the sudden growl coming from the next room. She looked over at Taro and gave him a glance that told him not to bother him, she didn't want to see bloodshed on her wedding day.

"Let it go, baby." She said as she stood up, against her will, and touched his face. She looked out the door at the reception. It was getting to be the time where she was to throw her bouquet and end the whole wedding celebration. She didn't want to do it when everyone was mad at each other and annoyed at the newfound Lawson boy. She wanted this to end on a happy note, that way her wedding would be perfect. Until after, of course, when claws came out and people were screaming at each other trying to find out information.

"I think it is time everyone just went on home, okay?" She looked over at Taro and waited for his response. She prayed to god this night wouldn't go to hell, but by the way Haruko was acting it seemed as if they were on a one way trip straight into the firey pits.

"I'm going to go thank everyone and send them on their way."

[Taro Lawson]

--------------

Taro laid back on his bed looking up at the cieling of his room. The wedding reception had been over for about an hour, and for all he knew Jesimae was still trying to peel her dress off with Orange and Asher in the next room. Jiro was in his own room, listening to music it sounded like and Haruko? Well, Haruko hadn't been found yet. Since his little burst in the kitchen, no one had really bothered him and Taro hadn't put tabs on him.

His mind was going over everything that had happened. His wedding, the most amazing thing he had ever had the balls to do. His beautiful wife. His amazing family and friends...and Jin. That was a problem all its own. He was something that needed to be dealt with at a later date. He and Jesimae were going to be going on thier honeymoon, and for at least a little while, they would be able to forget about this drama. That is until they returned.

He rolled over onto his side, looking at the wall next to his bed. There was a messged board hung on that wall. It was covered from side to side, top to bottom, with pictures of he and Jesimae. Either separate or together, their faces covered the board. All of the ones Taro had taken were of Jesimae, and all the ones Jesimae had taken were of Taro, and all of them that were them together had probably been taken by Orange or Jiro. Taro smiled at it. It told a story. From the moment he met Jesimae, till now, those pictures were moments in thier life so far together, all of them memories that Taro would never be able to forget.

Today was just a reminder that no matter what upset happened, he and Jesimae would always have each other. And now it was official. They would never be apart, even if there was a little distance between them, they would always be together.

[Jesimae Lawson]

"Thank god!" Jesimae moaned happily as she let out a deep breath after the dress was finally peeled off of her. She didn't remember it being so snug, but now it was barely able to stay on her body, she swore she heared the silver hooks screaming for dear life as they continued to unhook them. Jesimae stepped away from the dress that was on the floor and quickly swooped it up and smiled as she looked at it. "This baby was worth not being able to breathe properly!" She laughed lightly as Orange came over with the dress cover and hanger. Jesimae thanked her and walked over to the bed and grabbed a pair of grey yoga pants and her black sports bra. As much as she loved wearing that dress she much prefered comfort clothes and now that she was married she didn't have to worry about looking good.

The thought amused her as she pulled the elastic bra over her. She sat down on the bed and she let out another groan, she could sit down without having to suck in her stomach. She laid back and smiled as she looked at her wedding ring and engagement ring. How perfect they looked on her finger. And to think! Taro had on just like it! Her face grew red and she laughed. This was an amazing day for sure! Nothing would ever beat today. She sat up and looked at Asher who was hanging up her bridesmaid dress. She hadn't said a single word since she had lefteveryone alone earlier that evening. She wondered what she was thinking, but refrained from asking.

Jesimae got up and walked over to the door and thanked the girls telling them she couldn't have done anything without them. She then began to giggle and tell them that now it was her turn to work...during the honeymoon that is!

[Taro Lawson]

Taro decided finally to get up and do something constructive, because laying there like a slug was not doing a thing for his karma. He pulled himself from the bed with a groan like an old man with aching bones, and moved to the yukata that he had thrown haphazardly over his desk chair. He picked it up, folding it neatly and taking it to his closet. He would have to wash it soon, but not right now. He looked at it a moment before laughing. That damn thing had taken him through the most stressful day of his life, and he was thanking it silently.

He walked over to the door of his room, pulling it open and peering out. The living room was empty. He cast around a moment, weighing the merits of going out and sitting on the couch. He turned, grabbing a hairbrush from his desk. He wandered out into the living room, drawing it through his slightly tangled hair. He needed do something about the mop that was growing on his head. Cut it, or something. But he had grown so attached to having it long that he just hadn't yet.

He moved across the living room, brushing his hair, and looking around to see if he could see Haruko anywhere. He wanted to make sure he wasn't bitter from earlier.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae walked out into the hallway and wondered where everyone was at. It had quieted down severely and she wasn't really enjoying the silence like she normally would have. She heard a muffled sound of Japanese and walked towards the noise only to see it was coming from Jiro's room. Apparently he was the guilty one for playing it so loud. She smiled and enjoyed the feeling of happiness that washed over her. Jiro was her brother now! How magnificent! She sighed out and walked to Taro's room to see it was empty. Where was he at? Where was Haruko! She touched the doorframe of her bedroom and looked around before heading down the hall and into the living room where she saw Taro brushing his hair and looking around. Apparently he was in search of Haruko as well.

The whole episode from earlier had made everyone a little edgy. It frightened Jesimae slightly for in the back of her mind she always thought of Mr. Lawson and the things he had done before Haruko became medicated. She still had nightmares about that blindly blue eye and being tied up in a corner watching Taro being killed. Suddenly she felt sick. She knew that Haruko was taking his medication, he was better now, there was no reason to be fearful of him. He was her brother as well and all was well.

"Looking for Haruko?" Jesimae asked as she walked over to Taro and gave him a gentle kiss on his temple before grabbing the hairbrush out of his hand to play with his hair for a while. Sometimes she wondered if it was his hair that she had fallen in love with first or if it was his face. Or was it his body?

"Have you seen him since everyone went home?" She asked as she looked around hoping he didn't pop out of nowhere.

[Taro Lawson]

Taro smiled back at her as she began to play with his hair, something he loved, and Jesimae was divine at. He nodded a little looking about him as if Haruko would appear from nowhere.

"I haven't seen him since he went into the kitchen and you and I went back out on the roof. I guess he's trying to gather himself after his long lost son hunted him down," he sighed as he stretched and straightened his red t-shirt that said "Ophelia" in black loopy letters. He couldn't remember where he had gotten it. He glanced back at his wife--how nice that sounded--and grinned at her.

"I see you got out of that dress," he said, then turned and gave her a swift kiss. "It's good. I wouldn't have wanted to rip it later," he said with a smirk, winking and then kissing her on the cheek. After a moment, he got a thoughtful look on his face. "Why do you think Haruko wants to keep himself from us? He knows we love him no matter what. I think that's what bothers me most about all this..."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae laughed lightly and gave him a quick poke in the side as he gave her a wink and a kiss that simply melted her heart and made the room's temperature spike to a new height. She let out a sigh as she fooled around with his hair, this somehow always being a meditation and relaxation for her, much like Zen gardens were for monks. She shrugged her shoulders and let out a slightly groan.

"Mmm, me too. I was walking out of the bedroom looking for everyone and I got this creepy feeling. His sudden snap at you earlier today isn't sitting well with me and having him disappear isn't something I expect him to do." Jesimae stopped brushing and put her arms around him and leaned her chin on his shoulder and against him.

"I understand his needing privacy, but I never thought he'd be this private." She paused for a moment and frowned, trying to think. She leaned back and began to brush Taro's hair again. "How old would he have been when he got a girl pregnant? He is only 28 now, right?"

[Taro Lawson]

Taro cringed slightly. That had been a sticking point for him since he had found all of this out. He nodded slightly to her, trying to relax as she played with his hair.

"He would have been about thirteen...maybe a little older, but not by much," he said, nodding, making sure he was doing the math. Then he shuddered a little. "That's a little young, even for me, and I..." but he stopped, shaking his head. "That's just really young..." he repeated. Then he glanced around him. Jesimae was right. Having Haruko simply not be there was a little eerie. And the way he had barked at Taro earlier was not like him at all. In fact, it was sincerely unlike him. Taro wondered where his brother had gone. The creepy feeling Jesimae had said she had had earlier had apparently passed to Taro, because now he was feeling weird, like they were being watched, or...something. Something just wasn't right. He nodded.

"Yeah, that's a little weird that he just isn't around..." he paused. "That's really weird, actually."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae stopped brushing when she heard Taro state his age. She wasn't even thinking of sex at that age, hell she didn't even know what it was to be honest. THen again....she was kind of killing people twice her size and age as well! She suppoed that everyone had their dark secrets, Jesimae had that one about killing people at so young, but it wasn't so dark that she hid it from everyone, especially family. The people who wouldn't judge you like strangers.

"Poor thing." She stated as she continued to brush. She heard Taro suddenly agree with her about his absence. Okay so now that he was confirming it odd, her heart was beginning to beat a little faster. She understood people needing some space after such a thing, needing time to get their head together, but for one who easily could lose it...leaving was very strange, questionable, and downright scary.

Jesimae stopped brushing his hair and handed him the brush and walked from behind him and went to the kitchen door and pushed it open to glance inside in case he was just sitting there idle and listening to them talk about him. But to her dismay, and discomfort, he wasn't there like she was hoping. Jesimae bit her lower lip and leaned back out and let hte door swing back into place. She walked over towards Taro and stopped a few feet away and bit her thumb as she thought.

"You don't think that..he'd do anything stupid...do you?"

[Taro Lawson]

Taro watched her go to the kitchen and check inside, his heart jumping that maybe Haruko was in there. But when she came back out and asked him that question his stomach hit the floor. Where the hell was Haruko? It was getting creepier by the moment. The apartment--well the building really--was silent except for thier talking and the faint sound of Jiro's music coming from his room. Which made Taro uneasy because if there were any sounds out of the ordinary occurring, he wouldn't be able to hear them for the music. Even though the tunes were turned down, they were just loud enough to cover up sounds like footsteps, or the whirring of a bionic eye.

Taro shivered, he was freaking himself out. This was his brother for God's sake! Not some murderer waiting in the shadows for them. But Haruko was a murderer. No, Mr. Lawson was, and Haruko was taking his medications. There was no reason for Mr. Lawson to start up again, that was just Taro being paranoid after the stressful day. Then again, Taro hadn't seen his brother take his medicine that day, and he had been so hostil earlier...it was like Haruko to not take his medicine, be that angry, or disappear into the shadows as he had done so today. Taro looked at Jesimae biting her thumb thoughtfully.

"I don't honestly know..." he said quietly, glancing around them. "If he hasn't taken his medication today..." but his words faded off as he swore he heard the sound of whirring. Was that real or had he just imagined it in the paranoid state he had put himself in. Surely he had just freaked himself out.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae dropped her hand.

"What?" She asked when he cut his words short. "What!?" She asked again suddenly looking around the room as if there were some crazy psycho ready to slit her throat. She saw nothing but the surroundings of the apartment and she glanced back at Taro. She frowned and gave him a slight push.

"You're freakin me out." She said as she stepped closer to him to just grab his arm as if he were going to protect her from some horrible evil force that was present at that time, except...there wasn't. She suddenly realized that she had gone from being perfectly fine to being completely paranoid and afraid. She let go of Taro and let out a groan.

"Look at us! We are acting silly." She shrugged her shoulders as if this were going to rid herself of the feeling except it didn't, nothing at this moment did. She then had a thought. She looked at Taro with slit eyes. "Would it be...would we be horrible people if we sneaked a peek at his meds?" She didn't even know where he kept them and she felt like such a horrible person when seh said that.

"No, nevermind. I trust him. He is just...upset. Maybe..hey!" She looked at Taro and slightly grinned, trying to trick herself into thinking it was true. "Perhaps he went to go talk with Jin? You know, be alone with him for a while?"

[Taro Lawson]

Taro smiled down at her. He didn't think that was where Haruko was. He didn't have the feeling that Haruko was gone, per say. Not here at the moment, but not away from this building. He thought a moment, then nodded back to the door that concealed Haruko's room from view.

"I liked your idea," he said. He felt bad for doing it, but if Haruko hadn't taken his medicine today, then it was only good of them to make sure he took it. They were looking out for his safety and their own. He didn't want Haruko to become Mr. Lawson again for the sake of Haruko and his family. No one would fair well if Mr. Lawson came forth again. He knew where Haruko used to keep his medication. He shrugged at Jesimae and turned, going to the door and taking the handle, knocking on the door, just in case. When he heard no answer, he pushed the door open.

The room was totally dark, just the bright blue light from a lava lamp in the corner. Taro looked over at it and shivered. The blue was identical to the blue that Haruko's left eye turned when he was Mr. Lawson. Taro shivered again. Okay, he needed to stop creeping himself out. It was getting on his nerves. He looked over his shoulder at Jesimae who was still standing there.

"Coming?" he whispered.

[Jesimae Lawson]

"Taro...no..." Jesimae felt really horrid. They were betraying a certain trust, then again they owed him one for not telling them about Jin. For her to be so scared she grabbed his hand and told him not to leave her alone like they were trying to avoid a ghost of the sorts. She bit her lower lip and felt scared and almost like they were trying to steal a car!

"What if we get caught, Taro?" She asked him in a whisper as if he were in the room at that moment an for a second she almost began to panic when she saw something blue. To her surprise it was just a lamp. She clutched Taro's hand tightly and only the jaws of life could rip it away. If she was going to be dragged under the bed by a ghost, or Haruko, or something he was going down with her!

"Don't you feel bad, I mean, his is your brother! We should trust him, right? But...how come I don't?"

[Taro Lawson]

Taro shut the door behind them, the darkness comsuming them but for the ring of blue coming from the lamp in the corner. Taro looked around. He hadn't actually spent a lot of time in Haruko's room, he had never investigated it to see what he had in there, but at this point, he didn't really want to. He just wanted to see the meds and leave. That was his goal. He glanced back at Jesimae, the blue light casting her half in shadow, and half in dim light.

"Look, we can tell him we were looking for pain meds, he has a stache of those too," Taro whispered, as if someone were in there with them and Taro was trying to keep them from hearing him. "And...I don trust him, its just that Haruko has a tendancy to..." he paused. "Forget things...and I just want to make sure he hasn't forgotten this. It's too important for him to."

Taro turned back and began towards the bathroom that was in Haruko's room. The door was shut, the light off inside. He crept slowly towards it. The blue light in the corner was really throwing him off. Every time he glanced that way he could have sworn it was Mr. Lawson waiting for them. But he was always proved wrong. He held onto Jesimae's hand tighter as they moved closer to the door. Taro felt like a jackass for being so freaked and paranoid and suspicious, but this whole day had been so odd, that Taro was ready for anything now.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae stubbed her toe and voiced how she felt about it with obscenities Jiro had taught her first off when they had met. She almost tripped a few times, but not once did she let go of Taro's hand. Luckily he just kept asking her if she was fine and continued forth on their mission to get to the bathroom. Jesimae frowned and looked at the floor. There were odd objects laying everywhere, it made her a bit more creeped out for she was fearing someone was going to grab her by the ankle and jerk her to the ground. Mainly that someone being Mr. Lawson. She feared to even turn the light on! If she saw Haruko in there with them she'd die of a heart attack!

"So, it takes two people in a dark room, holding hands for dear life, and freaking out over the tiniest of things to get some pain killers?" She smiled finding it a bit humurous and so far fetched once one put it all together that she herself couldn't believe it, even though it did have some truth behind it! They were searching for pills, just not killers. She shuddered at that thought. The word killers keeping her on edge. Hell there were probably only murderers in that room!

"How many should he have left do you think?" She questioned once they safely made their way to the bathroom door.

[Taro Lawson]

Taro shrugged as he grabbed the bathroom door and turned. The handle stuck slightly, and Taro had to let go of Jesimae's hand to grab it with both of his own. He pushed his shoulder against it and it dislodged suddenly throwing him into the bathroom with much more speed than he would have liked. He resigned himself to deat hright then as he fell against the sinks, but when nothing evil popped out of the drain, he felt safe. He looked back at Jesimae and smiled.

"Gomenasai..." he whispered, grabbing her and pulling her in to join him. There was little light in here as well, just what spilled in from the creepy blue light in the main bedroom. Taro looked at Jesimae before he reached up and opened the cabinet above the commode. He looked over the bottles in there. Mostly pain killers, first aid type things, and gadgets that appeared to be connected with the upkeep of Haruko's bionic eye and skull. Taro glanced back at Jesimae.

"I think I picked up a months dose last time for him," Taro whispered, running his fingers down the bottles. He counted in his head how many that would be and then how many days had been in this month already. He nodded. "Alright he ought to have around eighteen left, if he has taken them every day like he should be..." Taro whispered, still looking over the bottles. He had gone over every one twice now, where was the bottle with his crazy pills in it? Taro admonished himself. It was awful to call them that, but ever since Haruko had made a joke about it and started calling them that, Taro couldn't break the habit. Taro rested his hand on the shelf and glanced back at Jesimae.

"They aren't here."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae let out a disdain sigh an leaned her head against Taro's shoulder for she had been standing there for what felt like years and years and when her heart didn't stop with fear and when she didn't die of suffocation she had to lean on something for support.

"Great!" She said as she turned and looked into the bedroom, a bit nervous to keep finding blobs taking various shapes and forms of bright blue. It kept causing her heart palpatations and soon her heart was just going to downright stop. She looked at Taro and waved a hand at him.

"Come on, lets get out of here, huh? His room is creeping me out." The sooner they both got out of the messy room the happier she'd be. She could just feel the creepy crawllies through her bones and if she turned on the light she swore she'd find disembowled bodies laying everywhere. It was horrible shamefull that she was thinking such things about Haruko. It wasn't his fualt for the events that had happened in the past, he wasn't well and it was out of his control, as long as he didn't take his medication.

She knew that she just had to trust Haruko and trust his mind. That was a bit tough to do, but she prayed that he hadn't forgotten to take them. It would cause severe complications between everyone, especially the family and Haruko.

[Taro Lawson]

"Just wait a second..."

Taro leaned down closer to the sink, trying to use the dim light to see if there was anything laying around the sink. He knew those damn pills had to be here somewhere. He looked around both sinks, but was only successful in finding a bottle of lotion, a hairbrush, and a box of something that Taro didn't look at.

He sighed out, annoyed that he couldn't find it. But as he straightened, he saw the glint of something off of an object laying in the floor, just next to the sink, but hidden by a towel hanging off the low set towel rack. Taro glanced back at Jesimae as he moved closer to the commode and crouched down, pushing the towel out of the way and looking down at the object. He reached down, a little creeped to touch it, but when his fingers met it, he automatically recognized it as a pill bottle. Taro grasped it and picked it up, waving it at Jesimae as he stood straight. He looked down at the label.

"These are it," he whispered. Carefully, Taro lifted the bottle, looking at the pills inside. He rotated the bottle, counting the number of white pills. Carefully, he counted. Then recounted. And counted again. Taro had to have counted those pills eighty times. All with the same result. Taro slowly lowered the bottle, clutching it in his hand and looking down at Jesimae, unable to keep his expression from showing genuin fear.

"There are twenty pills in this bottle," he said breathlessly. "He's missed two days."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae walked back into the ttiny bathroom and stared at the bottle in Taro's hands. As he counted she couldn't handle the suspense. The only sound she heard were their stagnant breaths and the pills bumping together and being hit against the plastic container. She looked up at Taro watching his mouth move barely as he counted mentally. She was ready to die. If Haruko caught them now they'd be dead. Not..literally of course. What was wrong with her? She needed an off buton to shut her brain up.

Jesimae heard something and she immediately wanted to jump on top of Taro but it was just the sound of Jiro moving on his bed. She let out a soft sigh and glanced up at Taro to see him clutching the pill bottle for dear life. When the lava lamp let a huge bubble form it reflected a bright glow of blue on Taro's face. She had never seen him look so horrified in all her life. He looked down at her and she swore her heart was going to fly out from inside of her. Then the words hit her like a sledgehammer in the stomach. She felt the sudden urge to leave the room and lock every door in the arpartment.

"What? Did you count them right? Are you sure? Double check. Maybe you miscounted!" Suddenly she was hearing things from all over. She heard someone else breathing, she felt them breathing down her neck, she heard whirring of a bionic eye, she heard footsteps, she felt her hair stand on end. Suddenly her mind was taking over.

"Taro lets go."

[Taro Lawson]

Taro nodded, but before he could take Jesimae's hand and take her back to the safety of the lighted living room, the sound of a bionic eye whirring just behind Taro sent the bottle of pills to the floor, shattering the glass bottle into a million shards under thier feet. Taro was looking at Jesimae, his breathing shallow, his eyes as wide as they could possibly get. The sound of whirring continued for much longer than Taro liked until it finally stopped.

Taro turned, slowly, painfully slowly. He was praying to Buddha that he had heard it, that it wasn't real that...Taro's eyes searched the darkness behind him. He couldn't exactly see what was over that way, but he knew that it was the bath tub. Taro's eyes flicked from one place to the next, trying to see something--anything--that would tell him he had been hearing things. But he could see nothing, hear nothing. Nothing but his breathing, and Jesimae's breathing.

The clattering sound of metal shower curtain rings running over a metal bar screeched through the silence, tearing through Taro's eardrums. He put his hand around Jesimae automatically as his eyes caught the slight movement of the shower curtain being pushed back...and Taro saw the long, white hand that was pushing it aside. Taro thought his heart had stopped beating when the hand dropped and disappeared into the darkness.

The whirring again. The rustling sound of someone moving in front of Taro. And then a flash as a bright, deadly pinprick of blue light exploded in front of them. It glowed as bright as the lamp in the bedroom, and the pupil, big and full of malice, stared at them, through them. It didn't move, didn't come towards them, just watched them. Waited.

"Jesimae..." Taro breathed, his voice barely audible. "Get out of here now."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae drew in a deep breath as she felt herself lean back due to the Taro's arm being pushed against her. Her eyes watered with fear as she stood motionless, unable to exhale, unable to move, unable to speak, unable to think of anything except....bright blue light. She felt her back find the door and she almost screamed and whirled around to hit, but knew that it was not to be feared, but the creature in the bathtub, that was apparently staring a hole through them both, was.

"T-Taro..." She said lowly after she finally realized he had told her to leave. But she couldn't, not without Taro. "Taro..." She said again her hands finding his waist and balling his shirt in her fists, too fearful of the man staring at them, the deep black hole in the bionic eye causing more stress than the color itself. She was still unable to move.

[Taro Lawson]

"Jesimae run!" Taro screamed at her, grabbing the door handle and flinging it open pushing her through and getting a death grip on her hand. Taro wasn't two steps out of the bathroom--Jesimae one--when he heard a roar and the sound of the shower curtain popping off the metal rings. Taro heard a crash as the cabinet came off the wall, and when Taro dared to look over his shoulder it was flying towards them the glass shattered the contents flying with it, falling. Taro made a noise and grabbed Jesimae, wrapping his body over hers as the cabinet crashed against his back the glass shattering around him and he cried out in pain.

Taro could hear Mr. Lawson coming. It was inevitable. He grabbed Jesimae again and broke into a sprint, covering the last few steps in no time and flinging the bedroom door open, light pouring into the dark, evil, room. Taro flung Jesimae out and turned grabbing the door knob on the door, looking up as a great shadow with one blue eye hurtled towards him.

Taro let out a yell and pulled the door shut, leaning all his weight against it, a second after feeling the slam of Mr. Lawson's body against it. Then the entity began to pull on the door, and his strength was incredible. Taro would never be able to keep this door shut. He looked over his shoulder at Jesimae as his body got jerked slightly as Mr. Lawson pulled and screamed and roared on the other side.

"Go get Jiro!" it was the only thing he could think of. He needed help, but none of them were strong enough to keep this door closed for long, Taro knew that...

And so did Mr. Lawson.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae closed her eyes in such fear that it was almost blindingly so. She couldn't see anything but darkness, mixed with a horrific shade of bright blue that only could strike fear into the hearts of those who had suffered such a wrath that Mr. Lawson stirred up. Jesimae heard contents crashing and she felt Taro move slightly from being jolted. She felt particles of sharp glass hit her arms and her body, but the groan that Taro let out let her know that she had felt nothing. She wanted to scream but her body was into a mode that was just meant for survival. She felt Taro push her out the door and when she was stopped from falling on her face by the couch she turned to see Taro putting all his weight on the door, that was rattling like a massive beast was attacking, which in their case it was a massive man with nothing but wrath and malice on his mind.

Taro barked at her to go get Jiro and she did just that. She ran down the hall and found the room. She pushed the door handle and spilled into the room. Loud music blasted from all sides and she saw that he was listening to headphones. She screamed his name, but he did nothing but respond by moving his head. She ran over to him an smacked the headphones off.

"It's Haruko!" She screamed her eyes watering from fear and adrenaline. She could barely breathe, her mind was going haywire. "I mean....Mr. Lawson!" She couldn't really explain anything but she just grabbed Jiro's arms with all the force she had and brought him off the bed and ran into the hall towards the living room. Dear God! If Mr. Lawson got out of that room!! Who knew what could happen!

[Taro Lawson]

Taro groaned as Mr. Lawson jerked so hard on the door Taro could have sworn his shoulder was thrown out of socket. He heard Jesimae scream at Jiro and a moment later the two came tearing towards him. He looked at Jiro whose face had gone three shades paler. He immediately ran over to help Taro hold the door shut. Taro leaned his head back, squeezing his eyes closed and holding on tighter, even though his hands were almost numb.

"Jesimae," he fought out. "Get Asher...she's the doctor here, see if she has anything that can help us short of shooting him in that goddamn temple!" Taro felt bad for saying it immedately after he had, but he couldn't help it. This couldn't go on. It was putting his family in danger and that was something he wouldn't have. The good of the many overrules the good of the few. Taro had learned that ages ago, but he had never had to put it into play, or even think about it until now. If Haruko couldn't take his medicine, then Taro might have to refuse to let him stay here any longer. As much as it killed Taro to think, that could be what this came down to.

"Hurry...I don't know how long we can keep him in there!"

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae was so confused, how the hell can one person snap like this!? How! She did as they said without so much as a word she was running down the hallway towards the back room where Asher and Orange had been before. She was surprised that they hadn't heard anything, but those two never seemed to pay much attention to their surroundings when talking. Jesimae ran into the backroom and saw the two of them laughing and talking away lively and listening to music, trying to drown out Jiro's.

"We need help!" She screamed as she slammed off the CD player that was letting out horrendous noise. Suddenly the room went quiet and the only thing the two could hear were screams and slams. Asher frowned and saw the condition that Jesimae was in, scratches on her arm and a blood on her face.

"Haruko, Asher! He has lost it! He hasn't taken his medication!" Asher's face went white and she suddenly looked at Orange who had quickly ran out of the room after two seconds of hearing the noise. Great! If she caused any trouble Jesimae would have no problem knocking her out at this moment! "Do something!" She said angered that Asher was just standing there while Taro and JIro were possibly being torn apart!

Asher finally made a move and went to her large bag with her clothes in them. Jesimae had no idea what to do, what to say, she just turned and ran back into the living room where the three of them were holding the door with all their might trying to keep Haruko from busting out. Asher was running right behind her.

"With him I always come prepared!" It was a sad revalation, but nobody could do anything about it now. It appears that Asher was rightfully prepared! She had a needle and a bottle and she was quick to pop the needle top and push it into the liquid in the bottle, measuring it to a few CC's of whatever it was. Jesimae's hand shook as did her whole body. The pounding and screams were something she could have lived without for the rest of her life.

"We are going to have to let him out, guys! It isn't comforting! I can tranq him and I can go back to my apartment and give him some liquid meds. Who wants to be the bait for me?" Her hands were shaking as well and her voice was cracking, but it seemed to be fine with Asher there. She was the one who could do it all and under this kind of pressure. She looked up at everyone when she saw that she had gotten the proper amount.

"Open it!" She said loudly and demandingly. The sooner this was under control the quicker Mr. Lawson could go away.

[Haruko Lawson]

The door opened and Mr. Lawson surged forth. His entire body was soaked from the cold water he had run in the bathtub. His hair dripped in long black streaks down his face, his skin white from the ice cold water. His pants were heavy and sopping wet, the tattoos on his body looking more black against the paler of his skin. His eye was looking at everyone in the room. He saw Asher and he laughed. It was deep, throaty, angry, monsterous. How he loved being out again. How he loved watching these people fear him.

"Tranquilizers, Asher?" he purred, his voice sounding like Haruko's but deep, gruff. "Tranquilizers!" he screamed, he grabbed the nearest object to him, which was a chair, and raised it up over his head hurling it across the room. The chair splintered on the opposite wall falling uselessly to the floor. "You think tranquilizers will stop me!" he laughed heartily, deep in his chest. "This isn't something you can just put away and hope that it doesn't come back! Haruko isn't sick, he's blessed. Blessed with a power no one could understand! Blessed with me!" He laughed again.

"I am his saving grace! When he is in trouble I cover him, I keep him alive! If it weren't for me, Haruko would have died years ago! And yet you try to keep me at bay! Try to tranquilize me?! You put medication in him like he's some sort of animal! Some sort of guinea pig?!" Mr. Lawson turned his gaze on Jesimae, Taro, and Jiro. "Is this all he means to you! You come in and make sure he has taken the medication that keeps him sedate! You just want to keep him sedate!? What kind of a thing is that to do to your own family member, hm?!" he screamed. Mr. Lawson didn't give a care how they treated Haruko, but this was his bargaining chip, if he could get them vulnerable for two seconds, he could have them.

"It's no wonder Haruko didn't tell you about his son! It's no wonder he didn't tell you how much it hurt, how he hated that night! It isn't any wonder why he doesn't say anything to you! Because you'll just pat him on the head, give him and pill and tell him that he's sick and he needs to rest!" Mr. Lawson laughed in his chest again. "No, tranqulizers won't put me under this time Asher. I am far too angry for that. I'll have you all..." his eye swiveled to Jiro. "I'll have you in my bed along with Asher..." then it swiveled to Taro and Jesimae. "And you two? I will take out your insides and eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner!" and finally, his eye looked at Orange. "And as for you my fire haired beauty. I will happily put your head on a stake and keep it as a souvinir!!"

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae looked over at Asher and wondered what the hell she was standing there for holding a damn needle that was useless if it wasn't put into his skin and the plunger pushed. She heard Haruko's voice that she always loved, being put to use by a monster that was nothing but that. A savior, is treating a poor man like that was a savior then she was Jesus Christ Herself. She watched him stare at everyone letting them know how he was going to treat them and all Jesimae could do was stand there in disgust and wonder how she was ever able to befriend Haruko when he had such a thing inside of him, boiling, stewing, watching, waiting.

"What the hell are you waiting for, Asher!" Jesimae could't keep her concern at bay any longer. This man needed to be taken care of quickly. She was ready to take matters into her own hands anda ends everyones misery by shooting him in the head.

[Asher Perez]

Asher heard Jesimae voice her concern, but she wasn't able to just lunge at him and stick the needle anywhere! She had to find a way to put it in his neck, his side, his leg, anything with enough muscle and fat to take the medication and react quickly. She was ready to just try it anywhere, but she didn't want to stab herself in the process.

"He is putting on a show, aren't we a lucky audience." She said a bit ticked off that Mr. Lawson could treat Haruko like that. The mind was a powerful and yet destructive thing. She bit her lower lip and tried to stay calm and realize that this was just another day at the office, sorta. She had handled worse, always much worse. But it appeared that Mr. Lawson had been barking at Haruko for quite some time for he was very aware of what was going on. Interesting.

Without thinking and without much of a choicve, she ran over to him and tried to pierce him in the thigh. She felt it go in, but it was in his thigh, she doubted it would take a fast amount of time to sink it. But his wrath and fury was much quicker. She felt her body slam against some inanimate object and she heard the needle and container hit the ground. She glanced at it and saw that the needle had some blood on it. Now whether or not she plunged quick enough was her mistake.

Mr. Lawson growled in fury and suddenly she tried to think of other alternatives to calming him down. There was brute force with everyone tackling him and allowing her to get another needle and giving him a more powerful dose, or just trying to do it again. Either way the results were going to be bad, someone was going to get hurt if she didn't get it in his body.

[Haruko Lawson]

Mr. Lawson looked down at his leg. He could feel the prick where the needle had gone in and ripped his skin slightly. He purred as he looked back up and at Asher who was now farther away from him after he had thrown her. He shook his head at her.

"It's amazing to me how Haruko can love you so," he murmured, his voice quiet finally, something Mr. Lawson's voice rarely was. It sounded low, but it was Haruko's voice more than the monster's. Mr. Lawson grinned at them, his bionic eye whirring as he looked around at them all. "Haruko dreams about you, Asher. He loves you. And yet..." Mr. Lawson chuckled menacingly in his chest. "He wonders when the day will be that you throw him out onto the street like a rabid dog. It's the reason he doesn't want to be intimate with you anymore, Asher. If he gives his love to you, he can't be assured that it is safe. He knows he won't be loved in return."

Mr. Lawson moved to the side, stalking around them in a wide birth, circling them like a hawk, but not moving towards them. His eyes grazed over everyone's forms as they stood there, watching him as he watched them. He ran a pink tongue over his pale lips and tapped his forehead. He cleared his throat slightly.

"I love her, but she worries me sometimes. I'm not like everyone else in this family, and I know that scares them. I terrify them, and it terrfies me..." said a voice that was decidedly not Mr. Lawson's. It was Haruko's, echoing from Mr. Lawson's mouth, without him having to move his lips. For a moment he stood there, letting the words dissipate out. Then he smiled.

"And that is that. His electronic diary in his bionic brain holds all his thoughts and I can access them, and Asher..." Mr. Lawson said, turning his blue gaze towards her. "It doesn't look good for you..." and with that, Mr. Lawson's blue eye turned on the syringe with the tranquilizer in it. A tiny red laser shot from his pupil, hitting the needle and melting it quickly. She would never be able to give him anything with a needle that couldn't carry fluids. He sighed and licked his lips.

"I'll give you two choices," Mr. Lawson said, running a finger down his cheek to move some of his wet hair away from him. "Stand away from me and let me take my leave, or I'll murder you all and leave you to rot," he said, looking around at them. He smiled.

"I suggest you take the former. I am sure Haruko wouldn't want to wake up to find he had slaughtered his entire family...well, save for the little brat of his, whom I need to take care of..." Mr. Lawson gave a dark laugh. "What'll it be?"

[Asher Perez]

Asher looked up at him and tried to regain the breath that had been knockd out of her from the foreceful blow when she had been tossed off of him. Asher heard him tell her how Haruko hadn't shown her love in a while, which was true and slightly hurtful to actually have everyone know their business. She also knew that some of it could've been overdone by Mr. Lawson's ability to strike fear into people. Asher wasn't the girl do do anything before she was married, but they had fooled around and it had sincestopped in the last month or so.

She looked around the room a little embarassed but knew that they could probably care less about that. She was wondering what to do. She had medication at her apartment, a few mor esyringes in her bag, but he was strong and couldn't standstill for more than a few seconds, which maed this that much worse. She wa out of true ideas. The only thing she could think of was someone bashing something over his head, tackling, something to keep him still for a few moments. Just long enough to allow her to get the medication in.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae watched the scene unfold with a slight pain in her stomach. Anything that could go wrong really was. She was unable to think with all the noise that Mr. Lawson was making, his overpowering voice and unmanagable anger was making her uneasy as was the entire situation. She didn't know what seh could do, but she knew that standing there staring at him as if she were helpless didn't help anything.

So he was moving a lot and Asher was unable to actually get the tranquilizers in him. She could go to her room and search for a stun gun she had in a bag, along with a few other things that could render him unconscious. She also had a tranq gun, but she hadn't used it in a few years and she wasn't exactly sure whether or not it would work. The owner had said the tanquilizers never wear out or get old, but she was still slightly unsure. She had to try something. Jesimae was quick to jog out of the room and into her and Taro's bedroo. She ran to the closet and found the black bag with a few pieces of equipment in them from her old bouty hunting days. She searched quickly, tossing out old clothes, useless blasters, and a baton to hit people with. She didn't think that wsa very useful.

Jesimae heard a racket in the next room, Mr. Lawson probably flying off the handle. She felt the cold handle of her small gun. She looked at the chamber to see there was a needle already in place. She cocked it and jogged quickly back into the room to find another piece of furniture had been broken. Someone had done something to tick him off even more. Jesimae wasn't one for discussion. She aimed the barrel at his neck and knew that one puncture was all it took and he'd be out within a few seconds.

Without any second thought she pulled the trigger, heard the tiny hiss and watched the needle implant itself in Haruko's neck. She let out a breath almost shocked that it had worked for it had been quite some time since she shot anything at anyone. Sadly she didn't care. If it was going to stop Mr. Lawson from inevitable destruction she'd shoot him again and again, no matter how many times Haruko's beautiful skin got punctured.

[Haruko Lawson]

Mr. Lawson felt the tranquilizer hit his neck with more force than he would have expected it to. His eyes squinted as the blue in his left drained slightly and Haruko slowly began to take over again, the tranquilizer doing as it was supposed to--tranquilizing the beast. Mr. Lawson purred once as he was subdued and curled back up into the back of Haruko's mind and the meeker of the two came to. He licked his lips, his body weaving as the tranquilizer began to take effect on him as well.

His blue eye drained completely, going back to the chocolate brown that was its normal color. Haruko looked at Asher, his body jerking a little. Then he looked around at the others, ending finally in Jesimae who still had the gun pointed at him. His eyes began to droop as darkness ate away at his vision.

"Just kill me..." he whispered as his body hit the floor with a hard thud and his consciousness finally ebbed away entirely.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae let out a breath. Okay! That wasn't half bad! Nobody was hurt, nobody ended up in the way of his wrath, well her baby was. Jesimae had heard Mr. Lawson, or Haruko, whoever, and felt sick. She dropped the gun and looked at everyone as if this had taken every bit of energy in her body just to shoot him, which it had. Nobody should have to shoot their brother-in-law with a tranquilizer gun, esecially on their wedding night!

Jesimae could have cared less about the hump on the floor. She ran over to Taro and rubbed his sweaty face asking him if he was okay, turning him around to see his shirt soaked with a bright crimson color. That shelf had done a number on his back. She put a hand over her mouth as her eyes filled with tears. How could Haruko not control this? How could he not realize that he had just hurt his brother and could have killed him if provoked enough.

"Oh baby!" Jesimae stated as her eyes found all the gashes and tears. She glanced over at the body on the floor then over to Asher. "What are you standing there for? Get his medication!" She wasn't being spiteful, she just didn't want this to happen again.

Haruko was going to have to remember to take his medication or else she wasn't sure she could be around him anymore. As much as she loved him, she wasn't willing to die at the hands of her friend.

[Taro Lawson]

Taro waved a hand at Jesimae, tears filling his eyes. He hated what was inside his brother. Hated everything about it. He didn't understand why Haruko had missed those two days. Maybe it had been because of the stress that the wedding had put on them all, maybe he had knocked the pills behind there without knowing and hadn't been able to find them. Taro didn't know, all he knew was that this had to stop. One way or another.

He climbed to his feet, the tears beginning to stream down his face as he hobbled over to Haruko's limp form and fell down next to him, gathering his weat head and shoulders into his arms, as if he could protect him from the evil they had just witnessed. But he couldn't protect his brother from an evil no one could touch. Taro reached up, moving wet strands of hair from Haruko's face and looking down at him. How peaceful he looked. How unscathed. Taro didn't understand how Haruko could do all this and not remember it. But when the older man awoke, he wouldn't remember a thing he had said or done, but the rest of them would have the physical, and emotional, scars to prove it.

Taro ran a hand across his face to rid it of the tears. His back stung, and ached and hurt a lot, but not nearly as much as the hurt inside of him. The hurt his heart felt. Taro could never understand having another person inside of you, the fear that that must cause. Taro would never understand it, but he didn't want to. He just wanted to rip that thing out of his brother and make it leave Haruko alone.

"Please, Asher..." he said as calmly as he could manage with the tears running down his cheeks. "Go get his medicine. He needs to be cleaned up and warmed up. He's going to freeze to death..."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae bit her lower lip as she watched everyon staring at the poor man laying like a wet rag doll on the floor. Limbs limp, soaked to the bone, and lifeless. Asher moved by Jesimae on a mission. She tried to calm her nerves but it wasn't truly working. This had been such a stressful day, now it was only much now that Haruko had a lapse and Mr. Lawson came through. she knew it was stressfull on her, but it was probably much harder on Taro and on Jiro. They were connected to him much more so than she was, but they all had gotten to know him at the same time, so it was kind of a shared pain.

Jesimae ran a hand over her head and wiped away sweat and blood and walked into Haruko's room and grabbed a large blanket and brught it out nad put it over the couch for anyone to wrap him up with whenever Asher gave him the medication he was in dire need of. Jesimae walked into the kitchen and let out a distressed sigh. She was going to fix herself something to drink, probably hot tea for Haruko whenever he woke up. What was everyone going to do if he didn't remember to take his meds?

[Taro Lawson]

Taro took the job of drying Haruko and getting some dry clothes on him when Asher had finished getting medicine into him. And then he had wrapped his brother up in the big, warm comforter that Jesimae had brought in and carried his brother into his bedroom, flipping on a real light instead of that bluw lava lamp--which he promptly turned off.

The dark, scary blobs that had lain on the floor earlier and had frightened both Taro and his wife, were only t-shirts, jeans, boxes of music files, notebooks labled different things. All of them innocent and screaming Haruko. Taro felt bad now for snooping, but what would Mr. Lawson have done? Stayed in the bathtub until Haruko froze to death? Or maybe Mr. Lawson would have cut his own wrists and bled Haruko. Taro didn't want to think about it.

He brushed some of the long hair from his brother's calm face and slowly left the bedroom, closing the door behind him, the hinges of which groaned from being so stressed by Mr. Lawson's force earlier. Taro leaned against the door, but jumped away from it with a pained hiss when pain shot through him from the cuts, scratches and bruises on his back. He reached back to touch it and when he looked at his hand, he saw blood. He needed to clean it, but he felt so drained that he didn't ever want to move again.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae stood in the kitchen staring at the dark steaming tea wondering what had caused Haruko to snap, or Mr. Lawson. She was so tired, the day had been so long. She was just so glad that tomorrow she and Taro would be going on their honeymoon and they'd not have to deal with any problems, that was until they came home. Hopefully everything would be back to normal again.

Jesimae leaned back in the chair and grabbed the mug and took a long sip of the hot tea, allowing it to soothe her tired bone and tired mind of everything that had gone on that day. She wanted to just get out of there and forget about everything that had happened. She wasn't able to understand anything and her mind was aching with her trying to figure the brains power and how it could turn on and off like that and allow certian aspects of the brains hidden capacity to pop up. A monster to just come out of nowhere without a single warning. Or was there a warning? His headaches were something she took note to, but she didn't want to think about it anymore.

"Kuso." She said lowly as she put a hand on her forehead as she tried to just look forward to seeing Haruko better and that much wanted honeymoon.

[Haruko Lawson]

EDIT

[Taro Lawson]

Taro slowly made his way to the kitchen, pushing through the door and glancing over as he saw Jesimae sitting with a cup of something. He gave her a halfhearted smiled and flopped down in the seat across from her. For a log time, he just sat there looked at her. He shook his head.

"My brother's got a real problem," he said, for no reason in particular. Jesimae already knew this, he was just trying to set up the conversation right. He ran a hand over his sweating forehead and looked up at her, trying to break this to her kindly. "I'm...I think I should stay here and look after him until he's better and can get to taking his medication again. I think..." he paused a moment. "Jesimae, I'm sorry, but I think we should postpone our trip..."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae heard him come in but she didn't really look up at him, her head hurt and her eyes were killing her so she didn'treally wnt to move them. She nodded slightly at his observation that was right on the dot. She glanced up at him as he wiped his sweaty forhead, stress apparent in his eyes. At least there was tomorrow. Then he spoke more. Spoke words that she almost had to ask him to repeat. Suddenly her head began to hurt worse., much worse than she had ever imagined.

"Eh?" She said to him lifting her head and eyes, almost unsure if her mind was beginning to play tricks on her. "What?" She asked in a voice that was barely audible. Did he just do something she never in a million years thought she would hear coming from her husbands mouth.

"You think we should...oh no! No, Taro!" She suddenly had the power to stand up and make her thoughts on the matter out in the open. "Taro, no! You aren't his babysitter!"

[Taro Lawson]

Taro shook his head looking at her and standing as well, leaning down on the table and running a hand through his hair. Then he held his hand out to her.

"No, I'm not his babysitter, but Jiro and I are his only family! If I leave him, Jiro won't have any idea what to do and he is not Asher's responsibilty. Or Orange's!" Taro said, watching her. "We can go, I don't mean to not go, but I just don't think we should go after this. I am not totally sure he is mentally stable in the normal sense. I mean, even with the medication, I'm not sure that he won't try something on himself. I can't just leave him alone, Jesimae. He's my brother."

[Jesimae Lawson]

"Taro! He is not your responsibility either!" Jesimae slammed her hand down on the table and realized that this meant much more to her than either one of them had thought. She didn't want to sound selfish, but she was. Jesimae put her head in her hands and trying to think of what to do and what to say. She let her hands drop and she looked at Taro.

"Taro I don't know if we'll ever be able to help, Haruko! You can't put your life on hold for something we can't control! Jeez." She stomped her foot and suddenly felt a swell of emotions.

"I don't want to wait a few days, a week, or a month! I want to leave tomorrow! What is the point if we have to wait that long. It is pointless." Jesimae fell into the chair she had been sitting in a few minutes ago. What was happening? What happened to the great wedding she was having? How did it all go down hill so quickly?

[Taro Lawson]

Taro watched her and shook his head. Couldn't she see how important this was? How much Haruko needed them? All she could see was whether or not they would be together for a week or two. They would get that chance later. Maybe Taro couldn't help Haruko, but he had to try. He put up a hand and shook his head.

"It wouldn't have been pointless to me, Jesimae, but if it is to you..." he stopped, then shook his head. "I'm sorry Jesimae, but this is important to me. He is someone I love, you aren't the only person in my life that I care about, Jesimae. I need to be here with him. I can be with you anytime because you don't have such a serious problem. Haruko does. He needs someone here when he wakes up that he knows and loves. He is my responsiblity, Jesimae. I'm sorry."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae let out a groan. She was feeling like a horrible person for even saying that, but she had to voice her opinions on the matter. She understood Taro's predicament and understood he felt like he was responsible, but he truly wasn't.

"Taro," Jesimae felt her headache pounding away and causing her eardrums to pound. This was something she never expected to happen. "You aren't the only one who loves Haruko and cares about his well being, I do! Really! So does Jiro, Orange, and Asher! Of all people, Asher! She is the one who should be watching him not you. She is the doctor." Jesimae was flabbergasted that he wasn't taking her feelings into consideration.

"I love Haruko, but I don't want to be tied down by a 28 year old grown man, damn it! I want to start our life together and I wasn't hoping we'd start it out by babysitting and playing doctor!"

[Taro Lawson]

Taro let out a sigh, trying to control his anger. This was his brother. And Jesimae was trying to tell him his brother wasn't his responsibilty. He turned away from her, putting his hands on his hips and taking a few deep breaths. Then he turned back to her and put a fist on the table.

"I understand Jesimae. But what if it was your brother? What if it was any of your family? This is something I need to do," he said, trying not to blow up on her. He shook his head. "So I'm babysitting and playing doctor, but at least I give a damn," he said, his brow furrowed. He shook his head and turned away again. He held out a hand. "I love you Jesimae, and I know that this means a lot to you, and don't think that it doesn't to me either. But Haruko is more important to me than a vacation we can take any time. Haruko's problems can't be put on hold. This trip can wait for a couple days while we get Haruko up and around again." Taro turned back to her and rolled his shoulders, the aching in his back worsening.

"I'm sorry, Jesimae. I am, but I can't walk out on him, even if you can."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae clenched her jaw and leaned back in the chair. Fighting wasn't going to solve anything, arguing wasn't going to get them on their honeymoon any quicker. She was stuck here, on her wedding night, with a 28 year old mentally ill man who had a doctor who could give him all the attention and medical needs he could ever want.

"Fine." She said knowing that this was a battle she couldn't win. If he were to choose between her and Haruko she'd end her life for she'd never want to give him an ultimatum. Never as long as they were married.

"Take care of Haruko." Jesimae said through gritted teeth. "I will support you and help you in any way that I can. I'm your wife, that is kind of the deal isn't it?" She let out a laugh and then a sigh of stress.

"You play doctor, I'll play wife."

[Taro Lawson]

Taro couldn't help but laugh a little. He knew that this was important to her, but maybe by the next morning, Haruko would be feeling better, and they wouldn't have to put anything off at all. He hoped that was the case, then he could give Jesimae his undivided attention for two whole weeks. Nothing but them, Japanese hot springs, and a nice bedroom. Taro sighed. How nice that sounded.

He looked over his shoulder at the woman. He didn't say anything, he knew she was angry with him. But he really felt like this was something he needed to do. He turned and left the kitchen, going to the bathroom. He peeled off his bloodstained undershirt and tossing it in the garbage. There was no way he was keeping it, it was beyond repair. Alright, not only did Orange owe him a new undershirt, Haruko did too.

He stood in front of the full length body mirror, and turned looking over his shoulder. His back looked like ground meat right now, but he knew it was only because of the blood. Once he got it washed up and the little shards of glass out, it wouldn't look nearly as bad. He ran a tongue over his lips and sighed going to the bathtub and getting in, sitting on the edge. Taro grabbed a towel and wetted it down, placing it over his shoulder and squeezing. The water ran down over his back and he hissed at the pain. This was just how he wanted to end the day of his wedding.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae sighed out and smiled. Drama diverted. She could take this one for the team, she could let it slide. The more she began to talk to herself about it the better she felt. She loved Haruko just as much as everyone else so it was nothing to help him before she helped herself. Besides, she would get Taro back on the honeymoon. She let out a low laugh of perversion as she dumped out the now cold tea. A whole lifetime was ahead of them, they'd have plenty of opportunities to go on trips alone together without worries, so her decision wasn't looking too shabby right then.

Her happiness was quickly taken away when she heard someone enter the kitchen. She turned quickly, immediately ashamed of her reaction when she saw it was Asher rolling her up sleeves as she walked over to her.

"I'm going on home. Look, I gave Haru his medication. He is pretty sedated from that shot with the tranq gun so he'll be conked for a while. It will take a while for his medication to kick in, so if he comes to I left some tranquilizers in the living room and some syringes. Keep him that way until I can come by tomorrow okay?" Jesimae nodded and hugged Asher thanking her for everything.

"Do you happen to have anything on hand for pain? Taro's back is bad. I assume he is cleaning himself up right about now." Asher nodded and told her she'd leave some narcotics for him. With that Asher hugged her again and said good bye, telling her that she was happy for everyone and to give her a call if anything should happen. Jesimae smiled and waved turning her attention back to the mug.

--------------------

Jesimae yawned as she cracked some eggs into a bowl. It was officially the first day of being a married woman and knowing that they weren't to go on their honeymoon she figured she could make him breakfast in bed. It wasn't the end of the world, they could still celebrate it! She was feeling a bit better today after the incidents last night. She wanted to jsut relax and enjoy the day for what it was. She wasn't going to let Taro know that she is let down, but in fact gracious for his concern. Everything was going to be fine! She heard the kitchen door open and she smiled thinking it was her baby boy, she turned and saw Haruko lazily walking in. Her heart skipped a few beats but she knew there was no need.

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko had slept like a dead man all night. It made him smile a little as he snuggled down into the warmth of his bed. He ought to be dead, after the number Mr. Lawson pulled on him the night before. He didn't hear Mr. Lawson this morning, Asher must have given him some meds for it.

Taking a deep breath, he looked out the window in his room. The sun was shimmering through and over him warming him further. He smiled, how nice he felt, considering all that had happened the evening previous. When he took another breath, he smelled food. Food! His stomach gave him an annoyed purr and Haruko sat up in bed, stretching. He looked down at the white t-shirt and blue boxers he wore. He swung his legs over the bed, looking at the tattoo around his calf once before going to the mirror in his room and looking himself over. He groaned and clipped his hair back. He looked tired.

Sighing and turning, he went to his bedroom door and opening it, peering out. There was no one about, but he could smell the smell of food more strongly out here. He went out, quietly shutting the door behind him. Slowly, he made his way to the kitchen and pushed the door open. Jesimae was standing there and she turned to look at him as he walked in, yawning. How tired he was. More so than usual.

"Ohayo gozaimasu..." he muttered, going to the cooler and pulling out a small bottle of milk and popping open. He drank the whole thing down in a few gulps--he was thirsty too. He plopped down into a chair and yawned again putting his forehead down on his folded arms. "How bad was I?"

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae felt her heart skip beats more than normal. She told herself to stop being so paranoid that he was medicated and he was better. But what had Asher said last night? Didn't it take a while? Apparenty the doctor was wrong, he was breathing and living normally as if this were just another, normal day. Jesimae smiled, half willingly, and nodded at him watching him carefully as if any move he made could mean certain death for her.

Snap out of it, Jes! She heard herself say. She watched him drink the milk and then fall into a chair, yawning. She bit her lower lip and turned looking at the eggs she had already cracked, if she didn't stare at him like a freak she'd offend him and that was something she didn't want. She jumped at his voice and felt a chill run down her spine.

This is Haruko! She said to herself. My very good friend! Talk to him! Speak!. She smiled and looked over her shoulder.

"M-Morning." She grabbed the egg shells in her hand and walked oer and trashed them. She grabbed a knife to cut a piece of butter and suddenly she heard him ask the dreaded question. She stared at the knife ofr a long time, then realized that there were a few sharp objects she had laid out around the kitchen.

She cut the butter and put it into the frying pan, hearing it sizzle. Jesimae poured some cooking oil into the pan and then turned to face him. She shrugged her shoulders and drew in a deep breath.

"Well...have you seen your brother this morning? What you did to his back...geez. It is horrible." She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "I'm...sorry...Haruko...I didn't mean for it to sound like that." She bit her lower lip and turned back to the frying pan and looked at the eggs that needed to be beaten. She grabbed a whisk and had at it.

"Um, you also.....I mean...Mr. Lawson threw Asher across the room." She felt her heart beating a mile a minute. She was needing to calm down. She turned to face him trying to keep her composure. "I...see that your neck is a bit bruised?" She figured she should turn the conversation around for she was going to do something horrible, well say something actually.

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko listened and his head panged with pain. He ran his hand down his neck, feeling a little pain as his fingers pressed into the bruised skin. He felt his body begin to tremble involuntarily. He looked up at Jesimae the light in the room suddenly seeming like too much for him. He licked his lips and nodded.

"Yeah, its a little..." but he didn't finish. Then he looked back at her. "And no, I haven't seen anyone's back..." he muttered guiltily. How bad that made him feel, and how annoyed that she seemed to be blaming it on him. It wasn't like he meant to hurt anyone. It just happened when he wasn't himself. He pursed his lips and closed his eyes. Chill out, buddy... he told himself. Just take a breath and let it slide...no biggie.

"I'm sorry about all that...I mean..." but he looked away as another pang of pain went through his head. He shook his head and looked at her. "You know where I can get some pain killers? I have a head ache..."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae turned and tried to breathe, the room was beginning to spin it felt like she was going to pass out with fear. She knew not to fear him, it was her brother-in-law and she loved him dearly and she wasn't pinning anything on him. She nodded when he said he hadn't meant to hurt anyone, understood. It wasn't really in his control, she knew.

She picked up the bowl and tried to beat them quicker, setting the fear aside, then he asked for pain killers and suddenly she dropped the bowl and the eggs and milk went everywhere on the counter.

"Kuso!" She screamed. She looked over at Haruko and frowned. "I'm sorry! I'm not meaning to hurt your head! I..am clumsy." She bent down and picked the bowl up off the floor and tossed it into the sink, the racket she was making even hurt her head. "Gomen." She said again as she heard the bowl knock a few pieces of silverware into the metal sink, scratching against the side.

"Damn!" She said again. She put them into the bowl and looked over at him. She was sweating and fearing for her life, but why! He just had a headache! He always got them after he made the transition between the two...and...before. She clenched her jaw and moved her mouth as if she were going to say something, but she couldn't.

"We..have..some, Mr-Haruko!!" Jesimae felt everything fly out of control. She was just a train wreck waiting to happen! So was Haruko. Jesimae couldn't breathe, the air was thin, the temperature was burning alive in the kitchen, she could smell the oil and butter beginning to burn, but all she could do was stare at Haruko as if he were going to fly off the handle. She rubbed the front of her neck afraid he was going to choke her and to wipe away the sweat that was forming. What was happening to her!?

[Haruko Lawson]

Haruko felt his tongue slip out of his mouth and lick the side of his mouth without him wanting to. He also felt a grin spread across his face, when he was anything but happy. He heard the his and whirring as his bionic eye began to drain of it's brown color. He pushed himself back so fast that the chair toppled and he did with it.

With a cry his head hit the floor with a hollow metallic soud. He groaned as he curled slightly on the floor, feeling his groan turn into a laugh as Mr. Lawson fought for dominance.

"Kuso..." Haruko groaned in pain. "Can't you just...ittai!!" he cried as his brain was peirced with pain and before he knew it, he was back in the back of his brain again, Mr. Lawson stretching out in front of him. He couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel. He could only wait.

"God, how sad..." Mr. Lawson growled from the floor as he blinked his blue eye once and got it going again. He crawled from the floor and leaned on the counter, looking at Jesimae. "How pathetic. I should have done away with you..." he smiled, his bionic eye seeing and identifying the knofe on the counter. He grinned. "Last night!" Mr. Lawson grabbed the knife with a speed he had never had as Haruko, and slashed at Jesimae, catching her cheek.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae watched in horror as she glanced at Haruko then when he fell to the floor she almost asked him if he was okay, but she could just tell that something was right. Her heart stopped when she saw him and the eye that burned into her mind. That was something she had been trying to avoid and here she had gone and let him out. Jesimae backed away, her only exit being blocked by Haruko's large size. She panted as he moved so quickly that the only thing she could do was grab her cheek when she felt a pierce of pain. She looked at her hand and saw blood. What the hell! Jesimae grabbed the bowl out of the sink and heard the silverware fly out. She hit him upside the head, but saw that did no justice. She tried to scream for Taro, but was quickly muffled when Mr. Lawson grabbed her neck, as she had feared. She looked around feeling herself being lifted off the floor. She saw noting to stab him with, but she saw something a bit better.

She frowned feeling her head hurt from lack of blood and oxygen. Jesimae kicked him in the junk and he grimmaced and let god, just long enough for her to find something to inflict some sort of pain on him, She didn't want to, but she knew she had to when she saw the pan steaming. She reached her hand out and grabbed the cast iron handle and slammed it against the left side of his face. She heard the sound of sizzling grease, she watched him bend over from the force and dropped the pan. She suddenly realized there was a horrible stench and things were falling to the floor. It looked like blood, but then again she wasn't sure. Was it...was it skin?

[Haruko Lawson]

Mr. Lawson doubled over, his hands grasped over the hole in his head. He roared as he stood straight. The skin was gone in a large spot on the left side of his face, giving Jesimae front row seat to see the metal plate over his brain that doubled as a skull. She could see all the lights, the wires, and even a little of his metal eyesocket was visible.

Mr. Lawson flexed his jaw the crack of it as it moved back into place with is metal skull sounding sickening. He cracked his neck and looked down at the floor at the still steaming pan. He looked at Jesimae and wagged a finger at her.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," he said, then raised a hand and struck her with all his might across the face, sending her into the counter and to the floor. "That was the wrong move, Mrs. Lawson. The last thing you want to do to Mr. Lawson." He pulled back a foot and swung it forward, kicking her with all his might in the chest. He laughed heartily down at her and crouched down, running his fingers into the mass of her hair and jerking her head up by it. He licked his lips.

"This is what Haruko has inside of him," he said, pointing to the bloody bit of metal. Then he reached down and took her wrist bringing it up and sliding her fingers over and slightly into the metallic eyesocket, then over the metal skull, the wires, and lights, blood smearing over her fingers. "Feel it, Jesimae. It keeps him alive. The human mind is so powerful, but can be so cruel."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae's jaw dropped the second she realized that half of his faece was gone and all she saw was metal. She didn't know whether or not to just die of the sight or be so horrified of what she saw to just let him hurry and kill her. Before she had time to react all she felt was sheer pain from the sound. Then she was struck. She slid across the counter onto the other side where she landed on her back with a hard thud, feeling a fork jab into her side. But that wasn't it. She could still smell burnt flesh mixed with grease and she was horrified when she saw the large man look down at her then kick her.

Jesimae could only let out a noise of pain and then curl slightly to protect herself from another kick, but he had bent down and grabbed her hair and jerked her head so she was to pay attention, something he had already gotten. He jerked her by her wrists up and for a moment she swore that they had been ripped out of her arms. She then felt him trying to pull her hands up to feel his face.

"No! No!" She screamed, trying to resist from daring to touch the metal. She could live with seeing it, but feeling blood and dead flesh, grease, and metal...especially on such a person. She cringed as she felt him over power her. She groaned with torment at the feeling. She had to look away with disgust. It wasn't Haruko, she knew, but she never could look at him the same. Ever.

"Stop it!" She cried out in pain of having to feel it all. Her hands becoming smeared with blood and then pieces of burned flesh. She panted trying to scream, but it only came out in grunts. She tried to jerk her hands away but again to no avail.

[Haruko Lawson]

Mr. Lawson dropped her wrist and her hair standing up again. He backed away, knocking hair from his face. He looked down at her shaking his head.

"You know that when Haruko comes to, you'll have to tell him to did this? It'll take a special surgery to get the skin over it again. Not to mention the damage you did to the wires and metal," Mr. Lawson said, shaking his head. He chewed his lip and watched her on the floor cocking his head from side to side. "You know...when Haruko first met you, he was inclined to fall in love with you," Mr. Lawson laughed. "He was so naive then. He still is." He walked around the table, leaning a hip on it, waiting for her to regain herself. He observed the damage to his face in a spoon he picked up from the counter. Then he tossed it over his shoulder to hear it land with a clatter on the table behind him. He turned back and looked down at her.

"You know, if Haruko ever gets back in control from this one, he'll leave," Mr. Lawson said, looking at his hand and sighing. "He's been thinking about it for a long time. He knows he dangerous, and he has been thinking about just getting out of your lives for good. I think he really will because of this," Mr. Lawson jabbed a finger at the hole in his face. He scowled, walking back around the table and pulling his foot back, kicking Jesimae in the jaw, then dropping down over her, stradling her hips, one knee on each side of her. He pinned her arms down with his hands and leaned in close to her face.

"You'll be resonsible for his departure and self-destruction. You, Jesimae. Are you ready to live with that?"

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae was trying to breathe, he backed off and to her surprise she couldn't move. She just laid there panting like a dog, sweating, bleeding, and staring at her hands that shook so much that she couldn't contain it and get it under control. She just stayed there traumatized as he turned for a moment to observe his appearance in the spoon. Why wasn't her body moving!? Why couldn't she scream for some assitance? Where wa everyone! Jesimae watched him turn and then kick her in the jaw. She felt blood gushing from her mouth. She tried to do what her mind was screaming her to, but she couldn't. She looked up at him, feeling blood drip on her face, she could only groan and try to move, but he was suddenly straddling her and he grabbed her hands and pinned her.

"Oh god..." She said trying to move this way, then that way, blood just falling onto her. She flinched at every drop.

"You'll be responsible for his departure and self-destruction. You, Jesimae. Are you ready to live with that?" Jesimae began to cry like a child. She couldn't defend herself. She hadn't seen any of this coming, she had worn herself out with worry, and now her body was incapable of even following her own instructions.

"Just stop." She pleaded, unable to do much of anything else. She kicked at him, but he was sitting too far up. She couldn't hit anything but the floor. "Just....stop, Haruko."

[Haruko Lawson]

Mr. Lawson raised a fist, ready to hit her with all his might, put her out of his misery, when the sound of a charging blaster and the cold feelign of a blaster barrel against the back of his head stopped him. He froze, his eyes looking up and around. He couldn't see who it was, but he had a good idea. Glancing up, he looked into the metal of the cooler. Sure enough, there stood Taro, a blaster to Mr. Lawson's head, his finger ready and waiting on the trigger.

"Get the hell off my wife, or I swear to God..." came Taro's voice. Mr. Lawson turned his head slightly, but felt the gun press harder into the back of his skull. Slowly, Mr. Lawson stood, stepping over Jesimae and turning to face the man that was smaller than he, but wore a fury like none before. Mr. Lawson laughed at the barrel.

"You wouldn't shoot your own brother!" Mr. Lawson laughed. Taro shoved the barrel against Mr. Lawson's forehead, his eyes burning.

"Watch me," he purred. Then his eyes glanced down at the woman. "Jesimae..." but he didn't say anything else, he just looked back at Mr. Lawson. "You've ruined my family, my brother. I want this to be the last time I see your ugly face, or as God is my witness, the last thing you eat before you die is a cold blaster barrel."

And before Mr. Lawson could do anything, Taro raised a syringe and plunged it into Mr. Lawson's neck, pressing all of the tranquilizer into his body. Mr. Lawson laughed as darkness began to come over him. But he didn't get anything out before he hit the floor and was out for the count.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae felt Haruko hit the floor and her legs. She looked at him and finally was able to do something. She kicked him off and continued to do so, not caring if she was going to break ribs. She just wanted to beat the hell out of him, make him hurt far more worse than she was. He had done enough to everyone and all she wanted to do was just keep kicking, punching, she wanted to get the sharpest object she could find and just jab it into his heart and watch the rest of his life pour out onto the floor. But she knew she couldn't live without Haruko, nor could Asher! It was just Mr. Lawson. Jesimae kicked and kicked until she couldn't do it anymore. She let out and wail of pain and anger and fell back onto the floor.

"God!" She screamed loudly as she tried to regain some sort of composure. She was wanting to wipe all the blood off of her face, but she looked at her hands to see she had pieces of his dead skin clinging on to her from the blood and from what she had to touch. She could still feel it all, the way the face felt underneath it all, the rough texture of the metal, the suction she felt when he forced her to touch the eye socket. Jesimae rubbed them quickly on her shirt and tried to rid herself free of that feeling, but it only continued to get worse. She felt like she was feeling it over and over again. She sat up, still running her hands over her shirt. She shook them, rubbed them on her shirt, on Haruko, any place and anywhere, but she still felt it! The skin was still there, she could feel it even though she couldn't see it.

[Taro Lawson]

Taro watched Jesimae kick his brother, but couldn't stop her and wouldn't. When she finally finished, he slammed the blaster onto the table and grabbed Haruko's legs, picking them up and pulling, dragging the larger man to and through the door. He had restarted the small injury case that Jiro had bought a few years ago and stored in his room, hoping that any injury Haruko or Jesimae had could be taken care of with it.

Haruko would be fine. His head wasn't nearly as hurt as it looked. Taro knew about the workings of Haru's head because his brother had shown him the blueprints and the explanations of what was all contained therein--Haruko had been given them after he had had it upgraded the last time. Taro knew the metal was easily the hardest in existence, and the skin? It was nothing but Haruko's own skin grown over it. The blood vessels were so thin over the metallic skull that the blood he saw was not life threatening. Taro knew Haru would be fine. And from what he observed of Jesimae, she would be too. What she really needed was...

A honeymoon, Taro thought as he kicked Jiro's door open and the younger Lawson jumped in his bed and groaned sitting up, rubbing one eye to see what the ruckus was. When he saw Taro huffing and puffing as he dragged Haruko towards the machine in the corner, Jiro got out of bed and moved to help.

"I've got him," Taro barked. He nodded to the door. "Go to the kitchen and make sure Jes is okay."

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro had been surprised enough when his brother had come in to start up the machine in his room, but when he had dozed again and his brother kicked the door open again, this time dragging Haruko, Jiro had been thoroughly confused. His brother told him to go check Jesimae and he did as he was instructed.

He moved out of his bedroom, messing his already messed up hair and going to the kitchen. He slowly pushed open the door, peering inside. Jesimae was sitting on the floor, blood drops on her face, lookg traumatized. He furrowed his brow and moved in, seeing blood on the floor, and a pan and grease there as well. He walked around the table and crouched down in front of her.

"Jessy?" he asked, reaching out to move some of her hair from her face. "Jessy, are you okay?"

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae flinched as he touched her hair. She looked at him for a moment as if she had no idea who he was. When it finally registered that all was over and that she wasn't dead she suddenly could breathe again and observe what was going on around her. She looked at him and nodded in response. Slowly she grabbed the counter top and pulled herself up, feeling things pop and move where they probably shouldn't. If she didn't have a few broken ribs she'd be surprised.

"Jiro." She said lowly as she saw the messy kitchen. She walked over to the sink and turned it on full blast and began to wash her hands. She then spit out a few pieces of skin from inside of her mouth along with blood. She cupped her hands and gathered water and filled her mouth full then spit it back out. She leaned against the sink trying to figure out what was going to happen. She didn't know whether or not to blame Haruko, but one thing was for certain, she never wanted to be alone with him again as long as she lived.

"Jiro." She said again as if this was helping her. She splashed her face and felt the sting from the cut on her face. She bit her lower lip and then grimmaced feeling her teeth sink into the fresh wound caused by....something. She felt her eyes water and she looked over at Jiro and started to slightly cry.

"How bad is it?" She motioned at her jaw that felt broken and her cut face. She was a prideful person and at this moment she was letting it known.

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro looked at her. Her lips was slightly puffy and he could see a cut and the beginnings of a bruise, but it really wasn't that bad. He smiled at her and shook his head.

"It looks okay. A day or two and you'll be right as rain," he said, giving her a reassuring smile. He sighed, looking around at the mess of the kitchen. He looked back up at her. He decided not to ask her what happened, considering it was obvious that Mr. Lawson had happened. He sighed again, and nodded. "You can go take a bath, relax, clean yourself up. Taro will probably come join you. Don't worry about this, I'll clean it up," he said with another reassuring nod. He brushed a little hair from her face and shook his head.

"He's giving everyone a run for their money, huh?"

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae smiled at him as she tried to stop crying for such a stupid reason. Her face. God! She should be worried about if her body was fine, not her face. Then again she had married a man who needed something just as good to look at. She looked at Jiro and wrapped her arms around him and gave him a tight hug.

"What are we going to do, Jiro? How can we be near Haruko if we have to worry about what we say and how we look at him." She sighed out and just continued to hug him surprising how good it all felt, then again after being kicked and hit and slashed at another person would feel nice, especially when it was someone one could trust without worry.

"What are we going to do?" She asked again just for good measure. How were they going to control thing when the medication was easily forgotten. A 24 hour pump? She just wanted Mr. Lawson to go away.

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro held her tight to him, putting a hand on the back of her head to give her something steady and reassuring to hold onto. God knew that no one had had anything solid to cling to for the past week. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and shook his head.

"Haruko isn't ever goingto be cured," he said in a sigh. Then he leaned back and looked at her. "The only thing we can do, is make sure he takes his meds and...love him. He isn't bad when he is on his medication," Jiro said. Then he chuckled. "Hell, I told him he was a schitzo freak the other day and he laughed with me...he just...needs to take his meds..." he shook his head, and ran a hand over Jesimae's hair.

"I don't know what happened in here but...you have to know that Haruko would rather slit his wrists than hurt you..."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae nodded and looked down for a moment. She was having a moment of bittersweetness, she loved everyone in this family and couldn't have picked a better one to marry into...but yet...she had married into a family with a man who was not only forgetful but dangerous.

"I know," She said in a sigh of stress. "I know." She looked up at him and tried to smile, but it slightly hurt. She touched Jiro's face and gave him a kiss. "Thank you, Jiro." She drew in a deep breath and let it out her eyes looking over the horrible mess. She shook her head in disbelief, how could those two create such a mess?

"I don't think I can do this anymore." She stated meaning about Haruko. She could still feel him on her, still feel that face. "I don't know if I can ever look at Haruko the same again, Jiro."

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro nodded. He understood, although not quite the same. Whatever Mr. Lawson had done to Jesimae was getting to her on a psychological level, a place where scars never healed. Wounds only got worse with time, and friends could change to enemies at the snap of a finger.

"I know, Jes..." Jiro said, understanding her. "But you and Taro will be moving out soon, and you won't have to deal with him twenty-four seven. Hell, you don't even have to talk to him again if you don't want to. Just give him a couple days. He loves you, Jes, he really does. You know he never meant anything he did to you, ever. It's hard, I know..."

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae nodded, perhaps she needed to give it a few days, maybe even a few hours! She knew that it wasn't actually Haruko that was harming anyone, but it still was something she was unsure of. Her nervousness today had caused him to snap, but she remember what Asher had told her. There was a 24 hour time period before that medication could kick in. She swallowed and looked at Jiro.

"Maybe." She said feeling her face begin to hurt, her mind beginning to catch up to the pain she should have been feeling for quite some time. "I'll have to talk to him and make sure that we can be friends. I don't want to leave him." She looked at him and gave him another hug. "I don't want to leave you alone either." That thought scared her. She just might have to take him with her if and when Taro and Jes moved out.

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro laughed and kissed her unhurt cheek so as not to cause her anymore pain. He knew how hard it must have been for her, especially after what Mr. Lawson had done. But she wouldn't have to deal with him much, and he knew that once she was away from him all the time, it wouldn't be so bad. Everyone was walking on eggshells recently, trying not to step on everyone else's toes. It was difficult, but so far Haruko's toes had been the only ones stepped on.

"Don't worry, you'll prefer it when Taro is the only Lawson boy you have to deal with on a regular basis," Jiro chuckled, and tapped her nose with a finger. "Besides, you'll have all the privacy in the world." He smiled and winked at her, trying to make the situation a little lighter.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae laughed lightly and looked at him and nodded.

"I don't know if I can, lets not think about it just yet, hmm?" She sighed and realized that this wasn't that bad. Well, it was, but she couldn't see it as if he did it on purpose. She knew that Haruko was ill and that he couldn't be held responsible. They'd have to do something to fix his inability to remember. If this happened one more time she was sure the outcome would be horrific, someone wouldn't make it alive.

"We'll need to call Asher, I suppose. She is the one who knows how to fix this mess."

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro nodded. He waved towards the general direction of the bathroom as he moved towards the door.

"I'll go call her. Go clean up and relax," he said, going to the door and pushing it open, peering out. He saw Taro coming out of his room, running a hand through his hair. He smiled and looked back in at Jesimae. "Your hubby's out here," he said with another reassuring smile.

[Jesimae Lawson]

Jesimae nodded and smiled. She needed a shower so she could at least check out her side and her chest from where Haruko had given her a nice kick. It pained her just to think of it. She ran a hand over her eyes, freeing them of the tears. She was still unsure of whether or not she should walk out, if she saw Haruko now she wasn't sure she'd be so glad to see him. It was definitely going to take a little while longer than she was trying to trick herself into thinking.

Jesimae walked out and saw Taro. Thank god he woke up and stopped Mr. Lawson, or else now she might not have been able to see him again.

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro followed her out of the kitchen and went to his brother. Leaning on the wall next to him he asked him quietly in Japanese how Haruko was. To which Taro responded that he would live and how his wife was. To which, Jiro responded that she would live and how was Taro. At this moment, his elder brother looked down at him and shook his head.

"He has to remember the medicine," Taro said, leaning up off the wall to go over to Jesimae and follow her into the bathroom. Jiro watched them, shaking his head. He leaned around the doorframe and saw Haruko laying near the machine, his head encased in a glass globe, the droid going to work on his head, bandaging up his head, rewiring things. Jiro wondered when Mr. Lawson started giving Haruko problems. Maybe it was when he had gotten that bionic eye. Maybe Mr. Lawson was more like a virus in a computer system than an actual personality disorder. But Jiro remembered that that the medication helped. It had to be a disorder.

Jiro sighed, leaning up off the wall and grabbing his comlink from his room. He dialed in Asher's number, hoping she wasn't asleep, as he moved into the kitchen and grabbed a rag to start cleaning up. He listened as the comlink connected and buzzed.

[Asher Perez]

Asher frowned at the buzz of her comlink a few feet away. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but the darkness of her bedroom, thank god for black window visors. She frowned and looked around and reached over and grabbed the comlink, the face of the phone glowing and showing it was one of the Lawson's calling her. She opened the connection and let out a sigh.

"Mmm, hello?" She yawned almost immediately. She hoped it was Haruko, she wanted to know if he was okay and hearing his voice would make her feel a lot better.

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro heard her answer and knew he had woken her up. He switched the com link to his other shoulder as he worked on picking up the pan and cleaning the grease that was scalding anymore, but was still hot. He licked his lips.

"Hey, Asher, it's Jiro," he said, letting her know who she was speaking to. He stood straight, depositing the pan in the sink and scrunching his nose at the smell of grease, blood and burnt skin that still lingered on the pan. "Um...this morning, something set Haruko off. He and Jes got into here in the kitchen," he explained. "Her face is pretty beat up but..." he paused, almost gagging at the sight of peices of skin on the floor. "Ew...his, um, face is worse off. It's...he's got a hole the size of my hand, and you can see the wires and stuff in there..." Jiro said, shuddering slightly knowing he must've sounded disgusted, which he was.

"It's been a warzone here this morning," he said, sighing and leaning on the counter. "He's out cold, Taro shot him up with some tranquilizers. We were just calling to see how your morning was and how much you wanted to come and kick the other side of Haruko's face off?"

[Asher Perez]

Asher shot up out of bed when she realized that this wasn't her boyfriend and that, to Asher, wasn't a good sign. She frowned and heard some background racket and it began to make her nervous. She glanced at her night stand and grabbed the remote and pushed a button, the black visors raising high and unveiling her windows to let light shine in. She frowned and looked at the bed.

Then came the details. Asher was off the phone and dressing so quickly she knew she set a Universal record. She had tried to think of what went wrong, how Haruko became Mr. Lawson, what kind of threat would he pose when he woke up, and most importantly, how the hell did his face get a hole in it? Asherhad bo biased against any parties involved with the run it, she just knew she needed to give Haruko some more medicine and wait for him to wake up so she could survey the damage then decide whether or not she wanted to kick his face in.

Asher ran out of the door and found a hover taxi, rudely kicking the man waiting on it out of the way. Luckily he understdood her predicament and let her go. She told the computer to step on it and get there ASAP.

As she had instructed it did and she was in the apartment within seconds. She ran to the door and knocked so rapidly that she swore her hand would have fallen off.

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro hadn't been off the phone ten minutes when he heard a hurried knock at thier door. He glanced down at his watch and nodded.

"Not bad," he said, dropping his rag on the counter and going slowly to the living room. He yawned as he walked in and went to the door. He looked out the peep hole. Asher. He smiled and unlocked the door. He saw Asher and he grabbed her shoulder before she had a chance to run in an make a fuss. He smiled. "He's getting his face repaired, he's out cold, don't freak, no one's dead, Taro and Jesimae are cleaning up in the bathroom, you'll have to wait for them to get the full details," he said, making sure she knew that no one was in any real danger at this very moment. He dropped his hand and smiled, shutting the door behind him.

"Let me show you his face...it's kind of scary, actually."

[Asher Perez]

Asher was so glad he stopped her for she had needed that. Had she rushed in to see him without his face she might've freaked out. She nodded in compliance and followed him to his room to see the poor man laying idle having his face fixed. She frowned when he pointed it out and she slowly walked over to him almost a bit surprised that someone had caused this kind of damage. Surprisingly it wasn't scary, she had seen it the first time she met him!

"Haru," She said lowly as she looked at him. She grabbed his hand and gave him a squeeze. "Poor Haruko." She wasn't talking to anyone in particular, but she wanted to voice her feelings for him. She sighed out after a moment and dropped her bag and bent down pulling out her syringe and some medication. "This is a bit of a bigger dose than I gave him last night, maybe it will kickstart everything." She looked at Jiro and gave him a slight smile. She wondered how long this had been going on before she met Haruko. How had it been contained? How come they were still alive.

She bit her lower lip and poke the soft skin in his arm after searching for a nice vein. She pulled the plunger back seeing blood fill the needle liek she had wanted it to. She then pushed the plunger and watched it empty into his veins. She pulled the needle out and grabbed a small piece of cotton and held it over the hole. She let out a sigh as she bent down and disposed the needle in a tiny box and then put her syringe in her bag.

"Do you know how this happened?" She said jolting her head in his direction. "His face, I mean?"

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro squinted one eye, the thought of the pan and the grease, blood and skin, and the smell coming back to him. He swallowed, scrunching his nose again. He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.

"From the looks of it, Jesimae whacked him a good one with a burning hot pan filled with grease..." he paused almost gagging again thinking about the smell. "Most of its still in the kitchen if you want to have a gander. It's right nasty, let me tell you." He gave a shudder. "But Taro said he'd be fine. I guess he knows what he's talking about."

[Asher Perez]

Asher let out a sigh. A frying pan filled with hot grease, that would do it! She shook her head and stood up, looking down at Haruko. That poor thing was just not doing very good anymore it seemed. She looked over at Jiro and nodded paying cloe attentiont to his story and wha the figured happened. She would have to interogate Jesimae a little later on, but for now she was going to stay by Haruko.

"Yeah, Taro is right. The skin will grow back in no time." She clenched her jaw. Asher hated modern technology but in this case she was glad it was able to help. His face would have literally been scarred for life had it healed on its own, now it might not even show up as anything at all.

"We need to know what set him off, that medication should have subdued the anger." She looked at Jiro. "Did anyone say anything to him?"

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro shrugged and nodded back to the door shrugging again just for good measure.

"All I know is that Jesimae and Haruko were in the kitchen together, someone set Mr. Lawson off, and he did a number on Jes, and then Taro somehow got tranqs in him and pulled him in here. Anything before or during that I am in the dark on," he paused and scrunched his nose again. "God, the stench speaks for itself," he said with a shudder. Then he nodded. "I am sure Jes and Taro could fill you in...fill us both in actually, I'd like to know what happened."

[Asher Perez]

Asher nodded and smiled at the face he made. She raised her finger in the air and pointed at nothing. "I have the solution. That smell will go away with a simple opening of windows and spraying a lot of cleaner." She let out a laugh. "No true remedy for that." She glanced away and over to Haruko. This was very stressful for him she was sure, if there was only a way to snap their fingers and make it go away, but nobody was that lucky.

"He just...needs to take that medicine." She said lowly actually just staing the truth to nobody in particular. "He just can't hide Mr. Lawson on his own anymore."

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro nodded, then laughed a little, scratching his head and moving out of the room, glancing over to the kitchen where there was still a mess he needed to clean up. He sighed.

"I'm not sure if he was too successful at that before the medication," Jiro said with a shrug. He looked at Asher. "You'd think with all this technology, all of the machines, with the stuff they put into his head, they would have a way to rid people of such trifling things as personality disorders, huh?" he said lowly. "I just wish there was some way we could just get rid of Mr. Lawson and keep Haruko..."

[Asher Perez]

Asher looked at Jiro and gave him an empathetic smile. The strain was so easily seen. People like this always seemed destructive, destructive with others and their families which was why she had been reluctant to even date him. But, no turning back now!

"You'd think." She said with a sigh. "Technology only goes so far and besides, I think he'd feel like a freak if he had to go to machines to get 'fixed'. That is something we need to let him know. He isn't a problem to be fixed, he is never the problem." Asher just wished she could show him how much she cared for him and how much she wanted to be with him, but also let him know how important it was for him to take his medications for it could ruin, not just his life, but everyones.

[Jiro Lawson]

Jiro shook his head and sighed.

"I don't know, Asher," he said, walking back towards the kitchen. "Sometimes I wonder if he isn't the problem."