<sub>Today was their day; it’d been their day since about a year ago, when they were 6 months old. It was a joy to look down and see their smiling faces and know that they deserved better than this. Alex held on to one hand from each child and walked down the beach that surrounded the bay. He’d promised them like a week ago that he’d take them to the bay and if they had forgotten it he’d be in shock. It appeared that a normal child would’ve forgotten about their planned trip but the twins didn’t let anything out of their minds for more than a second or so.

Colt was so funny walking down the street. She was nearly dragged because she stopped to look at just about every thing. In her other hand, well tied to her wrist, was the leash to her dog, Elmo. The giant Golden Retriever stayed right beside her never pulling or barking, he was like the guardian angel to Colt. Elmo did find one thing of interest that caused Colt to stop which halted the entire parade of dogs and people. Alex looked back to see what had caught their attention only to realize it was nothing more than a fuzzy caterpillar.

“Come on Colt,” Alex said in his crisp English accent. She looked up smiled and ran to catch up, all three steps. Her small piggy tails waging in the wind and her shoes lighting up each step she took. To his other side was Scout, the ‘man’ of the house, or at least that’s what he thought. He was smiling uncontrollably as he ran his hand over Kenya’s fur. The German Shepard stood stoic as the boy ran his hands over him and only starting to move when Alex was actually walking.

Unlike Elmo, Kenya liked to walk in front of Scout instead of right beside him. Like his sister, Scout had a small leash tied around his wrist. Flicking her head from side to side Kenya walked along happily as the parade began yet again. In the lead was a small dog who’s leash was looped around Alex’s wrist. Zazu, a small Beagle, refused to believe that he was actually a small dog, he believed more over that he was a “dwarf” dog. Alex rolled his eyes as the small dog snapped playfully at Kenya for getting in front of him and bounced out a little so that he once again took the lead, what a drama king Alex thought.

“Scout, keep up.” Alex said as the three of them started to turn and head in a slightly different direction. They made their way towards the water but stopped and sat where they were safe from the ebb and flow of the tide. Colt and Scout dug their small hands into the sand while Alex looked around. He’d seen the looks, felt the stares. They were daggars in his back and in his heart, he knew what people thought. “Oh just another teen parent, wonder how young he was.” Sometimes Alex wanted to let it out to the entire world that Colt and Scout were adopted by him due to their parents’ death, but that would only bring back the past that he wanted to leave buried. Scout and Colt had spent that last half a year with him as their father and he loved them as if he was their father.

“Daddy ice ceam.” Colt said pointing towards a man with a giant Ice Cream stand. A smile crossed both Colt’s and Scout’s face as they silently pleaded for some delectable Ice Cream.

“Elmo, Kenya, Zazu,” Alex said addressing the dogs, “watch them while I got get some Ice Cream.” he said to a small chorus of ‘yays!’</sub>

<sub>After paying for his three ice creams, two chocolates and a vanilla, Alex started to make his way back towards the toddlers sitting on the beach. A smile spread across their faces as he got closer with the coveted treat. He received claps and cheers as he sat down beside them handing both twins a chocolate cone and taking a lick of his vanilla. There are no real words that would describe the way that the twins inhaled their ice cream as if they had three seconds to live. Rolling his eyes he took some of the napkins he’d smartly remembered to grab and started wiping Scout’s mouth, who in the excitement of receiving the cone had shoved it into his mouth, hitting his nose and just about every other part of his face in the process.

It was Kenya that made the first movement towards a smaller dog that appeared to be scared beyond belief. Elmo merely looked over and deciding that it wasn’t of great importance sneezed and went back and licking the spare ice cream off of Colt’s fingers. Alex attempted to get Kenya to hush but her barks were incessant and were starting to turn a little more of a growl. She wasn’t actually mean or vicious or anything it was more that she wanted to play and since the dog wasn’t coming over she was having a slight temper tantrum.

“Kenya, sit.” Alex said to her daring her to mess with him and continue that sorry display of behavior. The dog took the hint and plopped its but into the sand staring intently at the puppy sitting before her. Colt turned to look where Kenya had been barking and spotted the puppy letting a smile cross her face in glee. There was nothing better than a puppy, at least in Colt’s opinion.

Pushing her small butt into the air she stood up while Alex was busy cleaning the rest of Scout up, and began making her way over towards the puppy and the girl who was sitting with it. As if on command Elmo started his way with her staying right beside her and not looking to see if Alex knew of their disappearance or not. Kenya watched them walk the entire way and with jealousy ringing in her eyes she began to whine and inch forward receiving a “stay,” from Alex.

Colt continued her staggered walk towards the puppy reaching it and reaching out a small hand to pet it. She smiled and giggled a little bit. “Puppy!” she shrieked. By this time Kenya was overly whining which caused Alex to turn around and notice for the first time that Colt wasn’t sitting beside him.</sub>

<sub>Looking down at the puppy sitting in front of her, Colt let her hand run over its head and plopped her butt down in the sand beside it. Her hazel eyes were sparkling as the sun hit them lighting her face up. Elmo laid down and huffed at the puppy that was now getting the attention of her girl. Being the well behaved dog that she is though Elmo did nothing that would either scare the puppy or cause harm to Colt. So there sat the three of them content and happy. Looking up Colt saw the bigger girl walking, well more like running, to catch up with the puppy that was more interested in seeing the girl in front of it.

By this time Alex had started pulling some hair out only to realize that the child he was looking for was a mere feet away from him petting a puppy. Taking Scout’s hand and letting both Kenya and Zazu up Alex and Scout trekked towards Colt and the puppy as well as the girl chasing the puppy. Letting Scout down Alex looked as the twins surrounded the puppy with smiles and started to pet it gently. There were the occasional ooh’s and awe’s from the toddlers and the huff and puff that came from Kenya and Zazu who couldn’t believe that the puppy had the nerve to take his place in the petting order.

“Sorry about that, Colt has a tendency to pet dogs without permission.” Alex said in explanation as to why she’d walked away from him and towards the dog. He smiled at her a little and looked back down at the twins with a sense of sorrow reaching his heart. This would probably be it, the one person he meets and he’s with the twins. As much as he loved them and would gratefully die for them, there was a cost of taking them in. For one thing, most people caught a glimpse of them and they shot off quicker than a racecar at the tracks.

“Scout, Colt, don’t pull Zazu’s ears,” Alex said looking over to see that the twins had grabbed hold of Zazu’s ears and were trying to examine them to the best, or worst, of their ability. “The name’s Alex by the way. That’s Kenya, Zazu, Elmo, Scout and Colt, the dog peter.” he said pointing to each in turn and then leaving some space to see if she’d give hers.</sub>

<sub>Ahh, the dreaded question that everyone and their mother asked him at one time or another. ‘Are they yours?’ That was the question that burned in everyone’s mind and although the answer is simple, it’s also the hardest answer to comprehend. Truthfully and biologically the answer is no but physically and mentally they are his and no one else’s. There was no way he’d ever deny them calling him daddy but on the other hand he told them all the time of their real parents so that they don’t grow up and find out from someone else.

With a slight nod he looked down at the twins and back at Lacee. His blue eyes had a twinge of pain in them as he faced the answer to the question. Having heard this question many a time he’d come up with a simple answer to give to the people, exactly what they wanted to hear whether they knew they wanted to hear it or not.

“Are they mine? Well in the courts and on my taxes they’re my children but biologically they’re no more mine than they are yours.” he said. It took him a minute or so to realize that he’d actually told the truth to a complete stranger about his kids. He’d never told anyone outside his family that they weren’t his and even some of them thought that they were his. His mind was racing as to what she’d ask next and it wasn’t until Colt pulled on his jeans that he realized that he was staring off into space.

“Daddy, Scout pushed me!” she cried tears running down her face; she’d fallen and scraped her elbow. Bending down Alex brought Scout away from the dog and towards Colt. The boy didn’t seem to realize that pushing and shoving wasn’t a way to act around girls especially his sister.

“Scout, what have I told you about pushing Colt?” he said looking the boy in the face. “Can you say you’re sorry?” he asked him turning him to face Colt, who’s tears had now subsided into dry discolored skin.

“Sorry sissy.” he said giving her a hug and helping her back to the puppy. Alex smiled at them and turned back to Lacee to see if there was anything that she might or might not want to know. He half expected her to be backing away calling her dog but he saw that she wasn’t, a slight relief to him that he hadn’t scared her away with his cockamamie reply to her simple question.

“Sorry, kids.” he said and slightly hit himself in the head for being such a dolt of a dork. Deciding that it was probably better to just shut up he waited to see what her response was thus far and to give her a chance at the conversation.</sub>

<sub>Noticing that the dog was holding back Colt got a little assertive and poked it and then ran away like she was playing tag with the dog and expecting it to follow. When he didn’t she turned to him and put her hands on her hip as if he was a dumb dog. Shaking her head she motioned for him to watch and ran over to Elmo. Mimicking her poke to Chip she ran from Elmo who would run, well more like trot, after the girl playing easy and fun. Scout did the same with Kenya and finally both twins attacked Zazu and made him chase them before they came to a stop about a foot away in the sand.

“I think that Chip would like to play, he’ll be fine with the kids, they put up with Zazu after all and vise versa.” he said when he heard her say that he was a biter. Zazu looked up in disgust at the sound of his name in reference to the twins. This wasn’t so bad, she knows and she’s okay with it, or at least she says she is.

Looking into her eyes it hit him like a tornado, she had questions. True he’d known that he’d have to answer some of them but he didn’t think he’d have to do so so soon. He’d been in this town a total of three weeks, not too soon but not too long ago. He’d had time to make friends but most of them had left after the holiday was over, well except for Avery but he hardly ever saw him any more, he was too busy chasing after Harlee. Shaking his head of his thoughts he came back in time to listen when she asked how long he’d had them.

That question was a little bit of a toughie. He’d literally had them of half a year but he’d been in their life for about a year or so. He’d been their uncle, their friend and their parent’s best friend since they were born, okay maybe not that long but still. He did know what she meant and so it didn’t really bug him all that much to do his annoying little act of thinking over the answer to make sure it was right.

“Well, I’ve been in their life a little over a year but I’ve only had legal custody since they were a year old so about half a year. I should let you know, I’m a good question answerer so ask away, if it gets too personal I’ll let you know.” he said. “Do you want to walk and talk or sit and talk?” he asked. Normally question came out faster and better if the asker was comfortable and happy. Standing around wasn’t exactly the most comfortable way to ask questions and Alex knew it, he’d done it and more than once.</sub>

<sub>Taking his cue from her, he too sat down in the sand and waited for the questions to come pouring out, he knew they were there and he was ready for once to answer them. His eyes skirted from hers to the kids making sure they were okay. Looking around he saw what he knew he’d see sooner or later, older people looking at the twins and then see him and Lacee and immediately it would be their kids and nothing would change their minds no matter what he said or did. He sort of shook this thought and listened to what Lacee was saying and thinking of an answer.

“They’re my best friends’ kids. Or they were. I first met them when the twins were about six months and when they were a year old their parents asked me to baby-sit them and of course I agreed. It got to be about midnight and they still hadn’t got home and we get a call, they were in a car accident. Some drunk driver ran a red light and killed them instantly.” Alex said telling her the truth about them. It wasn’t all that often that someone wanted to know why he’d taken in the twins and why they didn’t live with their real parents. Then again other times it was just easier to say that they were his siblings but that was a lie in and of itself that he refused to commit.

Colt was galloping around pretending she was riding; it must run in the family. She smiled and shrieked with joy as the dogs joined in as well as her brother. It wasn’t all that often that the girls won over in the O’Brien household but when it did happen Colt just shown like a bright star. Alex couldn’t help but smile at her and shake his head as she climbed on Elmo’s back and rode the poor dog like a horse. Naturally Scout did the same on Kenya and there were the two toddlers playing away on their “horses.” Turning back to Lacee, Alex waited for his next question patiently and at ease.</sub>