"What?" Theo voices what we're both wondering.

Adam sighs and leans back against the door. "I was up all night thinking about it. It's the right thing to do."

Theo finally drops his defensive stance. His shoulders relax as he gestures to the door behind Adam. "Why don't we go inside? Cal should hear this too."

When we open the door, Cal and April aren't around. Theo goes to check the kitchen while Adam takes a seat in the recliner and I find a spot on the couch.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I ask him in a quiet voice. "What about Polly?"

He presses two fingers between his brows and briefly closes his eyes, then stares down at the floor. "She left me." His voice comes out softly, and I can hear the pain in his words. "She wanted me to leave it all behind, move in with her, start over... I told her I couldn't."

I can hardly believe what I'm hearing. It was always so clear how much he cared about her. "Why? Why wouldn't you want that?"

Theo has come back into the room but he doesn't have Cal with him. They must still be upstairs. He takes a seat next to me and places a hand over my knee.

"I didn't say I didn't want to, Em. I said I couldn't," Adam explains while rubbing his forehead. He drops his hand again and brings his eyes up from the floor to look at me. "You don't get it. This life... It's all I've ever known. I don't know how to not be a criminal. But I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Since Polly left me, and then what Justin did...

"And Cal's kid yesterday... Look, I know it's not that simple, but what she said stuck with me. That in order to not be bad, I just had to try to do good instead... So, I guess, that's what I'm trying to do here." He glances at Theo now. "If Cal plays his cards right, and offers up my name, it could mean a lighter sentence for him."

"Fuck that." Cal's voice rings sharply through the room, and we all turn to find him standing at the bottom of the stairs. His eyes are red and puffy, showing evidence that instead of getting busy with April he was likely experiencing the same kind of breakdown that had come for me in the shower. "Are you insane? Absolutely not. There's no way in hell, Adam!"

Adam stands from his chair and walks closer to him, displaying a level of unfiltered frustration that I've never seen from him before. "Why not? After what I did to you? I lied to you. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, but that doesn't matter. You were at an all time low and you trusted me and I lied to your face. Emilia got fucking raped. Justin's dead. Nothing went the way it was supposed to go!"

Cal shakes his head and points his finger at Adam, "You didn't rape her. You didn't kill Justin. And yah, you fucking lied to me, but fuck, Adam, I was a nightmare. Maybe things didn't go as you planned, but you did get me out of there, so you don't have to do this. I won't do this. I would never turn on you like that. Fuck, man. I got clean, I got married, I have a kid and another on the way. None of that would have happened if your lie hadn't sent me running."

"Exactly, Cal," Adam shoots back. "You've made a life for yourself. You have so much that you'll be leaving behind. I have nothing to go to back to anymore. It's just me, Joe and Vik left, and we already decided to throw in the towel before I got the call from Emilia that you were turning yourself in. Vik's already fucked off to Florida, and Joe's still trying to figure out what to do with himself and the garage. And I'm... Well, I'm here, and I'm trying to do some fucking good in my life, for once. So let's just do this, Cal. When you turn yourself in, give up my name. I played a much bigger role than you did for a hell of a longer time. I'm the kind of criminal they actually want."

Cal runs his hands through his hair while shaking his head. "I don't want to try to get a lighter sentence. I want to face my crimes. That's all this ever was..." Though he still doesn't sound convinced, the way he's dropped his voice from a yell is promising.

Theo clears his throat to get Cal's attention. "You'll still be admitting your crimes, Cal. He's not asking you to change your mind about that."

"And either way, I'm going to end up confessing mine," Adam adds. "I don't know how to be a regular citizen and I've made peace with that, but I'd feel a hell of a lot better knowing that my sentence could mean a better life for you. For your family." He gestures toward a framed picture on the wall of Cal and April on either side of a grinning Emily, each of them pressing a kiss against one of her rosy cheeks.

Cal's gaze moves to the picture. He stares at it while his shoulders droop and his eyes begin to look glassy. "I didn't want my guilt to ruin them or for my crimes to catch up to me later, that's why I decided to do this. But thinking about being away from them... It hurts. So bad."

"So you see what I'm saying then?" Adam prods carefully. "Confess, if that's what you gotta do, but hand over my name while you're at it, and maybe, you won't have to be away from them for quite as long."

"Okay." Cal almost whispers the word while keeping his eyes on the picture, but then he turns to face Adam and speaks more clearly. "If you're sure it's what you want... I'll do it."

"Oh, thank God," April's teary voice comes from the top of the staircase. Cal turns around with surprise to look at her, and she rises from where she was quietly sitting and listening in on the conversation to hurry down the steps toward him. She throws her arms around his neck when she reaches him, and Cal gathers her close, pressing his face into her hair and rubbing her back.

"Thank you," she speaks over Cal's shoulder when her eyes find Adam's. "Thank you so much."

Adam shakes his head. "Don't thank me. Thank your daughter. She made me promise to keep trying to do good. That's all I'm trying to do here."

"You're not as bad as you think you are, Adam." I get up from the couch and walk toward him to give him a hug. "I was pissed off about your lie for a long time, but I understand why you did it now. You were always looking out for me. For all of us. You may have lived a life of crime but you're not a bad person."

Adam returns my hug, holding onto me much longer than he normally would. "I just wish I did a better job... I can't believe he's gone."

"Dammit." Cal releases April to lower himself and sit on a step. He brings his hands up to his face and drags them over his eyes.

April sits next to him and rubs his back. "Why don't you join us for dinner again, Adam?"

Adam shakes his head as he releases me. "No. I appreciate the offer but I shouldn't be here. I just didn't want Cal to go to the station before I had a chance to talk to him. I know you guys are still reeling from the news."

"So are you, Adam." I gently pat his arm. "You shouldn't be alone now."

"Stay," Cal agrees.

"I'll even cook this time. I think we're all getting sick of pizza around here," April says with that friendly smile of hers.

"Alright." Adam nods. "It is nice to catch up with you two." He glances at Theo and then April. "And I gotta admit, I'm curious about how all this," he gestures around the room to the four of us, "is working out."

Cal chuckles. "Yah, we haven't really figured that out ourselves yet so good luck with that. All I know is that it does work."

----------

We talk about Justin for hours. Reminiscing with laughter about the crazy shit he did and the dumbass shit he said, and talking through tears and strained voices of the signs we missed and the calls for help that we didn't pick up on. Even April and Theo added to the conversation, bringing up little things that they had heard from Cal over the years which would then launch Cal into the full story.

When dinner was long over and it started getting dark, April stood from the table to explain that she had to leave to pick up Emily.

"I'll come with," Cal offers, but April shakes her head.

"That's okay. You stay here. It's good for you three to be talking."

Cal doesn't seem to like the idea. His hands are already pressed against the surface of the table, ready to stand. He glances at Adam and I and then looks back up at April.

She sees the hesitancy in his eyes as clearly as I do. Her fingers brush through his hair to comfort him, and now she seems hesitant as well.

Fortunately, Adam sees it too. He stands from his chair and pushes it forward to tuck under the table. "I was planning on heading out anyway. I need to get some sleep. Thanks for having me for dinner again."

Relief washes over Cal features. His need to be close to April is in full swing and he doesn't care enough to hide it. "We'll talk more tomorrow, yah? But if you change your mind, Adam—"

"I'm not going to change my mind, Cal."

"Well, still, if you do, you just say the word. There won't be any hard feelings."

Adam gives a small nod and then turns to my chair. "Em."

I stand up to give him a hug. "Take care of yourself, Adam. We'll talk soon too, okay?"

"Okay." He gives my body a small squeeze and then steps back again. With a parting nod to April and Theo, he heads for the front door.

"He's a good guy," Theo comments softly. He gets up from his chair to stand next to me. "I feel like a dick for giving him a hard time."

"No one blames you for being cautious," April says. She takes Cal's hand while he gets up from his chair. "We'll be back from getting Emily shortly if you two want to hang around. Otherwise, we'll see you tomorrow."

Theo looks at me to check in and then replies, "Tomorrow it is. Love you guys."

"We love you too," April replies for the both of them as they exit the kitchen.

Theo's arms wrap around my waist and he pulls me into him. "You doing okay?"

I nod while sinking into his sturdy frame. "I never would have expected this from Adam. I'm happy about it for Cal, but I feel bad for him."

Theo's hand begins to rub my back and shoulders. "Like he said to Cal, he wants to turn himself in either way, at least this way he'll know there's some good coming out of it. I just... I can't believe what a little Ben Emily has become."

I take a small step back from him in order to peer up at his face while I wait for his explanation.

He smiles at me and then looks across the room as if he's deep in thought. "She never met him, never got any life lessons from him, and yet, here she is... making people want to be good and believing that they can be, just like he always did. She did it with Cal and now she's done it again. It's like it's in her blood."

This man. How can he not see it?

"Maybe it is in her blood," I agree, and then reach up to trail my fingers through his beard to bring his eyes back to me. "But I think she learned it from her uncle."