The guests had arrived and soon brunch was underway. Robert had noticed Beau's absence but decided not to press the issue.

                                       "So what's next for you two?" Asked Bill between bites.

                                        Donna glanced at Robert and then spoke. "First, we'll be changing our last names, and then we have to see about adopting the kids. I read that sometimes kinship adoptions are pushed through faster, so if we get started as soon as possible, we'll get to be their legal guardians before you know it." She finished, smiling at Mark across the table.

                                         "And do you have any plans for moving, or Donna, what about college?" He asked.

                                        "Um, about that, Dad. I think college is gonna go on hold for awhile. I'm needed here." She replied. Robert looked up when she said that. She was really going all in here. And for what? To help raise kids that weren't hers, with him, who couldn't stay faithful to her for even a week.

                                         "So that's it for teaching, huh?" He asked. She nodded.

                                         "Yeah, that's pretty much it." She said. Mark and Delilah needed her and she was going to be there. Not in college, not living across the county line, and not with Beau. It didn't matter if Robert liked someone else. She was here to stay.

                                           When the night came, Donna and Robert had been laying in bed together. Still unsure of what kind of relationship Donna wanted, he decided to try slipping his arm around her. She looked back at him and half-smiled, before turning back. He was trying, she had to give him that. Maybe a part of him still wanted Jean, but she knew just as well there was a part of him that wanted to be here with her and the kids.

                                          "Donna," He began.

                                          "Yeah?"

                                          "I didn't want to say anything when everyone else was here, but why didn't Beau come to brunch?"

                                         "Because he came to ask if I'd still want to be with him. I said no. And I always will." She replied, rolling onto her other side to curl into him.

                                         Before he could ask why, a loud thunderclap roared through the sky and almost on cue, their door opened. Delilah and Mark were there, Delilah clutching her stuffed rabbit close.

                                         "The storm's too loud." Said Delilah quietly. Donna smiled at Robert and slid over to her side of the bed. "Come on," She said, motioning to the bed. The two kids climbed up in between them, Mark beside Robert and Delilah beside Donna.

                                         Donna held the girl close to her and closed her eyes, but opened them back up to the clicking of claws against the linoleum. Robert sat up and peered over the edge of the bed where a certain fluffy white dog was anxiously awaiting his own invitation into the bed.

                                         "Scared you too, right? Come on up, Jack." He said, to which the dog jumped up onto the bed and curled up beside Donna's foot. At some point, the kids and Jack had migrated more to Donna, and Robert just inched closer. Maybe he didn't need to ask why. This was what was most important to her, just like it was to him.