The look on Karen's face was indescribable. The silence that ran through the room was shocking, tension so thick you could cut it. Charlie quickly stepped in. "Karen, look, I know its weird, its insane, its really fucked up, but it has stopped. It stopped... well, years ago." He couldn't really remember when it had last happened, then remembered the time with Sawyer, and bit his lip. "It doesn't happen anymore, it’s in the past. You don't need to worry about it anymore."

"Charlie is right. It's in the past." Liam cut in. "It's in that whole fucked up past. We only told you, because I don't want any more secrets to exist between you and me."

Claire reached across the table, telling Karen that Charlie had only told her earlier today, and yes, it was shocking, but she trusted Charlie. She trusted him enough to know that it wasn't going to happen anymore, that they both loved their families enough to know that they couldn't fuck with that anymore. She reached for Charlie's hand, holding it softly. They waited for Karen's final reaction.

Liam had put his elbows on the table and had his head buried in his hands, not daring and too scared to look at Karen. Although he felt better having told her finally, he now was extremely scared that his situation was still too fragile for this. He actually startled when Karen reached over to pull his hands away off his face and laid her hands into his. He felt like a little, scared boy while listening to her saying that she was shocked but relieved he had finally told her and that she knew that he had been working hard on his image, too hard to be lying about this; meaning that she trusted him - them - that it was the past and nothing but the past.

Charlie thunked his head down on the table-- hard-- in relief. "ow" he mumbled into the table, and Claire laughed and reached for his hand, holding it and making him look at her. Already he could feel a small red dot blooming on his forehead, and he smiled stupidly. "oops."

Liam held his wife's hand, lifting it to his face and kissed her palm. "Thank you Karen." he whispered before he repeated to kiss her palm. Then he looked at Charlie, smiling softly. "Thanks baby brother."

Charlie laughed, and did the only thing he could think of doing. He pushed himself onto the table and flung himself into Liam's arms, laughing. Claire smiled and shook her head, and Charlie simply said. "No worries mate."

The laughing was pushing off so much weight and tense feeling; it felt so great and didn't take long to affect Liam. "You're crazy, mate, but I love that about you. Anyways, I think we should go see what the boys are doing and how glued the floor is already."

Charlie then shifted to pull Karen into the hug before whispering "I don't think I can get up." He slithered onto the floor between their chairs instead and eventually stood, Claire rolling her eyes at him the whole time. Charlie then bounced into the next room, where Meghan was waving around the picture of her dad showing off his chest, shirt over his head.

Liam followed Charlie, holding Karen's hand all the time. "What the ...? I said not that!" He said, seeing the picture Meghan was waving, and pulled a strange, kind of hurt, but still laughing face. "She's underage, mate!"

"Hey, I can't help it if your child has advanced and ... may I say... bad taste. She just likes you showing off your body. You might want to watch her, bro." He said, sitting in a seat by the table, laying all the pictures out. There was Charlie and Liam together, back to back, Liam singing, Charlie hitting a hard note, looking eternally happy. There was one of Charlie, winking to the camera. There was Liam, mid-spin. Charlie smiled.

"Bad taste? Bad taste? You know you're implying that Karen has a bad taste too. Doesn't he, Karen? You're insulting my whole family mate!" Karen couldn't help but laugh and finally told Liam to sit with his brother and daughter, relive the old days and set to work to get Meghan's project done so, eventually, the girl could go to bed.

Meghan would point to some pictures and ask for stories, and Charlie would divulge to the best of his ability. "Here I was teasing your brother because he was 'too tall' since he always teased that I was a shrimp. He tried to hide behind his guitar, and needless to say, it didn't work to well."

"At least I could be seen behind a guitar, your uncle on the other hand even had problems to be seen only holding a tambourine."

"And you wonder why I stopped working with you." Charlie said jokingly. He leaned down to whisper loudly to Meghan. "Your father wishes he was small enough to fit behind a tambourine. He's just jealous because he's gotten too fat." Meghan giggled.

"Watch your mouth bro! Aging Rockstars aren't exactly the right company for a young girl." Liam laughed. "And actually Charlie, it was me who stopped working with you." Liam said sticking his tongue at his brother.

Charlie laughed. "In your dreams bro." He sat down, looking at Meghan's family tree. It looked bare. "You should get to work on this lassie, if its due tomorrow. Don't want to lose points."

"Yeah, you should really get this done. Choose one pic of daddy and one of Charlie and let's go on with this or your mummy will get angry with us."

Charlie sat down, helping Meghan arrange her photos as she picked the pictures. She chose one of Liam singing and the one with Charlie winking to the crowd. He smiled, holding them. There was so much history on top of those photos; it was hard to imagine how they'd ever been so innocent. But they had been.

Liam helped Meghan with the glue, humming Old Black Joe. It was a nice feeling, seeing those pictures, thinking about their history and looking at Meghan; to see how much had changed since then. So it wasn't surprising he had the lines "Gone are the days, when my heart was young and gay" stuck in his head.

Charlie helped Karen with John, holding him and walking around the room with him before sitting down on the couch and feeding him. He called over to Meghan. "You're going to have the best project in the school, I'm sure of it. Did you draw the tree yourself?"

Meghan nodded fervently. "That kid got all the good genes from Karen, lucky lass." Liam grinned.

"Well she got the music genes from somewhere; she's doing very well in that. I don't think we can give Karen the credit for that." Charlie winked at Meghan, and the little girl giggled. Claire came to sit by Charlie, wrapping her arms around him.

"I don't know where she should have got those." Liam grinned. He huggled his girl and got up. "We're done?" Meghan nodded thanking for the help and Charlie for the pictures. "Okay, I'll clean up later, go play with your cousin and brother." he said before wrapping his arms round his wife, keeping her from doing anything she wouldn’t have to anyway and getting her to sit with him on the sofa.

Claire had a look on her face that Charlie couldn't quite describe. It was somewhat devious, somewhat tricky, but all together bad news. "What are you thinking about Claire? I don't like that look. At all." Claire just innocently shrugged, but continued giving Karen that intrigued look.

Liam felt quite confused as well. He looked from his wife at Claire and wrinkled his nose.

Claire pulled Charlie into the next room, and Karen followed with Liam. "What is this all about, I'm getting scared, Claire." He said in a fake horrified voice. Claire raised an eyebrow and said something about now she was curious. Karen nodded in agreement and Charlie's eyes bugged and stared at them.

"Conspiracy?" Liam asked. "What's this about? Why are you keeping us on tenterhooks?"

"Liam." Charlie said slowly. "I have a terrible feeling they want us to..." he gulped. "snog..." Claire's evil face broke out into a smile, but only for a second before it returned to normal.

"What? Why? But...!" Liam stared at Charlie quite shocked. "Why would they want that?" Liam had never understood women's logic and right now he was really confused. Why would someone who insisted that Charlie and Liam's affair was in the past want them to "snog" now????

Charlie shrugged, but Claire went to stand by Karen, and they both crossed their arms and sat back, waiting. "Liam..." Charlie stage whispered. "What do we do???"

Liam shrugged. "I have no idea baby bro!" he whispered back. "They look really determined, don't they." Karen cut in with a nod and stated that they were. Claire agreed with her.

Charlie gulped again. "You two should have to kiss." he said to the two women. They raised eyebrows simultaneously. "It’s only fair."

Both women objected, arguing that they never had a homosexual affair like their husbands had. "Do you think that's a reason, Charlie?“ Liam asked his brother, "I don't think so, I think they should anyway."

"Fair is fair. You two kiss and we'll kiss. It’s only sensible." Claire shot Charlie a look of death and then looked at Karen. Neither of them looked as courageous as before.

"I second that! If you don't do it, we won't either." Liam agreed with his brother, though he wasn't feeling very well on the thought that they might have to kiss in front of their wives.

Claire glared meaningfully at Charlie before pulling Karen closer. They took a collective breath before pressing their lips together, a small show of tongue visible between their lips. Charlie unconsciously leaned forward to watch more carefully. All too soon though, it was over.

Liam gulped, looking from to women to Charlie, and made a face as if to say: "Well, seems we really have to now."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Oh my god Liam, it’s not like we haven’t done it before." He said, almost laughing at how odd the situation was. "Am I going to have to get over there, or are you coming here?"

"You didn't seem happy about the idea either!" Liam tried to justify himself, already coming closer to Charlie. Then, standing directly before him, he took his brother's head between his hands, pulled it closer and pressed his lips on Charlie's.

Charlie pressed back against him, running his tongue along his brother's lower lip, then pushing his way inside the soft mouth. His hand traced Liam's ear, and he breathed out hard against his filtrum. Strange, but he had missed this.

Liam began to tongue fight his brother, his heartbeat was at least twice as fast as before. He felt like in a bubble that had built itself up as soon as their lips met and kept everything around them far, far away from them.

This kiss was lasting way too long. Charlie knew he should pull away, but it was harder than he thought it'd be. Finally though, he broke the suction, pressing a chaste kiss on Liam's lips before trying to step away, but Liam's hands on his face and hair hadn't released him yet.

It took Liam some time to realize what had just happened, that it had happened too long and that they weren't alone. He let his arms sink and stepped back quickly, shocked about himself and feeling guilty.

Charlie coughed self consciously, going to stand by Claire. "Well, that was awkward..." He said simply, looking at the ceiling. "We haven't done that in a while."

Liam couldn't even look at Charlie anymore. He felt awkwardly torn, but most of all he felt angry. Angry about the women for even suggesting that, angry about Charlie, though he was least guilty, and especially angry about himself, because he couldn't help it but feel seduced by Charlie again and again.

Claire laughed lightly, slipping her hand in Charlie’s. She joked, saying she could get used to seeing that. Charlie looked over at Liam though, and noticed his demeanor had changed. "You ok mate?"

Karen also noticed Liam's changed mood. She came to stand with him, asking what was wrong and saying that he didn't have to worry about it, it had been their idea, if they wouldn't have been okay with it they wouldn't have suggested it. And then smiling she added that she'd agree with Claire.

Charlie smiled. "I can't help that I'm sexy." He joked, not realizing that was probably the worst thing to say at that moment. Claire looked at him surprised, then rolled her eyes. Charlie reached forward for Liam's hand, but Liam didn't meet his grip.

"Stop it." Liam griped in a low voice. He looked his watch - more as an excuse, not really realizing the time - and went towards the door. "I'd better get John ready for bed. If you want to go on make fun of me, go ahead Charlie." He didn't wait for anyone to answer but went out of the room.

Charlie stood dumbfounded for a few minutes. "Well shit, what did I do now?" Karen shrugged and Claire just started biting her nail. "Should... should I go talk to him? Or just let him be? I don't know what to do here, since I'm not really sure what I did." Claire just held his hand and walked him into the next room to their son, telling him to give it some time.

Liam didn't know what he really wanted. He wanted to talk, let his dear ones know what was going on inside of him, how he felt. But he didn't want to hurt any one and he couldn't stand their presence right now. At the same time though he wished he wasn't alone. He was standing in the bathroom, looking for John's PJs with hot, wet, stinging eyes.

Charlie sat down, Aaron crawling on his lap, asking for a story. Charlie nodded, and Claire went to fetch one from a nearby bookshelf. They sat on the couch collectively, Meghan sitting on the floor with Karen as Charlie read "Where the Wild Things Are" out loud.

Liam put John into his crib and sat next to it for a while, singing for John to fall asleep. He sang what came to his mind first,
"Funny now / you finally see me standing here / Funny now / I'm crying in the rain / All alone / I tried to be invincible / Together now / We can be saved"
and when he sang the words he inwardly cursed himself for all his stupid behavior, for his useless talent to make a scene out of everything lately.

Charlie held his child tightly to him as he read. He had a family now, Liam couldn't screw that up. He immediately cursed that thought process. Liam hadn't screwed Charlie's life up, he'd screwed his own life up by letting Liam affect him so badly. He kissed Aaron on the head, making the little boy look up at him questioningly. Charlie just smiled and turned the page.

When John was sleeping Liam still stayed with him, just watching his son. He had a family he loved and was proud of. He had nearly lost them twice and he would never lose them again, but maybe he would if some things would never be sorted out.

Charlie finished the book quietly, closing it with a small smile on his face. Claire kissed him on the cheek before announcing that she was going to go check on Liam and John. Karen sat stroking Meghan's hair, who sat between her legs. The little girl raised her head and asked Charlie where her dad was. "He just went to go put John down, he's pretty tired Meg."

"Shhh!" Liam made when Claire silently came inside. He got up to approach her and lead her out of the room again so they could speak without waking the little boy up. "I'm sorry Claire." He said before she had said anything. "I know I'm behaving like an idiot today, I wished I was mastering my feelings better."

Charlie quietly gathered the family's things. "We should probably go, Karen. If Liam's tired, I don't want to bother him too much." Karen began to protest, but then saw what time it was. "See, its getting late anyways. We need to get Aaron home and to bed soon."

Claire offered that he could always talk to her and said that it also was her fault that the evening hadn't been as smooth as they might have thought it'd be. "No, don't blame yourself Claire, please." It wasn't Claire's fault Liam didn't have his feeling as much under control as he wished he had and as he told himself he'd have. He didn't tell her though, because he could hear Charlie getting ready downstairs and even if Claire had offered that he could talk to her anytime, he didn't want to bother her and make Charlie wait.

Claire came down the stairs a bit later, looking sullen and shrugging her shoulder. She mouthed 'I tried' before going to get her purse. Charlie sighed, gathering up Aaron's bag of toys and the remaining pictures before kissing Karen on the cheek and ushering Aaron out the door.

Liam came downstairs a bit after Claire, just in time to say goodbye. When his brother's family was outside Karen sent Meghan upstairs to get ready for bed and said she'd come look for her in a few minutes. Liam already was gone into the living room to clean up what was left of Meghan's project. Karen came to stand behind him, wrapped her arms around him and asked what was wrong, saying that she couldn't read his mind and he'd have to talk to her.

Claire strapped the exhausted Aaron into his chair and then sat beside Charlie, looking sideways at him. "What now Claire? There's no one else to kiss but the car." She laughed casually and just shook her head, saying they'd talk more later.

Karen led Liam to the sofa and made him sit with her. Then she looked at him expectantly. Liam sighed and leaned his head on her shoulder. "I love you Karen and I'm more than sorry that I haven't told you about Charlie and me much earlier. I'm not sure though that I've told you the whole truth."

After a few minutes, Claire looked back to check that Aaron was asleep, which he was. She then turned to Charlie and asked him about the kiss. "What about it? You mean how long it lasted? I don't know, it was just something I hadn't done in a while, so I tried to enjoy it. I don't know what Liam got out of it though. I haven't seen him look like that in a while." Claire nodded, placing her hand on his. "It'll be ok, Claire, you'll see."

"I know how odd, how intolerable that was, but I never stopped to feel that way for him, though I've told myself very often I'd made it, I was over with it, there are situation again and again when I fall back, when I can't help it but be seduced by him." Liam held Karen's hand tight in his own. "For your sake I really wish I could stop it. You mean the world to me, Karen. I need no one else but you." Liam couldn't read Karen's feelings when she added, and him.

They drove in silence for a while, before Charlie said "I don't know what to do about him though. I love him, yeah, but its so strange when he acts that way. I feel like I have to be edgy around him, and I shouldn't have to do that around my brother." Claire nodded quietly, before leaning over and kissing Charlie on the cheek.

Karen kissed him softly in the lips and stroking his hair said it would be okay, he should talk to Charlie who couldn't make head or tail of his brother anymore.

They drove home then, holding hands. When they got there, Charlie lifted Aaron out of his seat, carrying him gently as Claire unlocked the door. Together they put him to bed, and the boy didn't even wake at all. They stood over the crib, and Charlie slowly kissed Claire. "I'm so lucky to have you two. I'm so happy we crashed on that stupid bloody island." He said, and Claire laughed.

After they had sat together in silence for a while Karen suggested that he'd go look after his daughter and she'd clean up and come downstairs soon as well. Meghan was thrilled that her dad came to look after her, because that always meant she'd get a good night song.

Charlie and Claire headed to their bedroom, holding each other’s hands. "It’s been a dramatic night." Charlie said with a heavy sigh, flopping ungracefully on the bed. "My old body can't take any more of this. It’s just not healthy." Claire laughed and jumped on him, making him cry out. "That’s not very nice."

When Meghan was finally asleep and Liam finally went to his own bedroom Karen had already been in the bathroom. Undressed, he finally got into bed being welcomed with a long kiss by Karen.

Charlie quickly undressed and slipped into PJs, and Claire followed, curling under the sheets with him, curling around him, and Charlie smiled contently.

Liam felt a little strange, receiving more than giving, but it also was a great feeling, to know that he was still loved.