on solid ground

Just as Roger thought it would be a good time to leave, Amber and Nick arrived. They were chatting with Kyle about Kelsey situation. Roger felt like the extra wheel that had nowhere to go. He was getting restless.

It had been great to hear from Doyle. He hadn't expected it. He'd still be on his cell with him if he could, but there Doyle was walking down the slick shiny corridor. You'd think people were never sick here.

Roger just grinned.

"I didn't know you were coming?" Roger grinned.

"You know, let there be a crisis and I'm there." He gave Roger a hug. "Is she OK?"

"Yeah, I think so. I feel like a jerk not- you know - not being there for her. She'd called me a couple of times, but she was, you know, so vague. I had no idea what was going on with her. Seriously." Roger told him.

Doyle just nodded. They ambled off toward the gift shop then. Roger felt like getting Kelsey something, but he didn't know what.

"I want to do something else." Doyle brought up the fact he was going to quit his job at the youth center at the church.

"Really?" Roger hadn't expected Doyle to say that. "I thought you liked that job."

"Yeah, its OK. But there are parts I don't like. They need a priest for that kind of thing. And I'm not priest." Doyle told him.

Roger nodded.

"I don't want to make things complicated for us." Doyle then said as he showed Roger a sparkly rainbow that could easily be used for something to hang over a crib.

"Us?" Roger was stunned that Doyle said the word.

"What? You are OK with that, aren't you?" Doyle wanted to know.

"Of course." It was true he liked to think of themselves as us. Roger couldn't help but chuckle.

"Its just, I dunno what my Mom's going to think, you know-"

"Well, you can wait on that, can't you?" Roger winced.

"Yeah, sure." Doyle nodded, but it was as if he had this momentum going and he wanted to come out, now.

"All right, you do what you have to do. And, and well, if she-" He didn't want to say, throws you out on  the street. "You can move in with me if, if it comes to that."

Roger bit the corner of his bottom lip while he paid for the rainbow. He didn't want to rush into this. He didn't. But he might not have any choice in the matter.