Brian stared at the water, staying silent as he let his friend's words sink in. "You what?" he said, his voice quiet as he finally broke the silence between them.

Nick cleared his throat. "I uh went back..."

"Why the..." he started shaking his head as he backed away from the railing and began pacing the small deck. "You went back?? Damnit Nick..." he said as he his voice started to rise.

He watched his friend pace wordlessly, "I had to..." he started to explain.

"Why? I thought that meeting you had booked would of been more then enough..." Brian stopped suddenly. "You did it...you killed Lou!!!" he accused, spinning around to stare at his friend.

Nick put his hand over his friend's mouth. "Do not say that Bri!!" he hissed.

His eyes met Nick's and he pushed his friend's hand away. "Why not?"

"First of all, if Lissy hears you make that accusation...secondly because I couldn't have done it..."

A sigh of relief escaped Bri and he pulled his friend into a hug. "Thank god."

"Thanks for believing in me so much." Nick muttered sarcastically.

"Its just...do you know what you even being there implies??" he asked as he leaned back against the railing. "If someone saw you there..."

"No one did, it was late trust me there wasn't anyone there..."

"Someone had to be, Lou's DEAD."

Shan nodded as she walked out at that moment, "Yes Lou is dead and we're free." she wrapped her arms around her husband. Looking back and forth between the two men a confused expression crossed her face, "I thought you two would be happier about that piece of news..."

"We are..." Bri started.

"Just uh..." Nick tried to explain.

"It's just not the ending we wanted." Bri said finally, looking over at his friend and Nick nodded.

"I can see that. I mean its kinda unbelievable that he is gone." Shan said, resting her head against Bri's shoulder.

"He is."

"But its unbelievable. He's been holding our lives hostage basically and now we're free."

Bri smiled down at her, "That we are.. Completely free."

*****

He smiled as his wife walked out onto the balcony and took a seat beside him. "I'm free Jenn, no more contract to Lou...no more threats...no more lies...hell no more worries."

"All because he's gone." she said leaning back in her chair.

"Yep Lou's gone and we get our lives back."

"Uh huh."

"What's with you honey? I thought you'd be ecstatic once this all sunk in."

"I am. Really I am...its just...what did you do yesterday?"

"Worked out...spent some time in the studio downstairs...you think I had something to do with this?" he questioned, suddenly cluing in to where her questioning was headed.

"Its not that exactly..."

He raised an eyebrow, "Then what is it exactly because right now it sure as hell sounds like your accusing me of something."

Jenn shook her head. "Right now my brain is saying that with Lou's death you gained the most freedom I mean you were under contract..."

"I know I was under contract, I signed the damn thing...it was MY idea to sign remember?"

"I'm not saying this right..."

"No you're saying it perfectly right."

She sighed, "I don't want to fight AJ, if you said you didn't have anything to do with this..."

"How could I have had something to do with it? Didn't leave the house Jenn." he smiled a little, "Accusing me is like accusing you of doing something to him yesterday."

Jenn smiled weakly, "Then you had nothing to do with him yesterday."

"Didn't even really think about him honestly." he pushed himself to his feet. "Now that I'm thinking about it, I've got some stuff to do down in my office. You gonna stay out here?"

She nodded, "Yeah I think I'm just gonna relax and drink the rest of my coffee."

"Okay." he kissed her forehead. "See you in awhile."

*****

Brian pulled Nick inside the office and locked the door. "I want to hear the rest of what you were going to say before Shan walked outside."

Nick sat in his chair. "We don't even know how he died Bri, maybe he just fell over from a heart attack."

"Or maybe someone killed him Nick." he reasoned. "And if someone saw you there they could pin it on you. Face it...we've all got motive in a situation like this."

"Damnit." Nick muttered, covering his eyes with his hand. "Lou's death should be the end of this..."

"Should be, may not be though."

*****

AJ tore through his desk drawers, pulling out stacks of papers and tossing them onto his desk. "What are you doing?" Jenn questioned walking into the room.

"Trying to find my copy of the contract I signed with Lou..."

"Didn't you put it somewhere else?" she asked, seeing him disappear behind the desk.

"Like where?"

"The safe?"

AJ lifted his head, "The safe..."

"You know the safe you bought when we moved in here for all the important papers..." she moved over and sat on his desk.

He smiled, "I know the safe...I just didn't think of it...I can't even remember bringing that contract home."

She made a disgusted face, "I do..." Studying him, she spoke. "Why are you looking for that right now?"

He sat beside her on the desk, "Figured I'd get the lawyer to look over it, make sure I don't have any affiliation with TransCon now that Lou's..."

"Good idea."

"Thank you." he smiled, "What do you say after I find it and drop it off we head over to Ty and D's see if we can't go out for dinner or something?"

"I say that sounds like a perfect idea."

*****

Howie sat out by the pool, just staring blankly at the water. He'd been sitting that way for over an hour by the time AJ and Jenn had shown up the door. Truth be told, Ty had spent almost nearly as long standing on the deck watching him. She didn't know what to do, he was so silent it was almost scary.

AJ patted her back reassuringly. "I'll get him to talk."

"Would you?"

"Promise, D always opens up to me."

"Thanks J."

"No problem, go on back in the house." he said and she headed back inside. Taking a deep breath he headed over across from his friend, taking a seat. Howie made no motion to indicate he even realized AJ was there. Instead he stayed still. AJ sighed, "Okay D...what the hell is it?"

"What's what?" he asked softly.

"Well you're speaking that's good." he leaned forward, lowering his sunglasses to study his friend intently. "This is done, over with. End of story."

"Not what my instinct is telling me."

"What else can there be? I've got the attorney looking over my contract to make sure there's no loopholes that link me to TransCon...I'm free D, so are we all. Just like we've wanted to be since the start."

"Maybe its just too much all at once." he mused quietly, taking his eyes off the water and looking at J. He gave him a weak smile, "Sorry to bring everyone down."

Jenn handed her friend a drink as they sat down in D's office. "Shocking huh?"

Ty nodded, sipping her tea. "I still can't believe it."

"Did you tell D about the meeting yet?"

"No...and right now I don't think I'm about to."

"Might be a good idea..."

"To worry him more? No for some reason this has fazed him pretty badly..."

"Well he didn't get to tell Lou and Paul off the way he wanted...the way I think they all wanted..."

"I still had a few things I'd have liked to say to him...you didn't tell J about the meeting did you?"

"Hell no." Jenn giggled, "I did accuse him of having something to do with Lou's death though."

"Really?"

"Mmmhmm." she nodded, looking out the patio doors at the men walking around the yard. "He denies it...and I don't think he did...but I had to know anyways..."

D walked around the yard, AJ at his side smoking a cigarette as they stayed silent. "I worried Ty huh?"

J nodded, "Yeah she's a little worried about you being so silent. Truth be told, it unnerves me to."

He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I just keep thinking..."

"Wanna tell an old friend what your thinking about? Go crazy if you think too long. Trust me on that."

Howie chuckled softly, "So you mean all these years, you've just done too much thinking?"

"Funny Howard, very funny.."

"Sorry." he stared out at the yard for a minute. "I just...I know things are over with Lou...that's great, fine, wonderful. We shouldn't have to look over our shoulders twenty four/seven anymore. But what about Paul? He was in it as much as Lou..."

AJ leaned his back against the fence, "Well I say we take it as it comes...maybe Lou's death ends his involvement with us..."

"With you maybe...he's still in my employment."

"Then fire him."

"What if its not that simple?"

"What if it is?" he countered. "D, your worrying about stuff that may not even happen. What if you go check the fax machine later and he faxed in his resignation huh?"

"Then I jump for joy?"

"See...now there you go..." AJ said. "Now relax will you? You're gonna have a heart attack at this rate." he said pushing himself away from the fence and heading towards the house. "Now lets go check on our women...maybe we should be different and take them out to dinner..."

*****

David rang the doorbell and looked at the house.. The door opened and Lis stood there, a startled look on her face as she saw him. "What are you doing here?"

"Housecalls I guess. I take it you know?"

"Lou's dead." she waved him inside. "Yeah we heard. First thing this morning on the radio..."

David nodded, "I saw it on the news...spent the morning on the phone with my contacts." he informed her as they walked towards the back of the house.

"And?"

"And he is dead..."

Lis stopped and looked at him, "How?"

"Heart attack..."

"So no one..."

"We don't know that yet..."

"But if it was a heart attack..."

"They're investigating it thoroughly."

"Why?"

"Doesn't jive apparently. Soon as my people know more so will I."

She nodded. "And you'll tell us?"

"Course."

*****

Paul sat back in his hotel room, the television was on and the news was yet again reporting the news of Lou's untimely death. "Such a shame when these things happen." he mused as he sipped his own drink and looked down at the paper in front of him with Lou's signature. A slow smile crossed his face as he read the paper, ah yes...few more days and he'd be more than happy...