Remy sighed as he looked out the window in the backdoor of the LeBeau mansion. The sight he beheld in his black-on-red eyes was a melancholy one.

Seated on the plush green grass, leaning against one of the large elm trees in the backyard was Emil. He was wearing a blue T-shirt, a pair of jeans and his customary sneakers. He had pulled his knees up to his chest and was hugging them, resting his chin on his knees. His blue eyes were thoughtful and mournful at the same time as he stared into space, tears running in silent rivers down his cheeks.

He was not happy, Remy would know that even if he couldn't see it. Less than an hour before, Remy had told Emil the true outcome of Etienne's tilling. Upon hearing what his cousin had to say, Emil had gone out into the backyard and sat right where he was now, without saying one word.

Remy sighed again and opened the door, putting on his sunglasses as he stepped out into the bright New Orleans sunshine. Silently, he went to where Emil was sitting and sat down beside his cousin.

The minutes slowly ticked past. In the silence, Remy could hear the birds chirping in the tree above them and the leaves rustling in the wind. After what seemed like an eternity, Emil spoke.

"I heard Theoren yellin' at you earlier."

Remy was startled. "But how? You were out here an' we were inside."

Emil shrugged. "De window is open. It's kinda hard not to hear Theo when he's yellin' at somet'ing."

Remy knew that to be true and decided not to comment on it further, knowing that if Emil wanted to talk about what had happened, he would.

"I know it wasn' your fault." Emil continued after another few moments' silence.

"Yes it is. Theoren says so an' I b'lieve him." Remy retorted. "If I hadn' tried to use my powers…Et would still be alive."

"Not necessarily, Rem. T'ink 'bout it. If you hadn' used your powers, if you hadn' tried, The Pig would have killed you both, an' you know it. You said so yourself. At least dis way, one of you got out alive…"

"Emil…"

"Remy, look. He was my best friend, my little brother. Havin' him 'round was a big deal to me, b'cause, well, everyone else is…older." Emil said, sniffling, not bothering to wipe the tears off his face. "Until you came 'long, Et an' I had no one but each other. Now dat he's dead…added to de fact dat he died de same week my father did…I guess…I guess I feel de same way Theoren does."

"But you don' blame me de way Theoren does." Remy commented.

"Non. An' he won' either, eventually. It may take a long time, but he'll realize it someday."

"Um…" Remy faltered. "Are you okay? I haven' had much time to talk to you in de past month…"

Emil let out a deep sigh that seemed to Remy like it came from the very tips of his toes. "I miss my dad, Rem. A lot. I don' t'ink it's really sunk in yet dat I'm never gon' see Etienne again, so I'm kinda focusin' on dat….Remy…Et's not comin' back is he…?"

Remy closed his eyes in an effort to stop his own tears from falling. He shook his head sadly, his auburn hair falling into his face. "Non…" he whispered, absently picking at a loose thread hanging off his black T-shirt.

Emil sniffled. "So…what do we do now?" he whispered back.

They returned to silence for a few minutes while Remy thought of an answer to his cousin's question. Finally, he said

"You know, I don' t'ink Et would want us to be sad right now. I t'ink he'd want us, well, you an' me at any rate, I don' t'ink we could talk Theo into dis, to remember all de good times an' be happy 'bout dem. What do you t'ink?"

Emil suddenly started laughing, forgetting how sad he was. He laughed so hard he fell over, laying on the grass and looking at Remy. He laughed even harder when he saw the confused look crossing Remy's face.

"What are you laughin' at? C'mon, tell me!" Remy pleaded.

Emil got his laughing down to a few chuckles and started talking. "Long time ago now, when I was around four, an' Et was about two, we were stayin' at Tante Mattie's house for a couple of days…dere was some major Guild crap goin' on an' she was lookin' after Et an' I 'cause no one else could. Anyway, she made a blueberry pie an' gave us each a piece for dessert after lunch or somet'ing, I don' remember. Instead of eatin' it, we decided it would be fun to use de pie fillin' as paint, so we quite literally painted one of the walls in her kitchen as high as we could reach wit' de stuff."

"Emil! You didn'!" Remy exclaimed, knowing full well that they had.

"Hey dis is me you're talkin' to. Of course we did!" Emil replied, laughing again. "An' Remy, if you t'ink she was mad at you de time she caught you sneaking candy bars b'fore supper…man, dat's not'ing compared to how mad she was at us dat day…!"

"Oh lord…what else did you guys do?" Remy was curious. Emil and Etienne hadn't told him many of the stories of things they had done before he joined the family.

"Well, dere was dis time when he was prob'ly four or five…dere was dis big, serious meetin'…I dared him to put a whoopee cushion on your father's chair."

"Did he?"

Emil snorted. "Of course! Can you ignore a dare?"

"Non…"

"Well den. An' dere was dis other time, he got me back by darin' me to tie Claude's shoelaces together…an b'lieve me, de bigger dey are, de harder dey do fall!"

Remy was thoughtful for a few minutes. "De three of us had some good times getting into trouble too, t'ough."

"Oui, we did." Emil replied. "Although dat time we got lost in de swamps…dat was not fun."

"Non…do you remember when we crashed dat jet at de Air Show?" Remy asked, a twinkle in his eyes.

"Remember?! How could I forget? We had to do community service for a flippin' year!" Emil exclaimed. At the sudden raise in his voice, the birds in the trees above them grew quiet. The boys noticed the change and Emil looked up into the trees. "Sorry…"

"Et was quite a sight dat day…on de one hand he wanted to do it, an' on de other hand he didn'." Remy pondered. "He was always like dat."

"Yeah…he didn' want to toilet paper de Boudreaux mansion either, but he still did it." Emil remembered.

"But if he didn' want to, why did he do it?"

"B'cause we did it. He never wanted to be left out of anyt'ing you an' I did, even if it meant getting in trouble or doin' somet'ing he wasn't sure we should be doin'. Hey, do you remember when de three of us sneaked into Saints' trainin' camp last year?"

"Yeah…man dey were mad when dey found us dere!" Remy chuckled. "I t'ought dey were gon' use us as footballs! An' dey could have too, dey were big enough!"

"I t'ought Tante Mattie was gon' blow up when she found out…but she didn' even yell once, not after she saw dat cut you got when you scraped your arm on de fence."

"Oui, I know. I t'ought for sure she'd freak out at us." Remy agreed. "But she never even told on us! She can be surprisin' sometimes, dat's for sure."

"Uh-huh. You know, Claude always wanted to play football. I got de idea of sneakin' into de trainin' camp when I heard him mentionin' to Genard dat he did it once when he was a kid."

"How come he never played, if he wanted to?" Remy asked.

"Guild. He couldn'. Even if he did make de team, in high school or somet'ing, he never would've been allowed to be on it once dey found out 'bout his involvement in de Guild."

"Dat sucks."

"Yep. Jus' ask Claude. He'll tell ya how much it sucks. An' Etienne wanted to play basketball…I t'ink dat's what he would have done if he'd come back. I mean he failed his tilling, he wouldn't have been a member of de Guild…not'ing would have stopped him from playin' ball. Huh."

Silence reigned once again in the backyard as the two teenagers sat and thought about how great it would have been if Etienne had gotten to play basketball like he dreamed of doing. Then, Remy asked,

"What did you want to do?"

"I'm a computer geek, Rem. I am doin' what I want to do. Theo's taught me everyt'ing he knows, an' I'm pickin' up a bunch of stuff on my own, stuff he isn' too good at." Emil explained. "I like watchin' sports well enough, but I'd rather not play dem. Hey, Remy?"

"Yeah?"

"T'anks."

Remy raised his eyebrows, confusion showing on his face. "What for?"

Emil sat up and leaned against the tree again, sighing quietly. "Dis. I been feelin' so miserable 'bout my dad dyin'…I really didn' need to be feelin' miserable 'bout Et as well. T'anks to dis little rememberin' game we've been playin', I don'."

"You don'?" Remy wondered. He was feeling pretty upset about Etienne even with the game they'd been playing and it baffled him that Emil wasn't.

"Oh don' get me wrong, I do feel miserable 'bout it. It's jus'…well…if I t'ink of all dese t'ings, of all de funny t'ings dat happened over de years…it doesn' hurt quite as much. I been tryin' to do dat wit' memories of my dad too, but it's not de same somehow."

"Dat's b'cause Et was your best friend an' your dad was…well…your dad." Remy said quietly. He put a hand on his cousin's shoulder, seeing the tears start falling down Emil's cheeks again. "You're not alone, you know. You still have me. Always."

Emil smiled slightly through his tears. "I know."