It had taken Justin two hours to clam down and another three hours to realize Celeste had been gone for almost six hours.

Kyle turned toward Justin. He noticed that Justin had been silent for the last several hours. Something was definitely on his mind; Kyle just hoped he was finalizing his decision to go after Celeste.

"Yo' Justin?"

Justin glanced in Kyle's direction, but he did not speak.

"You do know Celeste has been gone for more than five hours right?" Kyle tried to detect a hint of worry, but did not see any.

"Yeah." Justin nodded with nonchalance.

"And you're not going to go after her? What if she gets hurt? Then who will take care of shorty? You?" Kyle was running out of ideas to get Justin to reconsider.

Justin shrugged in response.

"Man you better go check on shorty, she's been asleep for a minute." Maybe he could start with getting Justin to focus his attention elsewhere.

Justin was about to suggest for Kyle do it himself, but he thought better of that decision because of his last health scare with Celeste's little sister.

"Aight' I'll be back." Sighing, he rose from the couch and went into the bedroom.

"Wake up half-pint." Justin shook her firmly. "Come on…Tati."

Tatiyana rolled over on her side to face Justin. "Yessssss." She whined.

Justin sighed with relief, "Time to get up now." He imitated the voice of Celeste so she wouldn't get suspicious.

"Cee up too?" Tatiyana scrambled off the bed and went into the living room.

"No wait…" Justin tried to catch her before she made it into the living room and discovered that Celeste was gone, but he was too late.

"Where is sister?" Tatiyana frowned as tears started to gather in her eyes.

"Your sister she's gone…but she's okay where she's at." Kyle was quick to add when he saw her starting to shake.

"Mommy say the same bout' daddy." She pulled on the curly strands of her hair.

Justin looked to Kyle for an intervention. "No no half-pint Celeste is coming back." I hope.

"Cee coming back?" Tatiyana asked with a hint of a smile.

"Yeah she's coming back soon. So what do you say ready for some lunch?" Justin asked.

"Toast and eggs just like mommy make." She moved to the couch next to Kyle.

It was two hours after brunch, but he would rather make something as trivial as eggs and toast opposed to spaghetti O's.

"My daddy never come back." Tatiyana frowned.

Kyle looked behind him to catch Justin's worried glance.

Mine neither. Justin though. "So fuck em' both." He mumbled harshly without knowing that Celeste's father was deceased, not a dead beat like his own father as he had assumed.

Kyle changed the channel to cartoons to occupy the toddler's attention while he talked to Justin. He took an egg out of the carton and cracked it on the side of the bowl as he thought about how to start off the conversation.

"What you think happened to Celeste's father?"

"I think he walked out on her family." Justin concluded based on the facts Tatiyana presented, which would explain her stubbornness and not to mention her emotional outbursts as well. He also noted the incident when he went out to find the picture of Celeste's father for her, which to him didn't seem right.

It didn't seem right because Justin couldn't understand why Celeste acted as if her father meant the world to her when he was a dead beat. He couldn't remember what she had told him about her father before he had left to find her picture frame because his head was still throbbing from the hit he took earlier that night in the ring.

The only thing he knew about Celeste was that she was a 19-year old who had never really been kissed before and had a 3 year old little sister. "And she's stubborn as hell." Justin added.

"Huh?" Kyle asked as he set the finished plate of eggs aside and started on another batch.

"Oh…nothing." Justin dismissed his previous thoughts as he removed the last slices of toast from the toaster oven and placed it on a plate.

Kyle carried the plate over to the toddler, "Here you go shorty."

Tatiyana shook her head, "No Cee say I no eat in front of TV. I eat in front of table in uh… kitchun." She grabbed Kyle's hand and led him back into the kitchen.

"Sit next to me Jusin'." Tatiyana patted the seat.

Justin obeyed her request, "Okay let's eat." He rubbed his hand together to imitate his readiness, but he paused before he put the fork in his mouth because no one else was eating along with him.

"What?"

Kyle eyed him as if to say what Tatiyana couldn't, which was for Justin to say grace.

"Oh…okay. Dear God I thank you for this meal. Amen." Justin picked up his fork afterwards.

"Wait…we pray for Cee too right." Tatiyana looked around the table at both men.

"We pray for Celeste's safe return. Amen." Kyle quickly took over the job when he saw Justin's confused expression.

"Amen." Justin agreed as he picked up his fork.

A half an hour later Justin was finished eating and packing his bag for an upcoming fight he had later on tonight. The last fight he had was a little more than two weeks ago, the night of his first encounter with Celeste.

"Yes Celeste." The source of his ongoing frustration started that night. That night everything changed for Justin "Timberwolve" Timberlake. Besides the fact that he hadn't been able to fight, Celeste was bringing out the softer selfless side of Justin, a side that he had locked away eleven years ago when his father had abandoned him. If it was at least one thing he and Celeste had in common it was the fact that neither one of them had a father while growing up.

"Yo' Justin you ready?" Kyle's loud voice was heard from the other room.

"Yeah I'm coming." Justin rejected the somber thoughts and continued packing the rest of his gear.

"This is all I need not to find my sweater!" He remembered giving it to Celeste the first night she stayed with him, but he didn't remember getting it back.

"Yo' Justin what are you looking for?" Kyle entered the room five minutes after calling Justin earlier with Tatiyana trailing close behind him.

"My blue hoodie. I can't find it."

"You mean the one Celeste had on when she walked out of here?" Kyle laughed.

"It's not funny man. I have my lucky dog tags in my right pocket. I can't fight without them." If he didn't have his dog tags than he couldn't possibly fight tonight.

"I thought you hated your father. Didn't he give them to you?"

"Yeah I hate him, but it was what he said when he gave them to me. That's why I keep them." Justin explained. However, if his father had the courage to walk out on him, than maybe those dog tags weren't lucky after all.

~*~*~*~

"Come on Jinx and Brandy." Celeste called the pets as she rounded the corner into the park. She had been walking in circles for what seemed like forever, which was really seven hours, but she didn't have a watch to check the actual time.

Celeste stopped at the entrance of the park and sighed with relief, "Finally." She had seen the same convenient store at least ten times in a row and she finally ended up where she wanted to be: the graveyard.

On the 5^th of every January, Celeste would visit her father's grave and today was her father's death anniversary.

The tears started flowing even before Celeste could make it to his grave, "Hi daddy." She sat on a rock in front of his tombstone.

She wiped the tear from under her eyelid, "You would not believe what has happened these last two weeks."

The frustration of the last two weeks had finally taken its toll on her body. She felt extremely worn out with grief for her mother and her father.

This morning Celeste had cried for three hours straight before Justin had stopped her from crying by putting a hole in the wall. On her father's death anniversary she would always wakeup early in the morning around four o'clock and cry for hours on end.

"I know you told me if anything ever happened to you for me not to cry and stay strong…but I'm tired of being strong!"

Raymond Morgan prided himself in making sure his daughter never had to worry about anything and he did a good job up until his mysterious untimely death.

"I've never wanted to ask for your help before but I desperately…desperately need it right now…"

"Daddy Mommy's…Mommy's not okay. I think Frank did something to her because she wanted to leave him. He didn't like you at all and he did everything opposite to what you did to basically spite me because I hated him. Mommy tried to get me to like him so hard, but I knew he was shady." Celeste placed the bouquet of flowers next to his tomb and rose from her spot on the tomb.

"And don't worry bout me and Tati we'll be fine together…" Her voice dragged of as she tried to hold back the tears, but then a realization hit her: she had left Tatiyana alone with Justin four eight hours.

"What was I thinking?" She ridiculed herself for being so caught up in her own problems to think about her sister. Hopefully, Tatiyana was in good hands with Justin and his friend.

Celeste ran out of the park, but then ran back in, "Love ya daddy."

~*~*~*~

"Thank God." Celeste sighed her relief that she had finally made it back to the apartment after a thirty-minute walk.

"I will never do this again." She declared. Walking for more than seven hours without having the chance to sit down made her legs ache not to mention the fact that she had no clue of her surroundings.

When she reached Justin's apartment she knocked on the door several times, but no one answered. "Where are they?" Celeste didn't think of the possibility of them going out to find her.

Celeste's previous relief quickly subsided when hunger began to settle in. She began to ridicule herself again for not thinking about the consequences of her actions. Of course, Justin wouldn't wait around for her to come back after the way she slapped him earlier. Is he even worried about me? Celeste quickly dismissed the likelihood of Justin having positive thoughts about her.

"He probably thinks I'm some kind of psycho." She silently agreed. Since she exhibited all the qualities of a psycho Justin had no reason to think otherwise.

After she tried knocking a few more times, a neighbor opened the door with an unpleasant expression on his wrinkle face.

"He ain't here lady."

"Well do you know where he is?" Celeste asked as politely as she could.

"You ain't one of those fast ladies tryna' get his money are you?" Justin has money? Go figure.

"No. He and Kyle have my little sister. I live here with him." Celeste hesitated to tell him that information.

"What's ya name lady?" He gave her an inquisitive look because he didn't believe that Justin actually allowed a woman to live with him. As a matter of fact Justin had never actually brought one of his women to his apartment so for this one to claim she was living with Justin just didn't seem right. He would have to see for himself.

"Celeste." She crossed her arms behind her back unsure of what to say next as her pets swarmed around her feet ready to play.

"Not now." Celeste mumbled as she swatted at them with her foot.

"Exotic name…Well Justin must be at a fight tonight cause he told me keep an eye on his place." How could someone like him stop another from breaking in?

"He watches fights?"

The old man laughed, "No sweetie he fights." He did a tired imitation of a boxing move.

"He should be on his way back soon."

"He better be." Celeste couldn't believe Justin had the nerve to take a three-year-old to watch a fight. Did he know nothing about children? Well he did ask Tatiyana to pick up broken glass, so maybe it wasn't a good idea to leave Tatiyana behind with Justin for so many hours.

"Hopefully he at least fed her." Celeste thanked the old man with a nod of the head.

"It's not safe to go out there by yourself." He called after her.

"I'll be okay." I hope so.