Within seconds of the characteristic pop of four locks being disengaged at once, a collection of visitors joined Corey within the threaded confines of his aunt's pocket. They probed about for just a moment before locating him, two of his new companions wrapping carefully around his insignificant form. Their target secured, the two gripping pylons began to pull.

            "And here we are, home sweet home," Kayla informed him with casual cheer as he was overtaken by the light of the sunny summer day. Before he knew it, the fingers which had held him curled and shifted, placing him in the center of the woman's palm. Squinting, he looked upward, and found himself staring once more into her confident green irises as she rose from her seat, having already opened the door and within seconds slamming it shut behind her. And while his body was certainly warm enough as he sat in the expanse of her palm, he enjoyed basking under her gaze. It was just...nice.

            Or at least, it was.

            "So can I have him now?" he heard his sister whine from behind him, and his body tensed up at the question. Claire had asked the same question twice during the ride home, and each time she had managed to add a little more annoyance to it.

            His sudden increase in tension did not go unnoticed. Still looking upward at his aunt's vast countenance, he would be remiss if he had not managed to make note of a newly arched eyebrow. Joining the relatively thin trail of hairs in motion were his aunt's always observant eyes, lifting from him and instead focusing behind. Swallowing, he found himself unable to resist following them himself, and he was unsurprised at what waited for him.

            Claire had moved in close to their aunt, and now she loomed over his comfortable platform at the closest she had been to him since his reduction as she stared down at him with that same unnerving glare that seemed to be reserved solely for him. Out of instinct, he started to back away from the veritable tower of disapproval, though he obviously had nowhere to go. Yet thankfully, albeit startlingly, a familiar object pressed into his back to halt his attempt, and gave him a firm vertical stroke. Again, he was thankful for his aunt's reassurances.

            "No," responded his mother nonchalantly as she circled around the front of the SUV. "I told you. Later."

            "It is later. I want to see him."

            "And you will. But I need you to wait a little bit longer."

            "But I've already waited for so long," his sister complained, and to his horror the immense claw of her right hand hand rose into view, eager to grasp the target of its owner's ire. "I think I've waited long enough." The presence of this new predator alone could have frozen him in place, but it was looking up between the masses of Claire's approaching talons and into her agitated eyes as she continued to voice her annoyance that sealed the deal.

            Mercifully, though, the platform underneath him began to rise, quickly bringing him up and level with his aunt's eyes and, momentarily, out of his sister's casual reach.

            "And I think you can stand to wait a bit more," Corey heard his mother exclaim with some impatience, clearly beginning to lose her good humor with this uncharacteristically bratty behavior from her daughter.

            "But why?" his sister questioned with irked tone, looking up angrily at both Corey and his aunt. "I'm in charge of him now, right? That's what the judge said about this thing, isn't it? So why can't I have him?"

            "Because," Abby started, even as Corey began to sink despondently into his aunt's palm at Claire's proclamation of her new authority as granted by the law, "while that's technically correct, you only have that authority as I allow it. And right now I'm disallowing it because you need to get changed and head to practice, and I need to have a one-on-one with your brother.  Understand?" His mother's voice had gradually slipped into the sternness that had some many times brooked no argument from either him or his sister. "He'll still be here when you get home. You know that."

            "But a lot of us are going over to Mellie's after we finish!" Claire pleaded, eyes still focused upward. "It'll be too late to see him when I get home!"

            "Then I guess you'll see him in the morning. Now go and get changed, and not another word about it. You're sixteen, not six. Act like it."

            Claire clicked her tongue in response to the verbal blow, though she held it as ordered. Taking one last look up toward him, she soon exploded past he and their aunt, her heels clacking angrily as she took her frustrations out against the driveway with each step, and Corey found himself wincing at the first few thunderous cracks of shoe against concrete.

            "I don't know what in the world has gotten into her today," Abby remarked with some exasperation. Corey's head hung at that. He knew.

            "I wonder," Kayla responded with a hint of curiosity, and Corey found himself the recipient of another welcome stroke of her thumb down his back. Her hand began to lower even as Kayla turned to face her in-law just as a thunderous slam from the front door reached the three. The hand he occupied soon rested in front of his mother, presenting his minute form to her. "Here. I'm going to go have a little chat with her."

            With practiced grace and care, Corey was plucked into his mother's awaiting grasp, and no sooner had the transfer completed than Kayla rushed past them in pursuit of his displeased sister, the long strides the towering woman was capable of removing any need for a quickened pace.

            "Looks like you're off to a fun start here," Rebecca remarked dryly as she approached, her still sympathetic gaze cast upon him. A sharp contrast to both the angry glare of his sibling and the cool, casual countenance of his aunt.

            "Apparently," Abby replied, clearly unenthused as she looked upon her captive son with eyes a match for the lawyer's. "You coming in, Becca?" she added.

            "Can't. It's right back to work for me, unfortunately. My caseload has been something else lately," the strawberry-blonde tower responded wearily, and Corey's head hung again. He had made things harder for Mrs. Rebecca, apparently. With a start he felt the familiar feeling of keratin against his skin, catching him under his chin and lifting his head. Rebecca was there again, much as she had been in the cell as she had cleaned up his mess.

            "You go inside and get some rest, okay?" she told him softly with that same matronly care. "I know you haven't been getting any, but I want that to change now that you're home, 'k?" Corey could do little more than nod. It was true, over the past several days he would be surprised if his sleeping hours had reached double digits. His apparent agreement confirmed, Rebecca gave him another melting smile, though as usual lately, it was coated with a film of pity. "I'll see you guys later," she added, withdrawing her finger and lifting her eyes to look at his mother as she said it. "Maybe we can all get together for a nice dinner sometime in the next week."

            "That would be splendid," Abby confirmed pleasantly as the lawyer turned to leave, shooting one last pained smile at the diminutive convict in her close friend's hand. "And thank you again, Rebecca, for all of this." Corey perked up at that.

            "Thank you," he eked out pathetically through his parched throat, still pained from his earlier vomiting. He doubted it had reached her ears, but even still Rebecca's arm rose in a wave of confirmation as she started the short walk to her house just across the cul de sac.

            "Well," Abby stated with a huff, "if I wasn't already certain you needed a glass of water, I am now. Let's go get you something wet to wash all that out." Cory nodded meekly - why he had at all, he wasn't quite sure - as his mother began to make her own way up the driveway.

            Minutes later he was seated upon a counter top, for once cherishing the inherent chill of his insignificant stature as a welcome break from the summer heat after being confined in his aunt's stuffy pocket. A cold glass of water - itself reduced to just the right size for his current state - between his hands, he eagerly partook in gulp and gulp while his mother turned her attention to a scrawled-upon note that rested  to his right.

            "Hm, looks like your father went to buy groceries," she explained. "I suppose with all this going on, we let things get a little low without noticing." Corey grunted, looking down into his empty glass with palpable frustration with himself for the inconvenience he continued to provide even now. "All done?"Abby asked as he turned her attentions back to him. As he had done with Mrs. Rebecca, he gave a meek nod and offered the green-tinted glass forward onto the counter top so that it could be restored. A small, gentle swipe of his mother's nail distanced the container from him. A flash of light from the PMRD later, and the glass now stood as a pillar before him, easily large enough to hold a dozen of him. The PMRD joined the container on the counter then, and Corey once more boarded his mother's  hand, fingers caging upward around him as she went on the move.

            "Well then, honey," his mother kindly exclaimed as she passed into the living room and took a weary seat on the beige leather couch. The hand that held him at chest level began to lower, dropping him further and further away from Abby's tired face. Gently, he was deposited on a warm surface, one that was covered with a ridiculously soft, silky material. Regaining his spatial awareness, it didn't take long to realize where he was. His mother, her legs crossed, had left him standing upon the nylon-covered surface of her knee.

            Taking a seat upon the welcoming surface, his eyes crawled up Abby's suit until their blue eyes locked upon each other. He knew what was coming, his mother had promised it, after all. It was time for him to be...welcomed, fully, into the Lindon Correctional Facility. It was time for his new place, his new role, in the household, to be made clear. He could start...doing something, anything, to redeem himself. And as the matriarch before him - just one of his new wardens in charge of his needed rehabilitation - began to part her ruby lips to continue where she had left off, Corey almost wanted to smile at that thought.

            "Let's have our little chat."