"You doing OK?" Rob asked him while giving his hand a firm squeeze.
"I just want to see Danny, make sure he isn't scared," Julian told him.
They made their way through the crowd that was still cheering the parade. "Over there! Rob is over there with Danny's big brother!" a little girl's voice was saying. It was Sammy. Following her voice, they found their friends waiting anxiously for them.
"Oh good, we were just coming to find you," Lara said.
"Mean man, mean man," Danny was repeating in such a low voice.
Julian could barely hear him.
"He is gone, honey," Julian told him and got down to hug his little brother. "Everything is OK."
Rob got down on one knee in front of Danny and told him, "The mean man is gone."
"Rob made him go away," Julian added.
Danny looked from him to Rob. "Don't worry. I won't let anything bad happen to Julian or to you," Rob assured him and Danny threw himself at them and tried to hug them both at the same time with his little arms.
"You're missing it," Riley said, jumping impatiently and pointing toward the parade. The last of it was still going by, and they couldn't let the kids miss out. The crowd had thinned out, so they let the kids stand on the curb and wave at the last of the floats. Wyatt's friends were watching over them and that gave Rob and Julian a chance to talk to everyone else. First they got to hear how they knew something was wrong.
"Rob told us to take Danny. I wasn't sure what was going on," Christie said to Julian. "But Danny was so upset."
"Danny spotted the 'mean, office man'. That's why I had to go,'" Rob told them.
"The kids were up high so they could see what was going on. They passed the word," Noreen explained.
"The children's spy network strikes again," Rico said.
"Gloria told me that the mean man was bothering Mr. Julian. So I got Stella on it," Lara said. "She took Mr. Upton to sort it out."
"Stella?" Rico said.
"She saved the day," Rob told him.
"Stella?" Rico asked again, refusing to believe it.
Julian nodded to confirm it, but Rico just kept shaking his head.
"Don't be like that," Lara told him. "My sister isn't evil incarnate. Not all the time."
"How did she save the day?" Sam asked.
"I punched that guy, but she said it was just a scuffle," Rob said.
That got Rico's approval. "Man, you take being protective to a whole other level. I bet you were ready to rip that guy's spine out and beat him with it."
Noreen didn't feel the same though. "What were you thinking, Rob. You could have been arrested, you know," she scolded him, but then Rob's sister cut in.
"Um, excuse me," Christie said to her then she started in on Rob. "What the hell were you thinking? You're worse than in high school."
Rob just shushed her and pointed toward Danny. Surrounded by all the other children, he did glance back at them all the time, but he couldn't hear them.
"That guy isn't the first creep to get decked at one of these things," Wyatt told them. "It's practically a tradition. But last time it was Sam throwing punches." He grinned at Sam with shameless pride.
Julian and Rob gaped at Sam in disbelief, but the rest seemed to already know about it. Sam glared at Wyatt then turned to Julian. "You OK?"
"I'm fine as long as Danny and Rob are fine."
