Sully braked for a red light. “Rick is great. He’s always the one with the answers, but this time he got them wrong and the guys are going to ride him about it.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting them,” Lovey said. “The more people I meet who knew you when I didn’t, the more I learn about the man you became.”

“Aw, Mom… I’m sorry,” Sully said.

Marc reached for Lovey’s hand and squeezed it.

“It’s not a sad thing. It’s a good thing,” Lovey said, but Marc’s presence on the way was appreciated.

When they finally reached the station and parked, Sully breathed a quick sigh of relief.

“Good. They’re not on a call. Let’s do this,” he said, and they all got out. Sully reached for Melissa’s hand and they led the way inside.

The men were all busy at different tasks, but the moment they saw Sully walking in, they began sounding off. “Hey guys! Sully’s here! Sully’s here.”

Captain Lawson heard the shouts and got up from his desk and went out into the dining area where they were gathering. He walked up to Sully with a grin on his face and shook his hand.

“Hey, Sully. I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away. Want your old job back?”

Sully laughed. “No thanks, Cap. I found a better gig. You know my mother died right after I retired, right?”

They all nodded and began offering condolences again, but Sully stopped them.

“No, guys. That’s not where this is going. When I was going through her papers for the lawyer, I found my adoption papers and a letter from my mother saying she was sorry she never told me.”

Now every man in the place was quiet, listening in disbelief.

“I had exactly the same reaction,” Sully said, “and to make a long story short, I went looking for my birth mother. I’m won’t go into how it happened, but I brought her to meet you. And there was an added bonus in my search,” he said, as he put his arm around Melissa and pulled her close. “I found this pretty lady in the same place. We were teenage sweethearts, and now I’ve got a ring on her finger. This is my fiancée, Melissa Dean. The pretty lady to my right is my birth mother, Jane Cooper, but we all call her Lovey. And this is my birth father, Marc Adamos.”

“Oh shit,” a small voice said from the back of the room.

Sully laughed out loud. “Yeah, Rick. I already know my dad called here looking for me and left his number…but since you were so sure it was a scam, you didn’t pass it along.”

All of the men began crowding around them, congratulating Sully on how his life had taken such a remarkable turn.

Lovey got a hug from every man in the room, and was in tears before it was over.

Marc kept fielding comments about cloning himself, and how much he and Sully looked alike, when Captain Lawson spoke up.