Janie and August peek into Stella's room and she's digging through her dresser, clothes all over her floor.

"Stel, what's, uh, what's going on in here?" August asks with a small chuckle.

"Why did a tornado hit your room?" Janie asks.

"Hey, do you guys have any money?" Stella asks.

"Why?" They both ask.

"I just need it. Can you go get it?" Stella snaps at them. The twins share a look.

"Okay." August shuts the door. "You trashed your room, you're yelling at us, which for you is not normal at all, and you're asking for money. This sounds like something I should go tell mawline."

"No! Don't." Stella protests. "I think I can find dad."

"How?" August asks.

"A woman called the ranger station and I'm going to meet her." Stella says.

"Okay, I'm-I'm coming with you." August says.

"Me too." Janie nods.

"No, you aren't." Stella argues.

"Oh, I think we are." Janie says.

"Yes, I am. Stella, we just went through this, okay? And we're both sick of it. So if this is something that's gonna help find dad, we're doing it together." August walks out.

"Exactly. You're not the only one who gets to make adult decisions. Besides, going to see a random person alone is probably one of the most dangerous things you could do."

+++

They get to the parking garage and get out of the Mustang, looking around for anybody. They hear footsteps and turn to see a blonde woman.

"Shannon?" Stella asks.

"You're who I was talking to?" She asks.

"I'm with the Rangers. Can you tell me where you saw Ranger Walker?" Stella asks.

"Do you have the money?" Shannon asks.

"Just tell us where our dad is." August demands.

"Your dad. That's what you were starting to say on the phone." Shannon recalls.

"Yes, okay, the missing Ranger is our dad. It doesn't really matter. Now, just tell us where you saw him." Stella orders.

"She asked if you had the money." Two guys walk up behind the siblings. One guy stands between the sisters while the other pats August's jean pockets. "Pockets feel empty, babe." He tells Shannon.

"Hey. What're your names?" The second guy asks the girls.

"No, don't-don't-don't talk to them." August demands.

"Ooh." The second guy laughs. "Tough guy. What if I want to talk to them? You gonna stop me?"

"Just give us the money." Shannon orders.

"Tell me where my dad is." Stella says.

"Screw it." The first guy punches August in the stomach.

"August!" Janie and Stella call, trying to walk over.

"Ah-ah-ah." The second guy wraps his arms around their waists.

"Hey." Stella objects.

"Get off me." Janie fights against him.

"Don't go anywhere." The guy says. "Give us the money."

August punches the first guy. The guy throws the sisters to the ground and the first guy holds August so the second one can punch him. August falls to the ground.

"Hey!" Stella exclaims.

"Stop!" Janie yells as the two guys start to kick August

"Wait, stop it. Stop it, wait!" Stella shouts. "Here. Stop!" She holds the money she got from her room out. They stop and Stella walks over to Shannon, giving her the money. "Here. Just take it."

"This ain't even 200. Where's the rest?" Shannon asks.

"Freakin' amateurs." The first guy mutters.

"Stella. Stella!" August calls as the first guy holds a knife to him, ready to stab him.

"Don't." Janie tries to attack him, but the second guy holds her back. "Get off me." She struggles against him.

"Okay, here, take it. It's a classic. It's worth way more than ten grand. Just take it and leave us alone. Okay?" Stella gives Shannon the keys to the Mustang.

"Why'd you have to make it so hard?" Shannon asks. "Let's go, boys." The guy lets go of Janie and the three go to the Mustang and get in.

"Augie?" Janie rushes over, kneeling next to him.

"Hey, you okay?" Stella asks, rushing over.

They watch as Shannon speeds away in the Mustang.

+++

It's the middle of the night and the family are waiting for Cordell and Liam to get home after being called by Captain James that they got out. Abilene made some food as they wait around.

Soon enough, Liam and Cassie walk in, Abilene and Bonham immediately hugging their youngest. The others hug him as they talk to him. Janie keeps an arm around Liam, seeing how broken he seems.

After a couple of minutes, the door opens, Geri and Cordell walking in. As Cordell shuts the door, Abilene races to him, tightly hugging him.

"Mama, there she is-- hey! Gentle, gentle." Cordell says. "There you are." Abilene pulls away. "I cannot believe you're making a roast this late. Or-or early, I guess."

"Well, I-I'm sure you boys are starving, and you're home." Abilene says as Bonham hugs Cordell. "Thank God you are home."

"Starving, of course. Of course we're home." Cordell says. Given the opening, Janie tightly hugs her dad, but loosens her grip a little when she remembers his injuries. Cordell hugs her back, kissing the top of her head. "We-we, uh..." Cordell wraps an arm around August when he hugs him, sticking Janie in the middle. "You can't get rid of us that easily."

"I can't believe you're okay." August says.

"I'm good." Cordell assures as Stella joins the hug.

"It happened, and I just had this feeling." She says.

"Oh, no feelings, no feelings, all right? Okay." Cordell says as they finish hugging. "Okay, enough. We're good. We're home. We're here. We're fine. We're safe. Right, stinker?" He asks Liam.

"Yeah. Something like that." Liam says.

"Yeah. Would've been home a little bit earlier, uh, but, uh, nice of y'all to wake up." Cordell says. "Mama, I would love to eat, if that's okay." He tells her as she walks over to Liam.

"Of course." She says, wrapping an arm around Liam, starting to help him walk to the dining table.

"Let's go eat." Bonham announces.

"Yeah, let's go eat." Cordell mutters. Bonham wraps an arm around him, helping him walk. "I'm all right, I'm all right." They all make their way to the dining table, Janie sharing a concerned look with her siblings.

"You know what? Hey, wait. H-Hold on. Hold on, hold on." Cordell says, going to the head of the table. "I'm good." He tells his dad, breaking away from him. "Hold on. Uh, wait a second, wait a second." Abilene pulls one of the chairs out for Liam and he sits down, wincing a little. "I-I got an idea. And I-I think it might be a, um... matter of fact, I know it's a good idea. Stella Blue, you never got the chance to hear my graduation speech."

"Dear God, no." Stella says.

"Is he delirious?" Janie whispers to her brother.

"That or something." August whispers back.

"This is gonna be fun. Okay, okay, everybody sit. Sit, sit, please, please." Cordell tells them. You, too. Sit. Sit. Sit." Everybody but Cordell sits down around the table.

"Son, you sure you're okay?" Bonham asks.

"I'm fine, daddy. I'm-I'm fine." Cordell says.

"Because everybody who went through who knows what is fine." Janie mumbles under her breath.

"Just my-my baby girl -- or, well, first baby girl -- has to hear her graduation speech. I practiced." Cordell says. "Okay." He clears his throat.

"Oh, God." Janie whispers.

"Stella. There are moments a parent thinks about from day one. Your-your first words. Uh, your-your first steps." Cordell says.

"Really going for that long-term retrospective, huh?" August asks.

"Are we gonna be here for 18 hours?" Janie asks.

"All right. Hush, you two." Cordell tosses napkins into the twins' faces.

"Anyway, graduation has been one of those moments. Mostly because for 16 years we envisioned it alongside your mother. She and I sitting together, watching you cross that stage, whispering to each other about how much we wish we had gotten rid of Augie first."

"Okay, I thought that was kind of a fun... tough crowd." He says. "Okay, okay, all right. I guess what I'm trying to say is even though your mother isn't here, she would be so proud of the woman you've become. A Sauber woman, in just a few months. Ready to conquer the world and whatever mountain happens to come our way..."

"Um, dad." Stella points to his arm where blood is escaping from the bandana wrapped around his hand.

"Cor-Cordi, stop. Look, stop." Geri points the blood out.

"Oh. Oh. Aw, crap." Cordell puts his hand to stop the blood fall. "Uh, I think a stitch must've, uh..."

"Oh, sweetie, I got it." Abilene gets up, going to the kitchen.

"It's fine. Mama, it's-it's-- I'm not done, uh, j... got to, uh... I'm good. It's not..." Stella gets up and wraps a napkin around his hand. "Uh, uh..."

"Thank you, dad." She tells him. "It's good to have you home." She says.

"Mm-hmm." He nods. He rests his chin on top of her head. "Yeah, it's good to be home. Happy graduation."

~ ~ ~

After eating, everybody retreated to their rooms, Cassie and Geri both going home.

Janie lays in her bed and fiddles with her rings as a thousand thoughts race through her brain. She lets out a heavy sigh, hating how her mind is so active when it's the middle of the night... well, early morning.

She gets out of bed and quietly walks through the hallway. She reaches her dad's room and raises her hand to knock on the door, but hesitates.

Janie quietly sighs, starting to leave, but the door opens making her turn with slightly widened eyes.

"Hey, baby girl." Cordell softly greets.

"H-Hi." She stammers. "Sorry, I, uh... I just... I couldn't sleep."

"That-That's okay. Um... I was gonna go down and-and make some coffee." Cordell says.

"You haven't been home for more than six hours and you want coffee?" Janie asks.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm, uh... shockingly, not that tired. Must be-- you know, yeah." Cordell says.

"Right." She mutters. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good, baby. Nothing to worry about." Cordell says. Janie nods, even though she doesn't believe him. "We're all safe. We're fine. We're good."

"Okay." She mumbles.

"You wanna... you wanna go down with me?" Cordell says.

"Sure." Janie nods.

"Okay." Cordell puts his hand on her back, the two quietly going downstairs to not wake August or Stella.

Janie sits on the couch while Cordell makes his coffee. After he's done, he sits next to her, the two sitting in silence.

"I'm glad you're home." Janie says after about ten minutes of silence.

"Yeah. Yeah, me too, baby." Cordell smiles at her. He wraps his arm around her, bringing her into his chest, tightly hugging her and he plants a kiss to her head. Janie stays with him, eventually managing to slowly fall asleep, in her dad's safe hold.

+++

The next night, Janie still can't get her mind to shut up, so she grabs her pillow and blanket. She considers going to her dad's room, but given how positive he had been all day, she's not sure she can handle any more false optimism. Plus, any time somebody mentioned feelings, he'd change the subject, reminding everybody everything's fine.

Janie trudges to her sister's room, softly knocking on the door before opening it. Stella is lying in her bed and on her phone.

"Can I sleep in here?" Janie asks.

"Sure." Stella mumbles, putting her phone up. Janie shuts the door, walking over and getting in the bed. "Don't you usually sleep in dad's bed for, like, a week straight after something like this? Or half a week, at least?"

"Yeah, but... he's too positive this time. He... he's pushing everything down. He won't accept that emotions are a thing." Janie says. "Kind of ruins the whole comforting vibe I want. Plus if he's really that bad, last thing he needs to do is take care of me."

"Right." Stella mutters. "Isn't Augie your second option, though?"

"He was snoring. There's no waking him up." Janie says making Stella softly chuckle.

"Are you okay?" Stella asks.

"I don't know." Janie sighs. "Are you?"

"I don't know." Stella copies.

"Well... this will be a fun summer." Janie sarcastically remarks.

"Mm. Yeah, the best." Stella lightly rolls her eyes.

+++

It's the end of summer and they're supposed to start driving Stella to college tomorrow. Cordell is still acting as positive as ever, as if nothing ever happened. Liam tries to pretend he's okay, but Janie can tell he's struggling and her dad's lack of processing doesn't seem to be helping.

"Hey, you all packed up?" Cordell asks as the siblings walk into the kitchen. "Got to be on the road to Sauber at 0900 sharp tomorrow."

"Yeah, all done, just emotionally prepare yourself for all the luggage I'm bringing." Stella jokes as Liam and Bonham walk in.

"I'm more worried about emotionally preparing myself for not tearing up when I drop you off at college." Cordell says.

"Okay, are we seriously out of whey protein?" August asks.

"Get in some cardio, would you? There's more in the basement." Bonham says.

"Gramps, you just don't understand." Stella laughs. Janie quietly laughs as she sits at the counter.

"Okay, Stella, that's not-- that's not cool." August says.

"Augie only has a little time before he shows everybody he got ripped over the summer." Stella says. "But if you tilt your head just so, you maybe can..."

"Yeah, yeah, you know, standing at a certain distance. And-And angle..." Janie joins in on the teasing.

"Yeah. Exactly." Stella nods in agreement.

"Okay, okay, okay, that's enough. That's enough." Cordell loudly cuts in. "Give it a rest, give it a rest. Give it a rest, give it a rest. Both of you knock it off. If you don't, it's gonna make for a very long road trip. Speaking of, where are we at on the Mustang?"

"Okay, so we called about that, and..." August starts.

"Okay, okay, okay, look, look." Cordell stops him. "Uh, th-this does not inspire confidence. I'm gonna try that again. Where are we at the Mustang?" He turns to Stella. The twins give her panicked looks.

"Deon swore the carburetor would be here today, but..." Stella says.

"The carburetor?" Cordell asks.

"I'll give him a call." Stella says.

"It's one thing after another with this guy." Cordell says.

"Hey, look, I get supply chain issues, but two months, that's crazy." Liam comments.

"Yeah. You're putting a lot of this trip on a car, son." Bonham says.

"Car? More like an antique that won't fit four of you or luggage." Abilene says.

"You know what, though? That's why you have a follow car. I got you, Stella." Liam says.

"I call riding with Uncle Liam." Janie raises her hand. She can't handle a road trip with her dad's current "everything is fine" attitude.

"It's not just a car. You know that... I mean, how many times, right here, did Emily talk about taking the kids to college in that Mustang?" Cordell asks. "And I'm not gonna let some mechanic ruin that."

"Well, I'm sure mom would understand a-a mechanic ruining that. She... she wouldn't be that disappointed." Janie says. She internally winces at Cordell's incredulous look. "Or... maybe she would. She-She would mind and... and get the car back. Um... yeah."

She sends a weak smile to August while Cordell rolls his eyes.

"You tell Deon, come hell or high water, that car is in the driveway at 9:00 AM tomorrow." Cordell orders Stella. "Yeah?"

"It'll be here, dad." Stella assures.

"Great. See? How easy was that?" Cordell questions. Janie won't admit out loud that his positive grin actually scares her a little. "And that's the positivity I'm looking for!" He exclaims, gently hitting August's shoulder, his statement directed to the twins.

"Yeah." August lets out a soft scoff.

"I'll take care of everything else." Cordell says. "Only thing now is, uh, "go team" on three." He holds his hand out, palm facing the counter. "One, two..."

"I got to go." Stella mumbles.

"Not in a million years." Janie says, getting up.

"Three, go... team." Cordell says as all three siblings walk out and Bonham laughs.

+++

Janie walks up to Liam who is sitting on the porch.

"Hey." She mutters.

"Hey." Liam greets.

"Can I...?" Janie motions next to him.

"All yours." Liam says and Janie sits next to him.

"Are you okay?" Janie asks after a few moments.

"Why do you ask?" Liam asks.

"Cause nobody seems to be asking anybody that question. Especially... with-with dad. I mean, he gets asked, but he's... doing whatever charade he's doing." Janie says.

"I'm... I'm okay, Jane." Liam tells her.

"I find that... hard to believe." Janie says.

"No matter what I'm feeling, it, uh... doesn't feel exactly right venting to my teenage niece." Liam says.

"It's not the worst idea." Janie says. "But if you don't wanna talk, you could write. That helps... sometimes, anyway. Or... take a baseball bat to your room." She smiles a little and Liam chuckles.

"I will take that into consideration." Liam says. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. It's a little annoying having to be around dad's extreme happiness levels, but... yeah." Janie mutters.

"Yeah." Liam mumbles. Janie scoots a little closer, resting her head on Liam's shoulder, sensing that he needs some type of comfort.

+++

"Hey." Colton walks into Stella's room. "So, August and Janie are joining us today?"

"Nice to see you, too." Janie quips.

"Love you, too, man." August retorts.

"We just got off the phone with Deon." Stella says.

"And it was not good. We can't foot the bill anymore, so I guess there's no kickback to lie to dad for us." August says.

"I've had a good tip week. Maybe I can throw extra to help keep up the charade till you guys cross the Oregon border?" Colton asks.

"Okay, so kick the can?" August asks.

"No, buy us time." Colton corrects.

"Oh, right, so-so you guys can have a magical day together before all hell breaks officially breaks loose. That's great, dude, thanks." Janie remarks.

"Yeah, so then whenever she's chilling in her dorm, Janie and I take the heat for most of this? No, thanks." August says.

"I second that." Janie says.

"Hey, no one's saying that." Stella says. She peeks out of her room to make sure nobody is near. "Look, if I'm leaving for Sauber tomorrow..."

"If?" Colton asks.

"I just mean... I can't leave Augie and Janie with this. I won't." Stella says.

"Okay, then what if we just... rented a look alike, right?" August asks. "67 Mustang? Dad's none the wiser."

"You think he's not gonna notice that we don't have the car that we've had in our family... for 20 years?" Janie questions.

"No, I think he'd be the wiser." Colton argues.

"That is the worst idea ever, August." Janie tells him. "You know better than that, dude."

"You two got a better plan you're sitting on?" August asks.

"Actually, I do." Stella says. "We steal the real thing back."

"Excuse me?" Janie asks.

"What?" Colton asks, smiling.

"I've been doing some digging the past few weeks. I searched local hashtags, and after some late night scrolling, I found some car club enthusiasts posting about it. About her -- the woman who robbed us. Her handle's S-Nines, and she's been using mom's Mustang to drag race."

Stella shows them a post on Instagram.

"Yeah, I-I've seen this on a flyer at The Side Step." Colton says. "Yeah, Desert Speed Wars. Car shows, late night races. But, Stella, you really think you want to go and confront them?"