Opening Sequence: Starring Scott Wolf, Matthew Fox, Neve Campbell, Lacey Chabert, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Jeremy London. Created by Christopher Keyser and Amy Lippman.

Claudia, Charlie, and Owen are in a department store finding back-to-school clothes for Claudia. (Four Leaf Clover by Abra Moore is playing.) Claudia is trying to re-invent her look, first with a pair of large white-framed sunglasses, a small white T-shirt, and a black mini-skirt. Charlie says they're not "her." Claudia blows him off. Owen tries on a dress and calls Charlie over to look. Charlie takes the dress off Owen. Claudia says she knows she's trying something different, but it's high school... it's gonna be different. She says she wants to shake things up, maybe even try out for cheerleading. She puts a hot pink shirt on over her outfit. Charlie is doubtful, but is quickly distracted by Owen trying on a fire-engine red bra. Charlie asks Claudia when she got interested in cheerleading, and Claudia says when she got interested in being popular. Claudia tries on a black leather jacket, and says it's definitely the new her. Charlie says they need to get out of there because Owen is going nuts. Claudia says right after she stops by housewares. Charlie says, "What, the new you needs a blender?" Claudia says she's looking for a house-warming present for Griffin and Julia. Claudia says, as she goes into a changing room, that they should have a celebration for Julia's return from Europe. Charlie says maybe they should give her a little space and time to be with Griffin. Claudia pokes her head out of the changing room and says, "When did you get so old?" Charlie closes the door of the changing room on her and looks to see Owen trying on another dress.

Bailey and Sarah are in a coffee shop. ("All For You" by Sister Hazel is playing.) Bailey asks her how she could lie to him all summer. Sarah says she didn't have a choice. Her parents said they didn't want her to see him anymore because he was irresponsible and dangerous and she couldn't think of a nice way to put that. Bailey can't believe they actually thought he was dangerous, and he can't believe that she lied to both her parents and to him. Sarah asks him who he's mad at, she did it so she could spend time with them. Bailey tries to be understanding, and asks what her parents want from him. Sarah says they're upset about the accident and they also kind of blame him for the fact that she didn't go to Brown. Bailey asks what else they're going to blame on him, and reminds her that he's in AA and he's been sober for five months. She says she tried to tell them that, but her father is a typical lawyer and you can't tell him he's wrong about anything. Bailey says, "So what does this mean? How long am I going to be this persona au gratin?" "Non grata," Sarah corrects. Bailey asks if this means they can't hang out, and is that what she wants. Sarah says no, not at all. Bailey can't understand why her parents still have a problem since she forgave him, and if all people she can forgive him, why can't they? She just shakes her head.

Griffin is putting flowers on a spot on the floor between four chairs where the dining room table will eventually go. He asks Claudia if she thinks it's too stupid. She says it'll do until they deliver the table, as she's hanging a big "Welcome Home Julia" banner on the wall. Claudia tells Griffin to relax, that he's making her nervous. Griffin worries that Julia's going to hate the apartment. Claudia says, "It's rented." He worries that she's going to hate all the stuff. Claudia says, "It's rented." He says, "These pictures. What if she hates these pictures?" "They're rented!" Claudia says, exasperated. Griffin says two months is a long time, and worries that she's going to start speaking French to him, or that she'll want to go see a Mayonnaise exhibit. "Mayonnaise?" Claudia asks. "Yeah, some French artist guy," Griffin says. "I think you mean Manet," Claudia says. Claudia reminds Griffin that Julia loves him for him, and he says that she's been away seeing all these really cool places that he can't even pronounce, and he's been fixing leaky fuel pumps all summer. Griffin declars, "You know that with us, absence definitely makes the heart grow weirder." Claudia asks Griffin if he called the airline. He says yeah, her flight's on time. She's says, "Well then stop obsessing and get your butt in gear." He runs out the door. Claudia looks relieved to see him go.

Griffin is standing in a crowd of people meeting the plane at the airport. He spots Julia and calls out her name. She sees him and smiles. They fight through the crowd towards each other. "That's my wife," Griffin says to someone as he pushes past. "That my, uh, husband," Julia says to someone as she pushes past. "My wife?" Griffin says to himself. They finally reach each other and hug. He notices that she cut her hair. She says she did it in Paris and asks if he likes it. He says it's very Paris-like. She looks around for her family, and asks if he's by himself. He says yeah, it's part of his husbandly duties. She smile and kisses him. When they pull apart, he holds her face in his hands and says, "Ah, it's really you." She smiles and says, "It's really me."

Charlie is in the kitchen finishing making a sandwich, and calls to Owen to come eat. Owen yells back that he'll be there in a minute. Charlie says not in a minute, now, and puts the sandwich on the kitchen table. He tells Owen that he put Mr. Honey Bear on the sandwich, and he know Owen loves Mr. Honey Bear. He starts the counting to three trick. When he hits two and a half, Owen says, "Okay, okay," and comes hobbling into the kitchen in red high-heels, white bobby socks, a purple dress, and with lipstick smeared all over his face sorta near his mouth. Oh, and there's a little yellow scrunchie in his hair. Charlie takes one looks at him and asks him why he's dressed like that. Owen says he's playing dress-up. Charlie says okay, and asks him if he wouldn't rather be a cowboy, or a football player, or... a Marine. "Why?" asks Owen. Charlie says, "Because you're a boy, and those are girl's clothes." Owen still doesn't understand, and Charlie is having a hard time giving him a good reason why "you just don't do that." So Charlie suggests they find Owen's Superman cape and get him changed. Owen yells "No, no, no!" and says he likes what he's wearing. Charlie doesn't know what to do.

Griffin and Julia walk in their front door and Julia has her hands over her eyes. She uncovers her eyes and loves what she sees. (It really is a pretty aparment. Spacious, white walls, white wall-to-wall carpeting, an open kitchen and living area. Wooden cabinets in the kitchen. Lots of light and white gauzy curtains over the windows.) "Whoah! You live here?" says Julia. "No," Griffin says, "WE live here." Julia doesn't really pick up on his stress on WE. She can't believe he bought all this stuff. He tells her it's rented actually... the Italian renaissance collection. He says he got it because of all that art stuff she wrote about in her postcards. She sees Claudia's banner and smiles. He starts to say that if she hates it, they can take it all back, but she cuts him off and says no, she loves it. She goes to kiss him and says, "You are so adorable. You know that?" They kiss and she whispers, "I feel like I've been gone forever." "Yeah. Welcome home," Griffin says. They kiss again, and he starts to push her jacket off her shoulder, when Claudia jumps up from behind the kitchen counter and yells, "Surprise!" Griffin and Julia both turn to look at her, and Griffin hastily pulls Julia's jacket back onto her shoulder. Julia and Claudia run to hug each other, both exclaiming over each other's haircuts, while Griffin goes to lean against the counter in a little bit of shock. Griffin says to Claudia, "You're still here." Claudia says she let Griffin pick Julia up by himself so they could have a little time together, but now she's dying to hear all about Julia's trip. She pulls out a gelato maker that she got has a house-warming present. She says she can whip up some gelato while Julia tells her all about the trip. "Do you have pictures?" Claudia asks. Julia looks at Griffin and says, "Um, yeah, Claud but uh...." Julia and Griffin can't take their eyes off each other except to occassionally glance in the direction of the bedroom. Claudia is trying to find the strawberries she put in the fridge. "You know what Claud?" Julia says, "I'm kind of jetlagged, and I have a headache." "Oh, I could get you some aspirin," says Griffin. Julia gives him a look, and he says, "Oh yeah. You know what? Me too. A headache I mean." "Major, major headache," insists Julia, staring at Griffin but occassionally glancing over at Claudia to see how she's taking this. "It's practically a migraine," says Griffin, staring into Julia's eyes. Julia smiles. Claudia gets the picture and leaves.

Bailey is waiting the foyer of Sarah's father's office, and interrupts Mr. Reeves as he's walking in with a group of people. He apologized for showing up like this, but says that they really need to talk. Mr. Reeves says there's nothing to talk about, and asks Bailey to leave, and Bailey says there is something. He asks Mr. Reeves to hear him out. Mr. Reeves apologizes to the people he was talking to and takes Bailey into his office. He crosses his arms and says, "I'm listening." Bailey says he knows what he and Mrs. Reeves think about him, and says it's not fair, and he's changed, and he's a different person than when he was drinking, and maybe he didn't apologize, but he wants to do that now. He says he was completely out of control, and there's no excuse for that, but he's trying to put it behind him, and he's sorry. He says he did some stupid things, and Mr. Reeves interrupts to say, "Criminal things." He goes on to ask Bailey, "Do you think that if you say that you're sorry that it makes it okay that you nearly killed my daughter?" Bailey says that he lives with that every day, and every time he sees Sarah he thinks about that, but that in some strange way that's exactly what gives him the strength. He tells Mr. Reeves that he hasn't had a drink in five months, and he's in AA, and Sarah is really important to him. She helps him stay sober because she wants to help him. Bailey says that he really needs for Mr. Reeves to give him another chance. Mr. Reeves looks Bailey up and down, and asks him how often he goes to meetings. Bailey says three times a week, sometimes four. "And the weeks when you go four times," Mr. Reeves says, "those are hard weeks, right?" "Yeah, I guess you could say that," says Bailey, totally believing that Mr. Reeves is just trying to be understanding. Mr. Reeves concludes that Bailey goes to these meetings because he really really wants a drink, and that's the only way he can control the urge. Bailey realizes that something is wrong, but can only agree with Mr. Reeves. Mr. Reeves goes in for the kill, and asks Bailey if he can swear that he will never ever have another drink. Bailey wants to, but can't get the words out. Mr. Reeves just keeps on going, saying it's scary, isn't it, the thought of life without alcohol. Bailey finally gets his vocal cords working again and says, "No. No, that's... that's.... No! Why are you cross-examining me like this?" Mr. Reeves says, "How do you expect me to trust you when you clearly don't even trust yourself?" Bailey realizes he's lost. Mr. Reeves says he doesn't want to worry about Sarah being there when Bailey makes another mistake. Bailey asks what he can do, and Mr. Reeves tells him to stay the hell away from his daughter. Bailey says that's the one thing he won't do, and walks out of the office.

Commercial Break

It's 3:02am. Julia and Griffin are lying in their bed. Julia is wide awake. "Griffin!" she whispers. Griffin murmurs, obviously sound asleep. "Listen, are you awake?" Julia asks. Griffin unconsciously fights to ignore the sound of her voice, tossing and turning. "The bed keeps making these weird noises," Julia says. "It's plastic. It's rented," says Griffin without opening his eyes. Julia complains of jetlag. Julia asks what they're going to do tomorrow, and Griffin finally opens his eyes and looks at her. "I sorta got work," he says, looking apologetic. Julia is understanding, and says she'll just settle in or something. She asks if he unpacked any of her boxes, and he says no, he thought she would want to do that. Julia says it's weird that the family hasn't called or stopped by. Griffin can't understand what he's doing awake. He suggests she go to her family's house in the morning, and encourages her to go back to sleep. He closes his eyes and she's left sitting up staring at the wall.

Sarah and Bailey are at a park, and Bailey is defending his decision to go talk to her father. He says he went there to reason with him. She says Bailey shouldn't have done that, because she's never seen her father so angry. Bailey says he's angry too. He said he wanted to explain to Mr. Reeves why he's being so unfair, and then next thing he knows Sarah's father is treating him like he's some sort of criminal. Sarah says now her father says he won't pay for her housing at Berkeley so that she'll have to live at home where he can keep an eye on her. Bailey can't believe it, and apologizes. He says he was only trying to help. Sarah says, "Well, nice try," and walks off.

Claudia is at her first day of high school, and all the school clubs have set up table at a bazaar-like thing to recruit new members. She find the cheerleading table and heads toward it, but is cut off by a girl who's like a whole foot taller than her. They bump into each other, and Claudia apologizes, but the girls ignores her. Claudia introduces herself, and all the girls has to say is, "This is for cheerleading tryouts," as if Claudia is in the wrong place. Claudia says that's why she's there. The girls suggests that Claudia is too short. Claudia says, "It's cheerleading, not a rollercoaster." The girl asks how tall Claudia is and she says, 5'1"... and an eighth. As the girl is signing up, Claudia says that her height might be good for the top of the pyramid, or for when they do those cheers when the pick someone up and throw them. The girl gives her the big Whatever and walks off.

Charlie brings Owen school and he goes running to his teacher who is happy to see him. Charlie walks over to the teacher (Jenny) and says he wants to talk to her. Owen runs off to play. Charlie tells Jenny that Owen is doing something freaky, and he doesn't know what it means or what to do. Charlie tells Jenny that Owen's been playing dress-up with real dresses. Jenny laughs and says it's just a phase and it's perfectly normal. She says not to force the issue and it will pass. Charlie is comforted, but still worried. He goes to say goodbye to Owen and sees him sitting at a table with a bunch of girls wearing a straw hat with a yellow flower on it and daintily sipping tea.

The phone bell rings at the Holbrooks' apartment and Julia goes running to get the door. She has trouble opening the door because she can't figure out the lock, but finally gets it open. The delivery man at the door asks her if she's Mrs. Holbrook. She says no, Mrs. Holbrook doesn't live there, her son does. The delivery man reads the address, and says Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook, and suddenly Julia realizes he means her. She starts to explain why she seems so confused, and delivery man obviously doesn't care and just wants to drop off the very heavy table he's carrying. He asks her to sign for the table, and she asks if she has to sign Mrs. Holbrook, and he says she can sign Hillary Clinton for all he cares. The delivery man leaves and Julia is left staring at the Welcome Home banner. She picks up the phone and calls her family.

The phone is ringing at the Salinger household, but no one picks it up because they are in the back yard. Claudia is practicing cheering and Charlie is trying to teach Owen baseball. Owen wants to watch "The Sound of Music" and is not at all excited about learning baseball. Charlie says it's time for Owen to get some grass stains on his overalls. Owen drops his baseball glove to copy Claudia's cheers. Charlie, as he puts Owen's glove back on his hand, says he can't believe Claudia is really going through with it, and asks what happened to orchestra. "Orchestra doesn't make you popular," Claudia replies. Charlies asks if maybe Claudia is too small to be a cheerleader, and Claudia snaps back, "For your 411, they asked me back tomorrow, so bite me." Owen drops his glove again copying Claudia. Charlie tells Claudia to beat it saying, "We're playing sports here, all right?" Owen is busy watching Claudia and misses it when Charlies throws him the ball. It bounces into his lap and then falls off. He giggles at Claudia, and starts chasing her around in circles imitating her, while Charlie is chasing around at the end of the line trying to convince Owen to put back on the baseball glove. Bailey walks into the back yard with his backpack over his shoulder and yells to get everyone's attention. "Have you guys totally snapped?" he asks. Charlie tries to get Owen's hand back into the baseball glove and Owen yells, "No, no, no!" and runs into the house. "Nice parenting skills, Chuck," Bailey says and give Charlie a slap on the back. Charlie is frustrated. Two police-men walk into the back yard and ask Charlie if he is Bailey Salinger. Bailey tells them, "No, I am. Why, what's going on?" They start to cuff Bailey and tell him he's under arrest. Charlie asks why, and the cop says for a DUI. They take Bailey out the gate as everything starts to go in slow motion. Bailey looks over his shoulder and yells for Charlie, and Charlie starts to walk after them. Claudia is left standing in the middle of the yard by herself, helpless.

Commercial Break: Neat "Party of Five will return in a moment, on Fox" bit with Scott Wolf standing in front of a big Fox logo.

Bailey and Charlie and their lawyer, Emmett, are walking out of the police station, and Bailey can't believe they had to pay $10,000 bail for something that happened six months ago. Emmett reminds him that the statute of limitations on felony DUIs is over a year. Charlie comments that it doesn't make sense that it took the authorities until now to do something about it. Just out of the blue. Emmett doesn't know why either, and says it was probably a backlog or it took them this long to get a match on the license plate. Charlie asks what he's talking about, and Emmett says apparently there was a witness who saw Bailey's license plate. Bailey says there were no witnesses. Emmett says the DA seems to think there is. Bailey says, "So that's it? Some guys saw the accident and six months later they come after me?" Emmett says there's got to be something else to it, they wouldn't have issued a warrant if they didn't think they had a good case. Bailey asks what that means, and Emmett says it means he needs to make some phone calls to see just how good a case they have. Bailey asks how bad it is, and what's going to happen. Does he lose his license? Does he do community service? Emmett doesn't know what to say. Charlie can't believe that Bailey would have to go to jail. Emmett says to sit tight until he makes some calls. Both Bailey and Charlie are obviously scared.

Julia walks into the empty Salingers' house. "Hello?!" she yells, "Anybody home?" "Charlie?! Bailey?! Claudia? Owen? Thurber?" She walks around turning on lights, slowly giving up hope. She comes to the answering machine and sees that there are five messages on it that haven't been listened to. "So much for my surprise party, " she murmurs. She opens the fridge, pulls out some juice, and then Bailey and Charlie walk in. Bailey goes and hugs her, saying, "You're back." Charlie goes to hug her, apologizing for forgetting that she got in yesterday. Julia can't believe they forgot. Charlie starts to say that it's not exactly that he forgot, and Bailey steps in saying things have been crazy. Julia says she's been gone two months, and they couldn't even call or anything. Charlie says there's stuff going on. Julia realizes that Owen and Claudia aren't around and gets scared about them, Bailey says they're fine, they're with Ross. Julia can't think what would be so awful that they couldn't pick up the phone and say welcome home.

Claudia shows up at cheerleading call-backs, and meets Joy, vice-captain of the cheerleading squad. She asks if she can do her call-back tomorrow, because she's got some stuff going on at home. Joy tells her that she doesn't need a call-back, because she "like already totally made the squad." Claudia can't believe it. They hug. Claudia's thrilled. Joy says Claudia got "like the best slot." Claudia asks what slot. "You're the mascot!" says Joy, and hands her this enormous grey duffle bag. "I'm the possum," realizes Claudia. Joy tells her she was the perfect size to fit the costume. "Well aren't you just totally stoked?" asks Joy. "Totally," replies Claudia, deadpan.

Charlie is at Owen's school talking to Jenny, explaining how he might have to leave Owen with her for a couple extra hours after school to have meeting with lawyers and stuff. She says that's fine, and asks if she can talk to him about Owen for a minute before he leaves. She says she's been thinking about his "little problem," and she wants to ask if Owen's close with Julia and Claudia. Charlie says they're not around much these days, but when they are around they're close. Jenny says she overheard Owen calling some of the kids bunnies today, which is what she calls them sometimes. She thinks Owen is too attached to her and might be dressing in women's clothes to be more like her. She says that right now she's the only woman in Owen's life, and he might be trying to make up for something missing at home... something he kinda needs.

Charlie, Bailey and Julia are meeting with Emmett in their living room. Bailey asks how the cab driver, the one that he almost hit, could prove that he was drunk. Emmett says he can only testify to what he saw. Charlie asks about the nurse. Emmett says she can only testify that Bailey smelled of alcohol and was slurring his words. Bailey asks about Sarah, and asks if she'll have to testify. Emmett says yes, if the DA calls her. Bailey's getting frustrated. Emmett tells him to calm down. He says he can prevent this from going to trial. He says if they tell the DA that Bailey's a first-time offender, and in AA, they'll probably drop the whole thing or plead it down to a midemeanor. Julia says that she thought Emmett had said earlier that it was going to be an automatic felony because Bailey was only 19 at the time. Emmett, as he's getting up to leave, says that they're proceeding out of a legal obligation at this point, and they probably don't want to pursue this anymore than Bailey wants them to. They're all seeing Emmett to the door, and Bailey promises him his first-born. Emmett leaves after reminding Bailey to wear a tie, and Charlie says, "That's good news, huh?" "Yeah, if it's true," Bailey says as he walks upstairs, "Wake me when it's all over." Julia says she hopes Emmett's right, and Charlie agrees with her. Charlie walk into the kitchen, and Julia follows him. Julia mentions that he painted the kitchen. Charlie starts to do the dishes and says yeah, the paint was starting to peel, Bailey helped him paint it. Julia smiles and says it looks good. She walks over to Charlie and scolds him for not commenting on her hair-cut. "Oh yeah," he says, "It looks nice." It's obviously time for her to go home, but Julia offers to help Charlie with the dishes. He says he doesn't need any help, he can manage, and Griffin's probably waiting for her. She says with all this stuff with Bailey, she feels like she should be doing something. Charlie says Bailey went to bed, and there's nothing going on, so it's okay. She tells Charlie, "Just because I'm married, it doesn't mean I'm not a part of this family anymore." Charlie says he's just trying to be reasonable. She's been gone two months... Julia interrupts, saying yeah, she was gone two months and her family didn't even meet her at the airport. Charlie is surprised. He says they didn't want to horn in on her and Griffin. He tells her there's nothing for her to do here, so she should just go home. He leaves her standing alone in the half-lit kitchen.

Sarah comes upstairs to Bailey's attic room, looking almost like she's dreading seeing him. He is surprised to see her because it's so late. She says she came as soon as she heard. He says he would have called, except he's never sure who's going to answer the phone at her place. She says she's sorry, and this is beyond cruel. Bailey says Emmett doesn't think it's so bad, and they can probably plead it down or something, and it will be okay. Sarah doesn't think so. Bailey assures her Emmett thinks it will be okay. Sarah starts to get very upset and tells Bailey that he doesn't understand. Bailey starts to realize that something very messed-up is going on. Sarah goes on to say that she overheard her father speaking to a friend of his at the DA's office. She tells Bailey that her father is the one pushing this thing, and that's why it happened out of the blue. Bailey can't believe it. "Does he actually hate me so much?" he asks. "What does he want from me? Does he actually want me to go to jail?" Bailey tells Sarah that she has to do something. She says she tried, but her father won't listen to her. Bailey tells Sarah he could go to jail. Sarah starts to cry and says that she knows, but there's nothing she can do. Bailey tells Sarah to tell "that crazy son of a bitch" that he wins. Bailey says he'll go away, and he and Sarah will stop seeing each other. Sarah says she already did. She tells Bailey that she told her father she would do whatever it takes as long as he would leave Bailey alone, but her father didn't believe her. She says it's too late, and now that it's started there's nothing anybody can do.

Commercial Break: including a trailer for "I Know What You Did Last Summer," the new movie coming out in October that stars Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Griffin rolls over in his sleep (it's still dark out) and is awakened by the fact that Julia isn't there next to him. (Note from TK: I thought it was interesting that he was sleeping on the side of the bed that Julia was sleeping on the night before.) He looks up and sees Julia sitting on the window seat staring out the window. He remarks that he didn't hear her come home. She says she didn't want to wake him. As he gets out of bed to join her on the window seat, he says to always wake him. He wants her to. She says that's good to know. She says she guesses they're just figuring this out as they go along. Griffins says, "Figuring what out?" "Being married," Julia answers. Like whether they should wake each other up... she realizes that that's what marriage is about, figuring things out as you go along. Griffin asks what else she's thinking about. She's not sure. She doesn't know where to put her stuff, and she doesn't know if she likes Italian Renaissance furniture, and she doesn't know if she wants to Mrs. Griffin Holbrook. Griffin looks upset at the last one, and she realizes what she's said. She tells him she just meant that she wasn't sure if she wanted to change her name. Griffin doesn't know how to take all this. She says there's more. It seems like her family doesn't need her anymore, and she has this husband, and this strange apartment, and she feels like she's playing house. She says maybe she needs to ease into this a little more to figure out where she belongs. She says maybe they can do some of this stuff together, and make a home together. Griffin reaches out to touch her face and say, "Why do you think I rented everything?" He says they can even move if they want. Julia laughs, and says the view's kind of nice.

Charlie is following the assistant DA around her office. He says that all he's asking is what good it's going to do to prosecute this case. He says that she gets to pick and choose which cases she prosecutes. The assistant DA says the DA's office prosecutes cases that have solid evidence, which this one does. She says to Charlie that he's not even supposed to be here, and she's surprised that his lawyer advised this. Charlie says his lawyer didn't. He says that he just wanted her to hear this. His brother is 20 years old, and yes, he made a mistake, but he's pulled himself together since then, and if someone can just call up and pull some strings because they want to "get" his brother... the assistant DA interrupts, saying she doesn't know how this case got started, it was just handed to her. Charlie tells her she's going to ruin his whole life, and maybe she'll make some sort of example out of him, but he's sober now, and there's no way that he deserves this. The assistant DA finally stops walking and turns to talk to Charlie. She says okay, so you think we should just ignore the laws of the state of California because your brother's a good guy. Charlie starts to protest, and she tells him that that's not how the system works. She says she's just doing her job, and Charlie wants to argue character, to do it with the judge. She starts to walk away, and Charlie says, "So that's it?" She comes back to Charlie and says, "What your brother did, Mr. Salinger is a very serious crime. Now apparently, you don't seem to realize that drunk driving can have very real consequences."

Claudia is at her locker, which is on the top row, trying to stuff her possum costume into it. A cute (probably older) tall guy comes up (Reed) and says, "What the hell is that?" "What the hell does it look like," Claudia mutters back. She then takes a look at the guy she was speaking to and regrets what she just said. Reed goes to open his locker which is on the bottom row. Claudia looks embarrassed and says to Reed, "I thought you were talking to me." He smiles and says, "I was." He asks what it is that she's trying to stuff into her locker. She says it's the school mascot... you know, the mighty fighting possum. "You're the possum?" he asks. "Yeah," she says, "but not..." "Cool!" he interrupts. "Excuse me?" she says. "Someone's gotta do it," he responds. He offers to switch lockers with her. He says it'll be easier for her to reach, and he hates squatting like that anyway. She ways that would be great, and take the body part of the costume to his locker. He takes the head part of the costume from where it's wedged in Claudia's old locker and sniffs it, commenting that it kinda smells. She says he should try sticking his head up in there sometime. He grins, and hands her his combination on a slip of paper. She rummages around in her bag, and finds a pen but no paper. He holds out his hand, offering it to her to write on, she's hesistant, and he says if it's on his hand he can't lose it. She writes the combination on his hand, completely smitten already. "Cool," he says as he closes his new locker, "See ya." Claudia says to herself as he walks away, "I hope so."

Charlie is driving with Owen in a car seat in shot-gun. He's trying to explain that there are some crazy adult things going on around the house that have to do with Bailey, but that Ross got 101 Dalmations for Owen and Tess to watch tonight, so it should be fun. Charlie tells Owen he need to talk to him man to man. He says he's a little slow on the uptake sometimes, but that he thinks he's finally figured out what it is that Owen needs. Charlie is busy watching the road and doesn't see Owen rummaging around in his bag for something. Charlie goes on to say that he wants the same thing that Owen does. Owen needs somebody, and Charlie need somebody. Charlie says his track record isn't the greatest where that's concerned, but he just wants Owen to know that he's gonna find her. For both of them. He promises. He looks over and sees that Owen has pulled out a blonde doll. "As fast as humanly possible," he mutters.

Bailey is walking down the stairs finishing tightening his tie. He's wearing a dark suit, and Clauida, who's wearing a dark dress, comments that he looks nice. He says he feels like he's going to a funeral. Claudia says he got a letter, and pulls it out of the pile on the front hall table. Bailey mutters, "Just what I need, more good news," and opens it. He is pleasantly surprised. Claudia asks what it is. Bailey says he won the lottery. Claudia thinks he's serious until he explains that he got into a TV class that he really wanted, and it means that he'll have a shot at getting some decent grades this semester. He gets pessimistic all of a sudden and says, "Who am I kidding." Claudia tells him, "You can't give up, Bailey." Charlie walks in the front door and says they have to go meet Emmet. He comments that Julia's going to be late and will meet them there.

Charlie, Bailey, and Claudia (all looking very much like they're going to a funeral), are on the escalator going up to the court room. They're walkig down the hall, and Bailey has his hand on Claudia's shoulder, sort of like he's comforting he and sort of like he's leaning on her. Sarah is sitting on a bench outside the court room. She stands up when she sees them. Charlie takes Claudia into the court room to give Bailey and Sarah a moment alone. Sarah tells Bailey she's sorry. "Not your fault," Bailey says. Emmett comes up and Bailey goes into the court room with him. Bailey sits down with his family on the right side of the court room in the front. Sarah's parents are sitting in the back on the left side. (Walkaways by the Counting Crows starts playing.) Sarah walks in and looks at her parents. Her mother picks up her purse to free a seat for Sarah. Sarah looks over at Bailey who is looking back at her. She looks back to her parents. She goes to sit with the Salingers. Bailey's case is announced, and he goes to the defendant table with Emmett. Everything is in slow motion. Everyone looks scared.