Danny bade goodbye to his friends and started to walk up to the narrow pathway up to his house. He had just got back from the cinema, and was on a bit of an action movie high. Danny twisted his house key into the old lock and pushed open the door, carelessly hanging his jacket up as he walked through the hallway. "Ma! I'm home!" he called and kicked his sneakers off. There was no answer, and Danny decided that she must have been taking a nap. Danny yawned and stretched lazily. He could sure use a snack.

"Danny! Danny! I'm in the kitchen!" Danny's four year old brother Jamie shouted from the room at the back of the house. Danny sighed. That kid was going to be the death of him. Yawning again Danny walked slowly over to the kitchen.

"Hey kid, if you're hungry then I can fix something up for the both of- WHAT THE HELL?"

Danny stopped dead in his tracks and his eyes widened at the sight. Flour covered every single surface in the kitchen and adjoining living area, splattering the walls and powdering the carpet. Amongst this mess and catastrophe Jamie was sitting near the kitchen counter, looking at Danny innocently and tracing patterns with his fingers in the white stuff.

"JAMIE! WHAT DID YOU DO?" Danny screamed rhetorically. "Oh damn, damn, damn, damn it…"

"Danny! What have I done wrong?" Jamie panicked in his squeaky voice with tears in his eyes.

"WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE YOU'VE DONE?" Danny shrieked.

"Stop shouting at me!" Jamie said and burst into tears.

"Oh no, Jamie don't cry…" Danny rushed over to Jamie and wrapped his arms around the kid's tiny waist. "Look we can clean this up…" Danny trailed off and lifted Jamie up, resting the kid on his hip, who was now sobbing into his neck.

"I'm sorry Danny!" Jamie cried even louder.

"Shh…" The older teen tried to comfort his brother. "Why were you playing with the flour?"

"I wanted to make a cake."

"You can't make stuff out of flour without cooking it."

"I know. That's why I put it in the oven." Jamie whimpered.

"You what?"

"DANNY! WHAT'S HAPPENED IN HERE?" A teenage girl shrieked in the doorway. Erin stepped into the kitchen with Joe right on her tail, whose eyes were wide with shock.

"It was Jamie… I just got back!" Danny replied with a worried tone in his voice. Jamie sobbed even louder.

"Oh Jamie…" Erin sighed and took the little one from Danny's arms.

"Where's Ma?" Joe asked and tried to brush some rogue flour off his jeans that had been on the sofa.

"Upstairs. I think she's having a nap." Danny said and wiped his brow.

"Oh God, we're gonna have to clean this up before she comes downstairs!" Erin panicked.

"Or before Pa gets back!" Joe said and put his head in his hands.

"We'd better clean Jamie up first though…" Erin sighed and Jamie sneezed. She ran up the stairs with Jamie hanging onto her and choking with tears. Erin pushed open the bathroom door and put Jamie down in the bathtub, who had now stopped crying but his eyes and face were puffy. "Come on Jamie…" Erin cooed and threw Jamie's flour covered T-shirt and jeans into the laundry basket. Scrubbing the powder off Jamie's arms and face Erin tried not to wake up their sleeping mother in the room across the landing, even though she could hear Danny and Joe cursing downstairs very loudly. Jamie was still whimpering when she washed his hair using the shower to get the clumps of the cooking ingredient out from his locks, and wrapped a towel around his shivering form. "Come on Jamie…" Erin dressed him in clean, dry clothes and led him downstairs. Danny and Joe had cleaned the kitchen up, and Erin quickly spotted a black rubbish bag full of flour and split bags that Jamie had opened. "Why are you cleaning it up?" Jamie asked.

"Because Ma doesn't like mess." Joe sighed. "You okay kid?"

"I'm sorry." Jamie sniffed.

"Hey, it was an accident."

"I didn't know it was wrong." Jamie sobbed.

"Shh, it's okay Jamie." Erin comforted him. "Now we have to finish cleaning up."

Joe got the vacuum cleaner and started vacuuming the flour from the carpet and Danny got the dustpan and brush to start sweeping it off the table and chairs. Jamie helped Erin by shaking the cushions outside, and both Danny and Joe could hear Jamie's squeaky young laughter even when they were inside their house. After sweeping the last remnants of flour under the living room rug Danny collapsed onto the sofa with Joe by his side. Erin wiped her forehead and collapsed next to him, and Jamie came running in and squeezed himself in between Danny and Joe. "Do you know how much trouble you cause?" Danny asked Jamie and laughed. Jamie giggled and Joe started tickling him, making him squirm.

"Hey… kids?" Mary looked at her four children sitting on the sofa suspiciously. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah."

"Fine."

"Yeah."

"MUM! JOE'S TICKLING ME!"

Mary laughed and sat down in an armchair opposite the sofa. "Well, you've been a good boy, haven't you Jamie?" Joe had to hold back a snigger by coughing. Danny smirked and Erin fidgeted in her seat, but Mary continued. "Yes, even when your big brothers and sister were out you were very responsible!"

"Yeah, I'm proud of my baby brother." Danny said affectionately and ruffled Jamie's hair.

"Mum, I need to tell you-" Jamie began but was cut off by Erin.

"What Jamie's trying to say is that he is very responsible, like you said."

"Yes, your father's going to be very proud." Mary sighed. And not a moment too soon Francis Reagan appeared in the living room doorway, his cheeks rosy with the cold.

"Daddy! You're home early!" Jamie cried and ran into Frank's arms.

"Hey Jamie." Frank grinned and his stomach rumbled. "I think that mans that it's time for dinner." he mused and Jamie laughed.

"Danny! Joe! Can you play with me with my legos?" Jamie pleaded with puppy dog eyes, and of course the older Reagan brothers couldn't say no. They ran upstairs, with Jamie leading the way on his short legs, and Erin heaved a heavy sigh.

"I have some homework to do." She said to her parents and followed her siblings upstairs. Erin knocked on Jamie's bedroom door and went inside, almost stepping on a piece of lego which was one of the many strewn across Jamie's bedroom floor. Danny and Joe were sitting on Jamie's bed and the kid himself was instructing them very patronisingly on how to build a helicopter pad. Erin laughed at the sight, but her joy was short lived when there was a shout from downstairs.

"WHAT'S ALL THIS IN THE OVEN?!"

"Oh damn."