Weekend at the Kerneys
By Criminally Charmed
I would not, could not own them here. I would not, could not own them there. I could not own the Thunderbirds anywhere.
For any one who ever wanted a Hackenbacker-centric story - and some subtle Tracy family updates for those who didn't. Please read as it was VERY hard to write. And thanks to my ever wonderous Beta, Sam1. I would never have gotten this out without you.
Fermat Hackenbacker waited anxiously at LAX, for the commercial flight from Auckland to arrive. As the flight was announced over the intercom, the nineteen-year-old began to pace once more. A slight, red-headed woman with glasses and a spattering of freckles across her the bridge of her nose reached out to place a comforting hand on the young man's arm. "Fermat, it will be fine. Your father will like me, I will like him and my parents will like him. They like you, don't they? And," she smiled, rubbing the back of her hand on his face, "I was assured by Alan that you are just like your father."
Smiling nervously at the woman, Fermat almost laughed. Last month had been his nineteenth birthday and his best friend Alan Tracy had flown out from Boston with his wife, Tin-Tin. This Thanksgiving he wasn't going home to Tracy Island for the holiday; instead Fermat and his father, Professor Hiram "Brains" Hackenbacker, would be spending it with his girlfriend's family.
Ellen Kerney watched her boyfriend pace up and down the concourse. With all the holiday traffic, it actually wasn't easy to do. She decided it was easier to try and distract him. "So, why is your dad flying commercial this time?"
Looking up at his girlfriend, Fermat knew she was trying to distract him, but much as when Alan had done that for him, he didn't mind. "Oh. H-he had b-business in Au-Auckland and t-told M-Mr. Tr-Tracy he w-would f-fly out fr-from there. He knows th-that K-Kate and Sc-Scott w-will b-be br-bringing their s-sons f-for a v-visit S-Saturday, so D-Dad can j-just fly b-back with them. It's easier f-for them n-now th-that Kate's f-father is retired." He also knew that with Kate only recently recovered from the birth of her second son and with Virgil's wife Sarah being four months pregnant, the Thunderbird's ranks were down by two. With Alan and Tin-Tin back from school, it would bring them back up, but until the couple actually got there – and looking at his watch, Fermat knew that Alan should be landing just about now – Jeff Tracy would be hard pressed to leave the Island. But this information wasn't something that he could share with Ellen – at least not yet.
Fermat Hackenbacker was in love. He was sure he had found the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. When he couldn't stop talking about Ellen whenever he called, both his best friend and his father had wanted to meet her. Leave it to impulsive Alan to fly out Columbus Day weekend, supposedly to take Fermat out for his nineteenth birthday, so that he could check out Ellen for himself first. While he assured himself that at nineteen, a Bachelor's degree already under his belt and working on his Master's Thesis, Fermat didn't need his best friend's approval, just the fact that Alan and Tin-Tin both liked the girl made the young genius feel better. God knows Alan had been right about the first girlfriend he had at Cal-Sci. When she had dumped him unceremoniously six months after they started dating, Fermat had waited for Alan to say "I told you so".
Instead, Alan had flown out to LA, picked up Fermat and brought him back for a few days in Boston with the youngest Tracy son and his wife. Tin-Tin had confided that the girl – Jessie Brannon – had actually made a pass at Alan when he was visiting Fermat without Tin-Tin. Not wanting to hurt his friend, Alan had simply said he didn't think the couple was well suited. Jessie had tried to imply before the break-up that Alan had made a pass at her, but Fermat had quickly assured her that she had been mistaken. Having known Alan nearly all of his life, Fermat knew his best friend would never do anything to hurt Fermat and that Alan loved his wife dearly and would never endanger his marriage. Looking back, Fermat knew he should have distanced himself from the self-centered Jessie, but he hadn't. Hindsight really was twenty-twenty.
"Hey, Bright Boy?" Fermat smiled at Ellen's nickname for him, as she continued on. "You do know that they announced your dad's flight ten minutes ago and that it is probably unloading passengers as we speak?"
Grabbing her hand, Fermat pulled Ellen with him towards the waiting area closest to the gate with his father's flight. It was time for two of the people he loved most to meet.
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
Brains sat in the back seat of the small compact car that was swiftly eating up the miles of Los Angeles Freeway. Ellen had been keeping a non-stop monologue up since they had pulled out of the airport, heading towards her parents' Pasadena home. Several times Brains had looked over at his son, trying to determine if Fermat was feeling restrained or wanted to say anything but the younger Hackenbacker seemed perfectly content to let his girlfriend do all the talking. On occasion, Fermat would smile or nod, but even when it seemed like Ellen was asking Fermat a question, she would end up answering it as well. In the course of the drive, the professor determined that Ellen was very different from his ex-wife, in that she wasn't overriding Fermat as much as she was speaking in junction with his son's thoughts and feelings.
It wasn't long before they were pulling into the driveway of a tan ranch style house in a pleasant suburban neighborhood. Even as they were piling out of the car, a smiling blond woman emerged from the house. "Ellen, Fermat, oh, you are finally here." Linda Kerney walked right past her daughter to hug the younger Hackenbacker. Brains expected his son to act awkward or nervous, but instead the nineteen-year-old responded enthusiastically to the embrace. While he had only been dating Ellen since September, he had known her for over a year and she had brought him to the Kerney family home numerous times.
Ellen smiled at Brains' surprised expression. "I am fairly well convinced that if I try to come home without bringing Fermat my mother wouldn't let me in. My brother Ian and I are certain that if I were to break up with your son, Mom would either disown me or adopt Fermat - maybe both." Based on Ellen's indulgent look, it was clear that she didn't mind in the least that her mother was so fond of his son.
Suddenly, Mrs. Kerney let go of Fermat and turned to Brains. "And you must be Fermat's father! Oh, I am so happy to meet you Professor."
Taking the hand that was held out to him, Brains shook hands with Linda, responding gently, "P-please, c-call me Hiram." Brains ignored his son's amazed look; he knew he didn't usually offer anyone the use of his first name. Yet it somehow felt appropriate.
"Well," Linda smiled, "you simply must call me Linda."
"And I'm Ryan." A large redheaded man had walked around from the backyard, setting down some gardening tools next to the garage and pulling off his work gloves as he held his hand out in greeting to Brains. Turning to the younger couple, he bussed his daughter's cheek and put a companionable arm around Fermat. Putting his other arm around Ellen, Ryan led the couple into the house, calling out "Ian, get back over here and help bring in the Hackenbackers' bags."
Brains' attention was drawn to a lanky red-headed youth, no more than seventeen, playing basketball in the driveway next door. At his father's call, Ian Kerney tossed the ball at his friend and nodded his goodbyes. Jumping over the low hedge, he reached in to his sister's car and popped open the trunk, grabbing the two bags inside, easily carrying them into the house. "Nice to meet you, Professor; is dinner almost ready, Mom?" Ian was in the house before Linda or Brains could respond.
Turning in puzzlement to his hostess, Linda merely smiled. "Personally, I am impressed. He actually remembered to greet a guest before he thought about his stomach."
After years of living with the outgoing and energetic Tracy sons, Brains smiled. "A-actually, he j-just made me f-feel right at h-home."
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
Dinner was the sort of loud, noisy affair that the Hackenbackers were actually accustomed to with the Tracy Family. As at home, they rarely had to say much but found themselves included in everything. Brains was pleased at how the Kerneys treated his son. Linda and Ryan acted as if he was a third child and Ian teased and joked with Fermat much as Alan had. And it was obvious that Ellen was as attracted to his son as he was to her.
Linda had just brought desert to the table when the phone rang. Excusing herself, she went into the kitchen to answer the call. While no one seated at the table could hear the words, it was obvious that Mrs. Kerney was not pleased at the caller. With an annoyed snort, Linda came back through the swinging door, grumbling, "Well, it had been a pleasant evening."
Ryan set a dish in front of her, raising an eyebrow expectantly. "Paul and Olivia are on their way over. They're taking the kids on a five day cruise to Mexico for Thanksgiving, so besides missing Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, they will miss our anniversary party on Saturday."
"Is that their present?" Ellen asked cheerfully.
Ryan and Ian snickered, while Brains looked puzzled. Fermat interjected, "M-Mrs. K-Kerney, isn't th-that your br-brother and h-his wife?"
Ian grinned, once more strongly reminding Brains of the youngest Tracy son. "Yeah, that's right Fermat; you have never had the displeasure of meeting Aunt Olivia and Uncle Paul - ESPECIALLY, Aunt Olivia."
Ellen smiled at her brother. "And don't think I haven't planned that. I never wanted Fermat to think that it would be genetic."
Linda frowned at her children. "Now, come on, that's not nice. Besides," she muttered, "Olivia is no blood kin."
"Well," Ryan shrugged, "they can't stand me. I'm too working class being a simple fireman."
"Dad," Ian frowned, "you are a battalion chief, which goes way beyond a simple firefighter."
"B-besides, a fr-friend of ours was a p-paramedic w-with the B-Boston F-fire D-d-department." Brains added.
"Was?" Linda asked an expectation of sympathy in her face. Twenty-five years married to the job made her concerned to pursue the question.
"Y-yes," Fermat grinned. "Th-then sh-she married V-Virgil Tr-Tracy. N-now sh-she is a Nurse Pr-practitioner at a ch-charity cl-clinic."
"W-well," Brains mused, "S-Sarah will b-be c-c-c… reducing her hours soon. She is pr-pr… expecting th-their f-first s-son in f-five months."
Fermat looked up at his father, a question in his eyes. Brains smiled, "Ultrasound j-just b-before I left th-the Island."
Ellen laughed. "OK, Fermat, I guess you owe Alan the five bucks." Smiling at the adults, "Alan said only blond Tracys can make girls, so that would leave Virgil out."
Having heard about the Tracy family when Alan had visited Fermat and Ellen the month before, the Kerneys laughed at the joking bet the two friends had made. DJ Tracy (short for Donald Jefferson, his two grandfathers) had been born the same weekend that Alan and Tin-Tin had been visiting Los Angeles and Alan had assured Fermat that it would turn out that Virgil had also fathered a boy. "John and I are the only blond Tracys that the family knows of, mostly brunettes, with a spattering of redheads. So since John was able to father a daughter, I guess Tin-Tin and I will have any other Tracy daughters – unless John can ever get over his fear of having another kid." Alan had sobered up for a moment, remembering the emergency caesarian delivery of his only niece, Elizabeth. Quickly smiling once more, he continued, "So, Dad is going to have to wait until Tin and I are ready for kids before he can have another granddaughter."
Recalling that moment led to the Hackenbackers telling other stories of life on Tracy Island, assuring the Kerneys that for all of the Tracy Family money, they were much like any other family. Nearly an hour had passed, with Fermat telling of how Alan had been forced to fetch a doctor back to the island when Scott's wife had gone into labor when she had accidentally been left alone. The doctor – who later married the second Tracy son, John – had come back with Alan, first to deliver the baby, then to set Alan's fingers when Kate broke them during the delivery. The family was laughing over the way Alan had sworn eternal celibacy after witnessing Jason's birth, when the doorbell rang.
Paul and Olivia Hudson entered the home of his only living relatives besides their children. "Linda," he greeted his sister coolly. Paul and Linda had been raised as the upper-middleclass children of a workaholic banker. When their parents had been killed in a plane crash returning from a European vacation, Paul had been in law school while Linda had been just beginning her teaching career. To Paul's disgust, Linda had fallen in love with and married Firefighter Ryan Kerney after he had given a demonstration on fire safety to her third grade class. Thinking of the up-and-coming professionals Linda could have married, the life she could have been leading, filled Paul with disappointment. For years, he had tried to convince Linda that she should leave Ryan, even after her children were born. He knew, though his sister did not, that it shouldn't have ended her life; Olivia had made a mistake in her first marriage, but she had realized it and left the man, left the child who would have held her back and kept her linked to her misalliance.
Linda loved her brother but she certainly didn't like him; she openly disliked his snobbish wife, Olivia. She and Ryan had ignored her brother for the first seven years of her marriage, it had only been when Paul had married Olivia that it had gotten worse, with open comments of how "disappointed your parents would have been" or "you can still reclaim a decent life". It was not until ten years ago, when Ellen had been placed in an honors program that Olivia's comments became truly vicious. At that point, she had put her foot down, telling her brother to "control your bitch or I'll call the pound on her." The siblings did not speak for three years. Even today, their truce was tenuous, with the Kerneys refusing to go to the Hudsons. It was almost a small emotional victory to insist that if her brother wanted her in his life –Linda knew that Paul loved her, and wanted her around – that the upper-class couple would have to come to their middle-class neighborhood, filled with police officers, firefighters, and school teachers, if he wanted to see her.
Cool greetings were exchanged between the couples, with Olivia presenting a "small token for your, ummm, celebration." Opening the silver picture frame, Linda tried to make all the right noises, but secretly hoped that the couple would leave soon. Her brother would speak well enough to the athletic Ian, but with the way Olivia acted as if her bright daughter had some kind of social diseases, Linda would hate to see what sort of nasty comments she would make to the brilliant Hackenbackers.
Coming back to the conversation, Linda realized too late that Ryan and Olivia had begun making rude comments. Apparently while she had been woolgathering, Olivia had made a nasty crack about Ellen and her "geekish lifestyle". Glaring at her brother, Linda was about to demand he do something when Ellen led the others into the living room.
At the sight of Brains, Olivia's jaw dropped. "My God," she gasped. "What are you doing here?"
Brains drew himself up taller. "I am m-meeting MY s-son's g-girlfriend's f-family, thank you."
Looking at Fermat with some degree of panic, Olivia pulled on her husband's arm. "Paul, I want to leave this instant!"
Perplexed, the Kerneys stared at the open hostility radiating from the gentle Professor Hackenbacker, as he put a protective arm around his son. As Brains began to pull his son back out of the living room, the teen looked over at Olivia and quietly said, "Y-you w-were right, y-you know. My b-best friend, A-Alan said so. Y-you said I w-was j-just like my D-Dad. A-Alan agreed and s-said th-that I am sm-smart, loyal, and br-brave and the b-best friend a g-guy could have. That he w-was lucky to h-have me and his d-dad is lucky to h-have H-Hiram H-Hackenbacker in his co-corner. Th-that the Tr-Tracy men co-couldn't do wh-what they do w-without their p-pals the Hackenbackers."
Olivia looked at Fermat with a sense of dismay. What would their set at the Club think if they saw the geekish freak she had born? It would positively ruin their children's future. Disregarding all that had been said, she once more walked out on the boy she had given birth to and the sensitive man who had made the mistake of thinking her outer beauty extended to her cold heart.
Paul had made to follow his wife, but froze at the name the boy had mentioned. "Tracy?" he queried to the room as a whole.
Seeing that neither her boyfriend nor his father was willing to reward her uncle's curiosity, Ellen obliged him. "Tracy. Alan Tracy is Fermat's best friend, and his father is Jeff Tracy, yes, THAT Jeff Tracy. And Jeff Tracy is Professor Hackenbacker employer and good friend. In fact, Mr. Tracy values the professor's work and friendship so much that when he moved his family to Tracy Island, he built a separate house for the Hackenbackers. And he had made it clear to Fermat that if he chooses, Fermat will have a job in any division of Tracy Industries he likes once Fermat finishes his education."
Realizing the potential social and business risks of offending someone with such close ties to such a wealthy and powerful man as Jeff Tracy, Paul made a hasty exit. He would have to monitor his niece's involvement with this young man. For the meantime, Paul would make sure he visited his sister without his wife. And if the relationship became permanent, he suspected Linda would not mind Olivia's continued absence from her life.
Ian broke the silence as his uncle hastily drove away. "So, I take it you know dear old Auntie Battle-ax... I mean, Aunt Olivia?"
Brains sighed. "Sh-she was a m-mistake I once m-made. B-but s-sometimes," he smiled, patting his only child's shoulder, "a m-mistake t-turns into a w-wonderful s-surprise."
Fermat clenched his jaw. "B-biolog-gically, sh-she is my m-mother. I h-hope y-you all w-won't h-hold th-that against m-me."
While their parents were doing their best to pick their jaws up off the ground, Ellen and Ian looked at each other and began to laugh. Confused, the Hackenbackers stared at the younger Kerneys. As Ellen hugged her boyfriend, Ian put a conspiratory arm around Brains. "Prof, you are gonna be the hit of the Kerney Thanksgiving Day dinner. That particular hot air balloon has pissed off every member of my dad's family at some point or another. And don't worry; we can tell Fermat is a chip of the old block. Welcome to the family!" With that said, Ian led Brains back into the dining room to pick his brain for the teenager's upcoming science fair project.
Before Fermat and Ellen could join them, her parents cut them off. Linda reached over and hugged Fermat. "Oh, sweetie, I am so sorry about my brother and his wife. I hope you weren't offended by them."
Fermat shrugged. "N-no, I re-realized a l-long t-time ago, th-that beyond ge-genetics, she really is n-nothing to m-me. M-my d-dad is th-the b-best and be-between h-him and th-the Tr-Tracys, I h-have all I n-need."
"Hey," Ellen started, thinking of their relationship.
Smiling at his girlfriend, he continued, "Th-they are wh-what I n-need. B-but n-now I also h-have wh-what I w-want." Leaning over, the young genius kissed Ellen as her parents slipped into the dining room to give the couple some space.
Peeking back through, Ian whispered to the parents, "Boy, can you imagine how amazing their kids are gonna be?"
Smiling at the sight of his son falling in love, Brains had to agree. When two people loved each other that much, their kids were bound to be amazing. Thinking of the Tracys and the Kerneys, he knew that to be true. And sometimes, he thought, you do OK on your own. He had always feared that his mother's rejection was something that would scar his son too deeply. Instead, it had shown the boy the true treasures of life: real friendship, abiding love and the secure knowledge that at the end of the day, Fermat Hackenbacker was proud to be just who he always had been. And that was enough for them both.
a/n - yeah, a touch of rambling, but it was challenging to write. So, I even gave Fermat a girlfriend, gave Brains some closure, Virgil and Sarah are expecting a son, Scott and Kate now have two little boys, and Alan has enjoyed two and a half healthy years. Woo-hoo. The Kerneys are entirely of my creation but they may show up again just as the Eppes have.