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Summer 2002

"Why did you pack so damn much, Kim?" Kerry asked as she was struggling to push the large black suitcase out of her path towards the bedroom door. "We're only going for a long weekend."

A blonde head stuck out from behind the door of their closet and blue eyes pierced green ones. "Do you know who you're talking to, Ker?" She asked seriously.

Those same green eyes rolled as Kerry left their shared bedroom. Over her shoulder, she called out with good natured tease, "I'll be downstairs waiting…we're leaving at eight o'clock regardless of whether or not you've found a way to get that thing into the car."

Kim coughed a laugh, disregarding her girlfriend's joke, but took a quick, surveying look at the suitcase on the floor across the room…

Damn red head had a point.

After struggling to get her suitcase, that was big enough to hold a small seven year old, down the stairs and in the trunk, Kim pulled the driver's side door open and slid into her seat. She took a deep breath, as if winded, and Kerry chuckled, amused with her girlfriend's theatrics, "We're fifteen minutes behind schedule…" she said, pulling her seatbelt over her chest as Kim threw the car into reverse. "When your mom asks why we've missed out flight, I'm blaming you."

Kim smirked. "She's my mother, Ker…you won't have to tell her why we've missed our flight." She joked, before adding. "Not that we are going to…we're going to get there two hours early, thanks to someone's wonderful, over prepared, ready for anything planning skills." She said, her tone mocking but her face soft.

Kerry rolled her eyes and watched as the houses that lined her and Kim's neighborhood flew by.

After paying what Kerry and Kim both considered an outrageous amount of money to park in O'Hare's parking lot, getting through security and finding the appropriate gate, and Kerry thinking she lost
her one of only two doses of Dramamine before finding it, the couple was seated in their first class seats, seatbelts buckled and items stowed away.

Kerry's left hand grasped Kim's right tightly as they took off.

"You know," Kerry spoke up once the plane seemed to be flying smoothly, "I've only ever met your mother."

Kim could feel the apprehension flooding Kerry's voice. "And she absolutely loved you."

Kerry stared at the side of Kim's face for a second. "And what about the other thirty seven members of your immediate family?"

Kim scoffed and shook her head. "There are not thirty seven people in my immediate family," she argued with a smile, "besides; you certainly won't be meeting the entire Legaspi clan this weekend."

Kerry cocked an eyebrow.

Kim continued, "You'll meet my dad, Kenneth, Poppa Percy and Nana Addie- well, Percival and Adelaide Legaspi, but try saying that when you're three years old and have a stutter." She joked, bringing up the speech impediment that Kerry was sure she'd find cute if she could hear it. "Then Kevin and his wife, Jill, and their three kids: Liam, Maggie, and Chloe. That's how many? Eight?"

Kerry cringed and found herself wondering if they all stood just south of six feet.

Kim could still feel Kerry's discomfort and reached over, her hand giving a gentle squeeze to the redhead's denim-covered thigh. "It'll be fine…" she assured, "besides, the house is big enough that, if they don't like you, there's plenty of room for everyone to keep to themselves."

When Kerry didn't even crack a smile, Kim squeezed the thigh beneath her hand once more. "It will be fine, Kerry," she reiterated firmly, "I promise."

Kerry let out a shaky breath; she could only hope it'd be fine.

"Are you sure you don't want to stop for a little bit? Between flying and driving we've been sitting for about four hours, Ker…" Kim asked considerately after she saw Kerry shift her position for what had to be the eighteenth time in the past half hour of the two hour car ride from Logan Airport, in Boston, to Kim's family's beach house in Chatham, Massachusetts.

Kerry smiled gratefully but shook her head. "We're almost there, right?"

Kim nodded, looking at the land that surrounded their car; they were fast approaching the shore that her family's house resided on, and the buildings of the city were slowly gaining distance apart from one another and the roads were getting narrower and narrower, beach houses scattered here and there to the sides.

Not fifteen minutes had passed when the pair reached the end of a nearly isolated road and slowed to a stop in the driveway of a beautifully enormous, light blue beach house, finished with white accents and a lush, freshly cut lawn.

Kim turned in her seat to face the wide-eyed redhead. "Ready?"

Kerry drew in a shaky breath and rolled her shoulders. "I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

Kim laughed and pushed her door open, shutting it behind her and heading to the trunk without giving Kerry the obvious answer.

Kerry sighed and pushed her own door opening. Slowly with her lip trapped between her teeth, she pulled herself out of the car and stretched. Kim had been right, she thought wryly as she grabbed her crutch and shut her door, it wouldn't have been a bad idea to stop.

"Alright, I'll leave this one," Kim motioned towards her huge suitcase that was still in the trunk, "to Kevin." Grabbing Kerry's smaller one and lifting it out of the trunk easily, she smiled, "and I'll take this one!"

Kerry nodded shortly, agreeing silently.

Kim smiled, taking Kerry's hand in her free one. She began to walk down the driveway towards the house but stopped when Kerry called on her quietly. "Kim?" she asked softly.

Kim turned around and looked Kerry in the eye, raising her eyebrows slightly.

"What if they…" she looked down to her right and Kim instantly knew what fear was gripping her girlfriend so tightly and felt foolish for not recognizing it earlier; Kerry was, as one could imagine she would be when making a first impression on a group of people who would surely be a part of her life for a long time, nervous about conclusions that would be drawn too quickly and judgments that would be passed prematurely about who she was and, more specifically, her disability.

The blonde was readying to respond when a young girl's voice called out.

"Auntie Kim! You're here!"

Kerry and Kim both turned towards the sound and Kerry's eyes grew four times wider at the sight.

"I didn't think you'd ever get here!" said the young blonde who was, with a yellow forearm crutch in each hand and a noticeable, awkward limp to her step, moving towards them.