AN: Hey guys! It's been a little while and I've actually had time to write over Easter whoop! This is based off of things I've done with my own family and just thought it would be a nice little piece as I'm working on a sequel to the main fic! I'm getting quite close with the end so should start publishing it after summer.

This chapter is dedicated to my dad who passed away last October and whom has been really missed this Easter.

As usual: I do not own Oscar. Everyone else is my own characters and owned by me.

Happy Easter guys,

Kallie xx

Easter Extravaganza

It was April, and all across the country everyone had broken up for Easter. In the Swan household, bedtimes had been extended, family had come home, and everyone was glad it was the holidays. The younger Swans were enjoying having their older sister and her boyfriend back from Uni, plus Michael and Luke. With them all being away at Uni, they saw very little of their older siblings and missed them very much. Wherever Kittie went, the younger Swans seemed to congregate which meant a lot of time was spent by all in the garden. Charlie, having not quite turned 4 was obsessed with Easter eggs. He would toddle around the garden on his chubby little legs, hunting high and low for brightly coloured plastic eggs, despite the fact that the hunt Kittie had planned wasn't until Easter Sunday.

As an older brother, Cal was dutifully fulfilling his role of winding up the younger ones by hiding empty plastic eggs. At least he was until Sophie, following n her big sister's footsteps, forced him to distribute one of his stashed packs of mini eggs into the plastic eggs for Charlie. There were some tears, but mostly contentment from that little adventure, one which Cal did not intend to repeat; ever. Despite other minor incidents, everyone was just enjoying the peaceful time together. Even Oscar's suggestion of a walk on Good Friday was agreed upon by everyone, including his dad and Joyce. People were bundled into coats and boots, the young and the not so young, before spilling out of the front doors and into cars.

As they drove away from the hectic life of the town and into the more rural part of Croydon, all the Swans seemed to relax a little more, despite the fact Kittie had been allowed to drive. Ever curious, Oscar turned to Kittie and frowned. Having spent more time chasing small people around, telling stories, and generally making a mess, he realised he hadn't spent much time with Kittie just the two of them. If he had then maybe he would have noticed how tense Kittie was.
Oscar lightly touched the back of Kittie's hand. "Hey."
Kittie blinked in surprise, barely taking her eyes off the road. "Hey."
"Okay?"
Kittie shrugged turning left. "Mayhaps."

Oscar knew this meant no. "Care to share?" Oscar glanced back at Sophie and Tom, neither of whom were paying attention. Instead they were arguing about what Oscar assumed was a TV program. "Les enfants n'est pas ecoutent."
Kittie scowled. "Your grammar's wrong. But I guess that was on purpose. We both know you're fluent."
There was a small smile from Oscar, pleased she had noticed. "Then spill, come on. It's only me love," coaxed Oscar, nudging Kittie lightly with his elbow, not wanting to cause a problem when driving. "Or we could just sit in silence and you can brood. But you know it would be much easier for you to tell me."
"Not right now, please. I don't want to bring the mood down, not when everyone's so happy." Kittie's grip tightened on the steering wheel as she spoke.
"Of course love. Sad, scared or worried?"
"Je suis triste et fatigue. Mais ne vous inquiétez pas."
Despite being told not to worry, Oscar couldn't help it. After everything she'd been through over the last 3 years, especially in the last 6 months, worrying was normal. Nobody could go through the loss of both parents and the torture she had endured and be fine. Just thinking about it made his blood boil and he hadn't been the direct victim.

As soon as they had pulled up in the car park Oscar took Kittie to the side, having slid money into Cal's hand for ice-cream; Michael wasn't the best person to trust with it and Cal had been the closest. He listened carefully as Kittie talked about how little sleep she had been getting, how she was worried that Johny wasn't really coping with the kids, and that today was worse because it should have been her dad's birthday and that he wasn't there. He understood the hollowness of loss at least in part. His mum might now be dead, a slightly guilty memory he struggled with sometimes, but he still wished for her to have been what she should have been: a proper mum.

When the tears fell thick and fast, he held her tight. The pain wasn't something he could take away, but he could help her when the burden got too heavy. Through the tears she tried to talk about the happy memories of him, how he'd have been the one to suggest the walk, how he'd be kitted out in walking boots leading the pack. She reminisced about a previous walk on his birthday when she was 15. Her grandparents had come for a visit and they'd driven out, her mum very pregnant with Charlie at the time. Just like now they'd tumbled out of the cars and set off, laughing and running in the April sunshine. It was a good memory, a good day but something she wished she could do again with him.

When the tears stopped, and were dried, they returned to the group as though nothing had happened. Unfortunately, those few isolated minutes had been rather eventful for everyone else. Charlie had managed to mash mint-chocolate ice-cream into his t-shirt after colliding with Tom and was balling about it, Tom's ice-cream was on the ground – his consequence of the collision, Lilly had fallen over badly and chipped one of her front teeth, Sophie had snapped Cal's headphones after trying them out, Johny had twisted his ankle in a rabbit hole, and Rebecca had concussion and a rather large lump already beginning to form on her forehead.

Kittie surveyed her family and burst out laughing. Eyes and heads turned to her and slowly everyone else began to laugh too. Only her family could be that disastrous in minutes. They abandoned the idea of a walk, promising ice-cream, cold compresses, and clean t-shirts back home, along with a new pair of headphones the next day. Napkins were grabbed as well as a bowl to clean up and catch any flying projectiles from little girl's mouths. Kittie wiped down Charlie's t-shirt and bopped his nose to make him smile before they all climbed back into the vehicles and headed back to safer grounds.

Sunday morning rolled around, and despite the sleepiness, the call of the sunshine was too strong. Sophie, Cal, and Tom helped lay the tables outside after Michael, Luke and Johny had dusted them off and put up the umbrellas. Nobody wanted to get sunburn. Although only 10 places had been set for breakfast, closer to 25 would be needed for lunch. Oscar and Max stayed in the kitchen, cooking mountains of food needed for the traditional Easter breakfast of boiled eggs, thick hot toast, and bacon that was still occasionally called "baca" because of Charlie. When he'd first been introduced to it he had been unable to pronounce it properly but had been obsessed. His chubby pink hands had clung to the pieces he'd been given, and when empty had banged on the tray of the highchair for more, accompanied by the shrill cry of "baca" as he demanded more.

Meanwhile Kittie attended to the small monkey, the two having some quality sibling time making cakes. Charlie was getting quite messy but, having had a lot of experience making cakes with the other three, Kittie was quite used to it. So Charlie was stood on a chair in the kitchen in pants, a vest, socks and a wipeable apron, much to his delight. His gloopy batter covered a large part of the kitchen tables, but having carefully avoided Kittie's small circle where she was decorati9ng two large Easter cakes with eggs. There were also two batches of cornflake nests, 2 lasagnes, 1 chicken and bacon pie, a large Spanish omelette, and uncooked sausage rolls under cloths on the side for lunch. An early rise for all bar Michael had produced a lot of their feast.

After breakfast, the group kitted themselves out in more formal clothes and headed down to the local church for the Easter Sunday service. Whilst none of them were devoted Christians, they all had some level of belief and liked to attend church, particularly on the more prestigious events. The minister greeted them all with much enthusiasm, shaking as many hands as possible. Thankfully he didn't notice the disgusted face of Cal's or the slightly freaked out one's of Lilly and Charlie. Voices were raised loudly during the hymns with a lot of la-ing from Charlie, Lilly, and a toddling Rebecca who couldn't yet read. Even Tom stumbled over some of the words, particularly the thous and thines. Then when the second hymn started – Sing Out An Easter Song, Kittie wished she had earplugs. The accompaniment of the musical instruments played by under tens as they sang one of the songs from school was rather deafening, especially when sat right next to it.

All large round eyes were focussed on the minister during the children's address. Showmanship and enthusiasm were a key part in keeping their attention and they especially loved it when some of them out of the 20 children there were chosen to act out the roles. As they acted out Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene in the garden, and Peter denying knowing Jesus three times, Kittie wished she could take pictures. She especially wished to when Cal dropped to his knees bitterly and pretended to weep, caught up in the role of Peter. It was also a bit of learning for none of them had known that the cock crow written in the bible wasn't from a cockerel. In fact it had been a horn signifying dawn like cockerels did, hence the name as birds weren't allowed into the inner city due to religious reasons.

They left the church with colourful woven crosses to add to the palm ones from the week before. Even Cal hinted at a smile when Uncle Max commented on the neatness and precision of the one he had made. Back home resulted in chaos again, and the younger ones were shooed into the garden under the watchful eyes of Michael, Johny and Rachel who had since arrived. Food preparations continued and pre-prepared trays were slid into the oven to cook and reheat. Joyce nipped back next door to make use of her oven as well as to cook an apple crumble for dessert and one of her famous meatloaves.

An hour later, everyone was sat down and tucking into food. Over at the kids table there was a lot of laughter from watching Charlie shovel in the pie, his eyes as wide as saucers as he savoured the chunks of bacon. The adult table was slightly more civilised but many of them had decided to enjoy a glass of wine, or three in Uncle Max's case. His cheeks had turned rosy and there was the occasional guffaw shared between him and Edward. The two got on remarkably well and were almost a dangerous combination. However, Kittie would never have allowed it to get out of hand. Looks were shared between her and Oscar, silent looks of happiness. A few years ago, things had been very different for them both.

Lunch took longer than expected an everyone bundled inside for a 15-minute sit-down after pudding before it was time for the hunt. Since Michael was so eager to join in, Max had arranged a grown up one for the young adults, Alec included who still acted rather childish despite being a father to two beautiful 2 year olds. As they'd all had to grow up rather quickly, it was nice for them to act like children again. Luke's girlfriend Rachel had bowed out of that, just content with spending time with the family she would one day be a part of. When all the eggs were hidden, the 8 young children lined up with their baskets in age order. The countdown began and soon they were off, hunting high and low for the carefully hidden goodies. Of course, no matter how many each person got, they would be shared equally at the end to make it fair. There was however a prize for the person with the most, fuelling the competitive spirit.

Cal was not as ruthless as he could have been during the junior hunt as it was dubbed, something that Kittie was very proud of. For all his pre-teen grumpy behaviour, his kindness always shone through no matter what. Whilst watching from the balcony, Oscar came and wrapped his arms around Kittie, softly kissing the top of her head.
"I know how much you're missing them but they would be so proud of you right now for all of this. You've done amazing," he whispered resting his chin on her shoulder.
Kittie smiled, laying her hands on-top of his. "I couldn't have done it without you."
"Duh," was the response that earnt him a kick that he couldn't quite avoid.

Then when all the eggs had been sorted and shared, and small happy people were munching away on their chocolatey goodies, the "adult" hunt began. More baskets had been provided and competitive smirks between the twins were shared along with Michael's insistence that Kittie and Oscar were not allowed to cheat. The younger ones watched excitedly as Michael was tackled by Luke in retaliation to tripping him up 30 seconds prior. Kittie neatly jumped over them both and collected the pot of tiny white sheep that had been melted into moulds the night before. Even Johny who was normally a lot quieter and watchful got involved in what was later dubbed the most outlandish and cheating filled hunt to have ever taken place, beating one about 25 years go in which Max had elbowed his brother Daniel in the head.

Caught up in the excitement of it all, Charlie had run down to the grass and started collecting eggs until a cease fire was called. His newly acquired stash had been removed along with him, and mayhem had resumed. it lasted another 5 minutes until worn out, they had all collapsed on the grass and were then jumped on. A chill had come about and with the sun disappearing behind clouds, they decided to head inside, the older ones to talk and the younger ones to eat chocolate and watch a film. All in all it was a good Easter, and despite missing family it was a happy one that would be remembered, not just because of the numerous photos taken.