From the moment she set foot in her old house Stephanie counted the minutes until she could leave. She put up a good front. She was kind and caring to her sister and she said all the right things to the rest of her family but Stephanie wanted more then anything to leave.
She wanted to go back to London where she could be alone and drink.
She had promised herself on the plane that she would stay sober on her trip back home. This wasn't about her. It was about DJ and she could do that much for her. She could be Stephanie Tanner the good sister, the good daughter for a couple of days at least.
That promise had lasted until the shakes started. Ironically it was the day of the funeral. Stephanie had made an excuse to go out and had come back an hour later more then a little drunk. She had at least avoided the bars and instead had purchased those little bottles of vodka and drank them in the driveway of the house. The last thing she needed was to get pulled over for drunk driving.
When Stephanie walked back into the house the first thing she notice was a blanket of sadness over everyone. If you looked carefully you could almost see the sadness in the air. Even Kimmy was mellow. That was a sure sign that there was a dark cloud over the house. Usually she was a big ball of crazy bouncing off one wall to another. Now she was sitting next to her daughter quietly trying to stay out of the way which was again unusual for her. 'In the way' was what Kimmy did best.
"Did you take care of what you needed to take care of?" DJ asked as she handed baby Tommy over to Stephanie.
Stephanie looked at the kid. He was about the age Michelle was when their mother died. Maybe a little younger. Stephanie had asked Michelle a few times if she had any memories of their mother and Michelle had said no which was sad to Stephanie. Stephanie remembered plenty of things about their mom even if they were just stories. She wondered if DJ had actual memories. She wondered if it would be the same with the boys. One would have memories of their father, one would take comfort in stories even if the memories themselves had faded and the other would have nothing at all to remember.
Stephanie wondered which had it worse.
"Yeah I just needed to pick up some stuff." Stephanie paused and looked at the baby in her arms. He looked so much like his father. I guess that was why they chose to name the youngest after him and not the oldest. "I packed so quickly I forgot a few things."
"I do that all the time." DJ smiled as she took back the baby, "Three kids. No time. You forget something."
"Just hope its not one of the kids."
"That only happened once." DJ laughed, "And Max didn't even know we left him at Chucky Cheese."
"Who do you think told me that story." Stephanie laughed at her sister.
"He did not." DJ said horrified,
"Tom told me." Stephanie laughed, "He thought it was funny."
Both of the girls laughed at that and then they got sad again realizing that the man so full of life and laughter wasn't coming back. Stephanie was tempted to apologize for bringing up the story but she saw the look in her sisters eyes and realized that she liked to remember him. It made her sad but it also made her happy as well.
All it did was make Stephanie want to drink.
"Ready girls?" Danny popped his head into the room. "The funeral starts in an hour."
"I don't think I am ready for this." DJ turned to her sister.
"You can do this DJ." Stephanie hugged her sister as best she could with the baby still in her sister's arms.
"I guess I don't have a choice."
"That's the spirit." Stephanie said faking a smile.
Stephanie followed her sister out of the room and down the stairs where everyone else was sitting. Everyone stood up as DJ descended the stairs like they were waiting for her and didn't know what to do or say which Stephanie figured was close to the truth.
No one said much as they got into the limos heading to the church for the funeral. No one had to. Stephanie was able to get away for a moment and pop back into her car for another swig of a bottle of vodka before she got into the limo herself.
It was going to be a long day.