A/n-Sorry for the delay. My beta's Internet has been on the fritz...
Note on pronunciation: Tigernach is pronounced "TEER-na". Ciaran is pronounced "KEER-an".
Disclaimer-I don't own nuffin' gov'na
Thanks to my beta, Rhiannon Aurorafai, even if her Internet provider totally sucks.
Update 4/2008-found some hidden errors, discontinuities, etc. Hope it's clearer now!

C is for Cast

Abigail glanced at her watch again and sighed. Riley had promised that he and Brynn would be at the restaurant at 7pm. It was now 7:30, and Abigail was becoming agitated.

"Relax, Abigail," Ben sighed. "It's Riley. He's always late for everything. Brynn said he runs on his own time schedule, remember? Either that or their plane was delayed. Weren't they coming back from California today?"

"It's a five-hour plane trip, and they were leaving at 12:30, so they should've gotten back to their respective homes around six. They had an hour before they were supposed to be here. Riley was the one who set the time for dinner, remember?" Abigail pointed to her watch. "He said they'd be here by seven!"

"Relax, Abigail," Ben repeated, gesturing to the front door of the restaurant. "See, they're here!"

Abigail's expression changed from irritated to worried. "They don't look very happy; I hope everything's alright." Her observation was correct. Riley was carrying his arm funny and was obviously displeased with something. Brynn had a very harried expression on her face.

"I'm never visiting her family again," Riley stated as he sat down. "She ruined the entire trip!"

"I did not!" Brynn retorted. She looked at Ben and Abigail. "Everything's his fault." Riley looked as if he was going to give a very loud response, and Ben was quick to intervene.

"Ok, exactly what happened?" he put up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. Riley held up one arm and rolled up the sleeve to reveal a blue cast.

"This is what's wrong. Do you have any idea what I've gone through in the past two days?" he demanded. Brynn sighed.

"It doesn't matter whether or not you ask; he's going to tell you anyway," she informed Ben and Abigail.

"Alright, Riley. I'll bite. What happened?" Abigail asked.

"First of all, I was trapped for three days with all of Brynn's crazy relatives," Riley began. Brynn rolled her eyes.

"Part of the deal of 'visiting my family with me' was actually interacting with my family. They're not crazy, they're just Irish!" She retorted.

"Yeah, and rugby-obsessed!" Riley shot back.

"That wasn't my fault!" Brynn growled. "Blame Ewan! He's the one who took soccer too far!"

"Children, children," Ben said, in what he hoped was a pacifying way. He hadn't seen Riley this angry with anyone in a long time. Apparently something had gone horribly wrong with the trip. "Start at the beginning. Exactly why were you in California?"

"Because around this time of year, my family always has a huge get-together. One in June, after everyone gets out of school or whatever, and one for Christmas. I have eight siblings, so it's always fun to get all of us together. I invited Riley to come along, since he hasn't seen my family since…well, since Christmas during our senior year. That was what, two years ago?" Brynn glanced at Riley, who nodded sullenly.

"So you brought Riley with you on a family get-together. How did this end up with Riley in a bad mood and with a cast?" Ben asked.

"On my right arm, too," Riley muttered. "My poor right arm. Hopefully nobody will need anything written for the next six weeks."

"As if anyone could read your handwriting anyway, Riley," Abigail teased, beating Brynn to the punch. The younger woman grinned, glad to see Riley's glare directed at someone else.

"Anyway," Brynn spoke up, "on the last day of our family reunion, or whatever you'd call it, we always have the Great Bi-Annual Gallagher Soccer Game. Riley had to play to make the teams even. So because the vast majority of us are related, the game always seems to escalate into semi-violence."

Riley snorted. "'Semi-violence'? More like all-out brawl!"

"My little sister, Caelan, took up rugby recently. Her college has an intramural team, or something to that effect. So she tackled Ewan, who then suggested that we play rugby instead. Caelan, being on the team and all, had a ball in her car. Even Adrienne—she's my sister-in-law—was getting into it, and she's not a violent person. Except when she whacked Brennan on the back of the head for stealing the ball from her…" Brynn was getting into the storytelling and was beginning to use the complimentary individual sugar packets as various soccer players.

"Wait, wait, wait," Abigail held up one hand. "Who are all these people?"

"Various siblings of mine. Ewan and Brennan are two and fifteen years older than me, respectively. Adrienne is Brennan's wife. Caelan and her twin, Ciaran, are four years younger than I am. Anyway, it just so happened that Riley was tossed the ball, and Tigernach, one of my other brothers, tackled him from behind. Riley landed funny on the ball and broke his arm. My mom ended up having to drive him and Ciaran to the hospital, because the ambulances were all on call somewhere else, apparently there was some horrible car accident," Brynn shrugged. "The doctors put Riley's arm back together, wrapped it up and sent him home. Ciaran, on the other hand, had a pretty nasty concussion so he had to stay another day or so for observation. Someone kicked him in the head."

"Sounds lovely," Ben remarked dryly. "Are all of your family get-togethers this exciting?"

"Yup," Brynn replied, entirely too chipper about the entire situation. "Last Christmas, my sister Sinead twisted her ankle, Tigernach broke his collarbone, Ewan bruised his hip badly by falling while ice skating, and Ciaran got a…" Brynn paused. "Huh. Ciaran got a concussion. I'll have to tell Mom to make sure that kid wears a helmet 24-7. I think he's had more head injuries than you, Riley."

"See," Riley accused, "her little rendition of what happened glosses over the fact that her brother didn't even notice the fact that I was writhing in pain, picked up the ball out of my mangled arm, and went to score a field goal…or whatever it's called in rugby. Your family is a bunch of sadists."

"At least it wasn't something bad like a compound fracture or one of the icky ones where the bone comes out of the skin, right? And you had fun on the trip. We visited Stanford and walked down memory lane, right? It was fun!" Brynn prodded Riley in the ribs. "I'm hungry. Why haven't we gotten menus yet?"

"It was fun until your oaf of a brother broke my arm," Riley grumbled.

"Tigernach said he was sorry, and he paid for your hospital bill! He didn't mean to break your arm!" Brynn growled, defending her brother. Ben and Abigail smiled at each other as a very intense debate broke out between the two friends.

"I told you that we don't need children. All we need to do is adopt the two of them, and we're set," Abigail spoke softly, so as not to disturb the banter. She needn't have bothered, because Brynn and Riley had somehow managed to progress from the integrity of Brynn's brother and were now arguing over the practicality of umbrellas with built-in links to the internet. Ben gave her an amused look.

"You know, that doctor was a freakin' sadist," Riley admitted. "He kept poking my arm and asking 'does that hurt?' Of course it hurts, my arm bone is in two pieces!" Riley pointed at the cast.

"Well, at least they let you pick the color, right? I mean, after all, what's having a cast if you can't get one in designer colors? Besides, it matches your eyes…" Brynn trailed off, grinning. "Maybe now you'll get that girlfriend that Mom was harassing you about!"

Ben and Abigail were not able to contain themselves at that comment; both burst out laughing. Brynn joined them, the memory of her mother admonishing Riley for having not found a girl in the two years since she'd last seen him. The fact that all his time had been consumed by treasure hunting was moot, in her eyes. Even Riley laughed after a moment, allowing the sound of his friends' mirth to dull the embarrassment of the referenced situation and the pain from his arm.

After all, Brynn was right. Maybe the cast would allow him to make a better impression on the ladies.