They had moved to the living room, which offered more seats than the kitchen. Fran sat between Grace and Sylvia on the sofa, Val and Margaret opposite them and Niles was trying to distract himself with some dusting.
No one was speaking, though occasionally one of them looked up with momentary enthusiasm for a new idea, which was then discarded before even being voiced.
All they could do for the moment was to wait for the one still ignorant member of the household to return home: Brighton. It seemed to take him forever to come home, but it was just their perception playing tricks on them.
Brighton was whistling when he let himself in less than half an hour later. But when he noticed the whole family – plus extensions in the form of Val and Sylvia – assembled, the stopped whistling and frowned.
"Who's dead?" He asked suspiciously and came over to them.
'Your father once I get my hands on him,' Fran wanted to say, but she swallowed it down.
"Dad is marrying Miss Babcock in Las Vegas," Grace informed him instead. Her brother slumped down on the arm of the sofa at her side.
"Never."
"She's right," Fran said. "We have evidence that they eloped."
Brighton didn't say a word, just looked from one of them to the next and was met with nothing but earnest nods. He swallowed.
"Well, they have known each other for ages," he finally said, "but marriage?" He shook his head.
"I know, it seems so … unreal," Margaret added.
They all sat in silence again, or stood, in Niles' case, glum expressions on their faces.
"Should we throw them a party?" Margaret finally asked, startling the others out of their thoughts.
"No way!" Brighton sulkily stated simultaneously to Val's cheerful exclamation of, "Oh yeah, parties are so much fun!" Everyone glared at her.
"Val!" Fran exclaimed. If she'd been sitting close enough, she'd have given her a slap on the arm for the stupid thought.
"But wouldn't it be a nice thing to do?" Grace asked, looking up at Fran.
"Honey, they eloped to get married without telling any of us. I don't think we should spoil their surprise for when they want to tell us. That wouldn't be very nice of us, would it?" That sounded mature enough to Fran. Basically she was just as happy with the two words Brighton had exclaimed: 'No way!' She was not going to celebrate the marriage of the man she loved to another woman, least of all C.C. Babcock.
"I suppose not," Grace said slowly, considering the words. "But we already know, so we won't be surprised."
"But they don't know that we know."
"Oh, yeah. Right."
"We'll just have to pretend to be surprised."
"Do we also have to pretend to be happy for them?"
"Brighton! You should be happy for your father that has found someone he wants to share his life with," Fran admonished.
He scowled at her. "That's a yes, then."
"Of course it is," Val confirmed.