Lost in Mystic Creek
Chapter 6
The Welcome Party
Kate flew down the stairs in a rush; going straight for the pile of unopened boxes in the corner of the living room. She was looking for the mate of the shoe she was holding in her hand. The fact that her shoes were separated only proved how haphazardly they had packed everything.
"Sawyer, are you sure we should even go to this thing?" Kate called up the stairs worriedly, ransacking the box for her other shoe.
"Just think of this as some form o' community service," He answered as he came down the stairs.
"Aren't you nice?" Kate laughed, closing one box and moving on to the other.
"You were the one who agreed t' the thing," he shot back, walking over to where she was standing. "What the hell are ya doin', anyways?"
"I can't find my other shoe," She complained; sitting on the floor now, ready to give up.
Sawyer smirked, buttoning up his plaid shirt in front of the mirror. "'Guess that's good enough a' reason to call the whole thing off, huh? Jus' call 'em and say ya can't find your shoe, it should go over nicely."
Kate sent him a glare. "Joey was really excited." She rolled her eyes, standing up with help from Sawyer. "You should see these girls. They all look like they belong in long dresses in a gala or something. The perfect housewives, ready to please their husbands in any way."
Sawyer looked down his wife's figure. She was wearing black jeans and a blue blouse. "Maybe I should get myself one o' those," he teased.
"Funny. Hilarious." Kate sighed, pulling her hair up in a half-up half-down manner and leaving it that way. Finally, she changed her shoes and was ready to go.
Sawyer trotted up and down the stairs quickly before following Kate out the door. It didn't take them long to reach Joey and Pacey's house, since they were right across the street.
When they knocked on the door, Kate grabbed Sawyer's hand suddenly, thinking it could help with their cover, but in the end finding extreme comfort in his warm hand touching her clammy one.
Pacey opened the door, an exasperated expression on his face. "You're finally here. Maybe that way Joey will find something to do with herself and stop nagging me."
Sawyer chuckled slightly and Kate smiled.
They entered the house and greeted Joey also. She looked extremely flushed and concerned. "Kate, I was hoping you would know something about roast beef. I don't think it's working out."
Sawyer seemed amused at this question, and Kate only nudged him with her elbow.
"I'll help what I can, but I'm not very kitchen friendly."
"Oh, thank God," Joey sighed, dragging Kate with her towards the kitchen. "I just wanted to make a good first impression, but I guess I tried too hard."
Kate just smiled, taking a look around the cozy kitchen. It looked…exactly like her kitchen at home. "Are all of the houses here exactly the same?" Kate asked Joey, who was busy trying to figure out what was wrong with the roast.
"Probably," she answered her, turning around to look at Kate, her face flushed with all of the rushing around she was doing. "But I've never been in all of them, so who knows?"
Kate nodded, walking over to the roast beef that was sitting on the counter, in a pool of its own juice. "Now, what exactly is wrong with this?"
Joey walked over and examined the roast. "That's the thing. Nothing is wrong with it."
Kate gave her a puzzled look. "Then why are you so distressed?"
"Because something always goes wrong when I cook!" She cried desperately, throwing her oven mitts onto the counter. "It's like a bad omen if nothing goes wrong."
Kate placed her hand on Joey's shoulder. "I'm sure everything is fine," She assured her. "We've got quite a crowd out there, I'll go get them situated at the table."
Joey seemed calmed by Kate's reassurance, and turned to finish up the dishes she was serving.
Kate walked into the living room, looking around at the crowd of people who were having conversations amongst themselves in the living room. She scanned the room for Sawyer, but he was sitting awkwardly next to a man with unruly black hair. She recognized the man from the other day as Jess, and noticed he wasn't really at all bothered by the fact that Sawyer wasn't saying anything to him.
Before she got a chance to walk over to Sawyer, the little boy she recognized as James, who was a strict replica of his father with the exception of his blue eyes, ran right into her. She leaned down to be at eye level with him, and saw the apologetic look on his face.
"Hey, don't worry about it," She told him, ruffling up his hair.
"I'm sorry," James said, his eyes downcast.
Kate smiled at him. "You're the little boy who gave Sawyer your lollipop, right?"
The boy's eyes lit up, his face snapping up to meet Kate's. "Are you the lady of the house?"
Kate chuckled, glancing over at Sawyer. "Yes, I am."
"Was my lollipop yummy? 'Cause I thought it was real yummy," He said to her, nodding his head.
"I think Sawyer got to it before I had a chance," Kate explained to him. "But I bet it was good." James nodded in agreement before Kate spoke again. "Can you do me a favor and spread the word to everyone that dinner is served?"
James nodded eagerly before turning around to face the grownups. "FOOOOOOD!" James cried, weaving himself through the crowd. "FOOOOOD!" He yelled once again, before climbing up onto his chair at the table, situating himself with a fork in his hand.
The adults in the room all laughed, making their way over to the dinner table. Once everyone was situated, Joey walked out eagerly, rapidly walking towards the dinner table.
And then, as if in slow motion, Joey stumbled on the corner of the rug that was turned up, the plate of roast flying through the air and landing with a loud crash onto the floor.
Joey's face snapped up, her eyes landing on the roast. Before anyone even made a sound, Joey began crying hysterically. Her hands came up to hide her face, which was covered in tears and completely red.
"Wonderful," Pacey muttered, getting up from his spot at the head of the table and walking over to Joey. "Hey, Jo. Trust me, it's just roast."
Joey took her face out of her hands, her horrified face facing Pacey. "Just roast?" She asked him. Before Pacey got in a word of retort, Joey made a grunting noise before stomping up the stairs. The next thing the guests heard was the slamming of the master bedroom door, which rung through the whole house.
"Women," Jess murmured to himself, shaking his head.
That earned him a slap from Rory on his shoulder. "Comment to yourself, please. This is a very stressful time for her."
"You definitely were not like this when you were pregnant," He shot back. "And I did comment to myself."
Rory rolled her eyes before following Kate up the stairs to Joey's bedroom.
Kate knocked on the door softly, while Rory called out behind her. "Jo?"
"I definitely told you it was a bad omen!" Joey yelled loudly from behind the door. The scream echoed throughout the house, reaching the guests at the dinner table downstairs.
Downstairs, James looked at his father proudly before muttering to himself, "Women."
Jess only smirked before turning his attention to Kate and Rory coming down the stairs, a telephone in Rory's hand.
"Who likes fried rice?" Kate asked, placing a Chinese food menu on the table for everyone to choose an item of their liking.
--
"So, you're doin' good with the girls," Sawyer commented, set on making some kind of conversation. They had been sitting in an awkward silence too long. "'Thought you didn' care for 'em."
Kate turned to face him and smiled pleasantly. "Um, I misjudged. They're nice." She thought of James. "Rory's kid is adorable."
"Oh yeah, little man is as cute as a button," Sawyer said sarcastically.
She nodded, not really in the mood to comment on his sarcasm.
From their place in seats next to the door, they heard the very loud doorbell ring. Kate stood up, ready to go open the door, but she was cut-off as James dashed in front of her, towards the door.
He opened the door with a toothy grin.
A guy in his 20's was at the doorstep, his hands full with bags of food. He had blonde hair and a shirt with a peace sign imprinted on it. He apparently did not notice that it was a little kid that had answered the door. "Forty-five," he said mundanely.
James looked deep in thought. "Um…I don't live in this house, but Mommy said I could open the door." He once again looked down at the food as if he was thinking of something quite seriously. "I'm hungry. Can I have the food, Mister?"
"Only if you give me the bucks, man," the guy replied.
James shrugged and began taking off his shirt, clearly he had misinterpreted the word 'bucks'. Kate luckily intervened in time, and pulled down his shirt.
"I'll take it from here, James." Kate looked up at the guy at the door. "Uh, I'll take this." She reached out and took the food, placing the bags down on the floor, behind her.
James immediately started ransacking through the bags, looking for something easy to eat.
At this moment, Joey walked over with a few bills in her hands. She placed it in the guy's hands. He grinned and started counting them. Joey took the food, leaving James empty handed, and walked back into the living room.
The guy finished counting and looked back at Kate's face, a puzzled expression in his eyes. "Dude, aren't you on T.V?"
It took Kate a minute to figure out what he was talking about, and she could feel Sawyer lean in to hear the conversation more clearly. "Um, I don't think so," she stuttered.
"Yeah, yeah! I think I saw your picture on the news!" He exclaimed, his eyes wide.
James's brows connected in confusion. "You're nuts, man. She's the lady of the house."
"No, no. Aren't you that fugitive girl?" He put his hands to his head, this information clearly being too much for him to handle. "Uh…if that's not you, dude, you should totally sue."
Kate panicked and closed the door quickly.
James laughed behind her. "What a butthead."
Sawyer got up as soon as James walked away, grabbing Kate's elbow and leading her into the kitchen.
"What the hell was that?" He asked her angrily, shutting the door behind him.
Kate shrugged, a distressed look taking over her face. "I just…I panicked."
"Panicked?" He reiterated. "There's no room t' panic, Kate. Damn it."
She looked up at him, remorse clearly evident in her eyes. "That's never happened before, Sawyer. What was I supposed to do?"
"I can think of a few things," Sawyer told her, taking a seat at the small table in the corner of the kitchen.
"Like what, Sawyer?" She snapped angrily, climbing onto the kitchen counter. "I'm a good liar, Sawyer, but damn it if I was supposed to come up with an entire new back story right there."
"That's besides the point, Kate. A simple, 'no you're a god damned pothead' would 'a been sufficient."
"What do you want from me?" She asked him, getting up from the counter and pacing the room. "You're treating me like a parole officer treats his criminals. We just got married for God's sakes."
"Kate, what if that guy wasn't half as stoned as he was?" He challenged her. "Or maybe if he had more than half a brain cell in his body, he probably would 'a recognized you!"
Kate sat down opposite Sawyer at the small table, her eyes slowly tearing up. "Sawyer, I froze. I'm sorry," She apologized, her voice pleading.
Sawyer sighed angrily. All of the anger and frustration he was showing at the moment, it was all for her. For his wife. And yet, she didn't get it yet.
"That damned security cop, he must a' tipped the news stations," He said to her, anger clear in his voice.
"Well, if you hadn't been so keen on assaulting me behind that telephone pole, we might have been on the road by the time he came by."
"Excuse a guy for havin' needs."
"I'm not trying to blame you, but we might have escaped the cop if we hadn't stopped," She explained to him, rubbing her eyes.
"Don' give me no 'I'm not blamin' you' crap," He muttered to her, his eyes narrowing.
"If you hadn't wanted to stay in the states, we might have completely avoided this entire-" She stopped herself before saying something rude about the town, because Joey had walked in right at that moment.
"Is there something going on, guys?" She asked them sincerely, placing the tray of used plates into the sink. "We heard some loud yelling from outside."
Kate shook her head, more tears welling in her eyes. "I just…we're fine. Don't worry about it, Jo," She assured her.
"You don't seem too great," said Joey, walking over to Kate. "If you need to tell me somewhere else, you can. We can go up to my room or something," Joey offered, whispering so Sawyer wouldn't hear.
Sawyer got angry, turning to face Joey. "Damn it, she said we're fine," He told her, his voice louder than he intended.
Joey glared at him, her eyes narrowing before she disappeared through the kitchen door.
"We're leaving," Sawyer told her, grabbing her arm and dragging her towards the door. "We can't have the entire freak show findin' out."
Kate yanked her arm out of his grasp, stopping him before he went out into the living room. "Wipe that scowl off your face, or we're not leaving this room."
Sawyer glared at her. "And why would I do that?"
"Wouldn't want the freak show finding out, right?" She mocked him, walking through the doors.
They were met with a distressed Pacey.
Kate gave him a disheartened smile, before ducking out of his gaze and bringing Sawyer with her.
"Uh, guys," Pacey began, stopping them in their exit. "Seriously, Joey's day was already ruined with the roast. It'd do you real well if you didn't yell at her."
Kate turned to look at Sawyer, a stern expression on her face. "We were just leaving," she said to Pacey.
"Good," He answered. "Great actually," He finished, leading them towards the door. "Joey said she'll call you, Kate."
Kate nodded in acknowledgement, before taking Sawyer's hand and leaving the party.