A/N: Just a heads up without totally giving anything away...1) Kem and John didn't lose Josh back in season ten 2) John didn't come back in season fifteen.
January
"Madi! Psssst! Madi!" Emma padded into Madeline's room, tip-toed up to her bed, and stuck her face right next to her pillow.
"Madi! Wake up!" her short fingers pulled and prodded at Madi's casted arm until the older girl turned her head and faced her sister.
"What…Emma?" She rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her free, right hand.
"Happy Birthday!" The younger girl threw her arms around her sister's neck and jumped up onto the bed, engulfing the now-eight year old in a large embrace. Madi smiled largely when her little sister's statement registered in her sleep-clouded mind. She sat completely upright and Emma loosened her grip, settling onto the bed next to her sister. "Mommy is making breakfast right now!" She grinned a barely-toothed smile, "Waffles and strawberries!" Madi and Emma jumped out of bed and padded downstairs happily, taking two steps at a time.
"There's my birthday girl…" Kim said as she and Madi crossed paths between the kitchen and living room. "Come 'ere!" she embraced the lanky redhead and squeezed tightly, finishing the hug off with an affectionate kiss on the cheek.
Kerry, who'd heard the slight commotion from where she was in the kitchen, set the plate holding a large stack of waffles on the table and went out to see what was going on. Her curious expression broke into a large smile when she saw the three loves of her life, all wearing huge, happy smiles.
"How does it feel to be eight years old, Mads?" She said, engulfing her Madeline in a tight hug. She shook her head slightly as her biological daughter's head nearly reached the upper portion of her chest; she was tall and, in Kerry's maternally biased opinion, was growing up far too fast. Pulling away, Madi beamed,
"I feel the same as I felt yesterday!" she smiled. Kerry knew that meant she felt good; Friday evening had been her birthday party with all her friends. Originally, months ago, she and Kim had planned to bring Madi, three of her friends, and Emma to a local indoor water park. However, since she'd broken her arm the month before, they'd had to arrange for an alternative, cast-friendly activity. After much consideration, they'd settled on a trip to the zoo. It had been a chilly evening, but the girls seemed to have had a great time walking around the festively-lit, winter-themed zoo. Kerry nodded,
"Well, I hope you feel hungry…" the four of them headed into the kitchen.
*
"See, mom? Brian, Leah, Sofie, Caitlin, Noah, and Sammie all signed my new cast yesterday at school…and then Lauren, Eliza and Shania signed it last night!" Madi flexed her left elbow slowly with only a slight grimace and held her purple, day old, short-arm cast out towards Kerry. She nodded, swallowed the bite of food she had in her mouth, and smiled,
"Very nice…" she studied Madi's unnaturally thin arm for a second, "how's your elbow? I bet it's nice to be able to bend it again?" Though Madi had gotten the new, shorter cast Friday morning, Kerry had barely had a second to talk to her about it since. She figured it was as good a time as any, seeing as the eight year old's mind wasn't flustered with the idea of an upcoming party and she didn't have to think about work until later that night. Madi nodded,
"It's much better!" Madi shifted in her seat, curling one long leg underneath herself, "Brian was telling me that when he broke his leg, he had to wear a cast for a really long time. He even had to have surgery…" she shuddered ever so slightly before taking another bite of her waffles. Kerry sat back in her chair, brought her mug to her mouth, took a long sip and placed it back down in front of herself.
"I bet you're glad that you didn't have to have surgery, hey?" Kerry asked more rhetorically than not; she knew her daughter was, as many children are, terrified at the thought of having surgery. Hell, she thought, most adults are afraid of going under the knife.
"Yeah…I don't mind having this, though…" she poked at the purple fiberglass then looked up at her mother, "but I hate when people think I can't do something!" her tone had a touch of annoyance to it. She was making a viable point that Kerry could understand very, very well. "Mrs. Natt, my gym teacher, made me sit out on Friday! It was the first day of gym and everything and she wouldn't even let me do anything fun!" Kerry smirked and shook her head,
"That's because I called your school's nurse and told her you weren't able to participate…" she prepared herself for the wrath she was sure she was about to experience. Physical education was Madi's absolute favorite 'subject' in school; anything that allowed the girl to run around without being reprimanded for being fidgety was right up her alley. Madi's jaw dropped,
"But Mom!" she whined, "I can!" Kerry shook her head,
"Listen, we'll talk about this later tonight…" she stood up from where she was seated. Madi raised an eyebrow suspiciously,
"You promise?" she challenged. Kerry smiled slightly and nodded,
"I promise." She made short time of clearing the table and headed for the living room, "Now, let's go get dressed so we can have some fun, alright?" Madi jumped out of her chair and followed her mother into the living room, toward the stairs.
*
"…and Brian said that they had to put metal in his leg! He has scars and everything…" Madi told her parents and sister from where she sat in the back seat of their car. Kim, who was driving, shot a quick look at Kerry then looked to Madeline through the rearview mirror,
"You know…your mom had surgery on her leg." Madi, who had only been two at the time, evidently didn't remember; her eyes went wide with curiosity.
"Really?" she dragged the word out questioningly. Emma chimed in as well,
"Really, mommy?" Kerry frowned at Kim and nodded.
"Yep…when Madi was about two." She wasn't particularly hoping the two would want any more details; it was old news and a very redundant story. However, something told her they would find it far too interesting.
"What happened?" Emma prodded. Kerry glanced sideways at Kim and then at the two girls via rearview mirror. When Kerry didn't answer right away, Madi jumped in,
"What did you have done?" Kerry snorted. They were, whether they realized it or not, double teaming her. She turned in her seat to face her daughters.
"Do you know where your hip is?" Both girls nodded. Emma pointed right to her hip and a proud smile spread across her face when Kerry nodded. "Yep, that's it." She faced front again and continued talking. "I had my hip replaced."
"I thought only old people had their hips replaced? Like Grammy?" Emma asked bluntly in all seriousness, causing Kim to release a short, loud laugh. Kerry, too, smiled and chuckled, though her tone was much more subdued than Kim's sudden outburst had been.
"You're right…normally older people get their joints replaced. But when I was a kid, I had something wrong with my hip that lasted all through my adulthood. Finally, after I had you," she directed her glance towards Madi, "I decided it was finally time to get it done." Kim interjected,
"…because you, my darling, were just too crazy." She smiled into the mirror towards Madi who grinned. Emma began talking again,
"Were you scared?" the words were spoken quietly but to the point. Kerry turned around once more, looked at Emma, and nodded slowly. Emma nodded in satisfaction and leaned back in her booster seat, apparently out of questions. Kerry chuckled internally- she often wondered where her youngest daughter's questions came from; some were random, some were solitary, and some were just plain out there- and turned back around just as Kim pulled into the nearest open parking space. They were at the mall, which, uncharacteristically, had been Madi's special request. Kerry and Kim had agreed right off the bat; it wasn't often they both had the day off, had a decent amount energy, and had two daughters who were both willing to go to the mall all at once. The four exited the car and headed toward the entrance.
*
"Mommy, I like this one!" Emma held out yet another dress toward Kim. This time, it was an excruciatingly bright shade of pink with yellow and orange flowers all over it; not as bad as the last one, but no closer to the style Kim had in mind. Thankfully, it looked as if it was three or four sizes too big for Emma's petite frame, giving Kim a feasible reason to reject it.
"That's not your size, sweetie…" she turned from where she was searching through racks of miscellaneous children's clothing. "How about we go find mommy and Madi?" Emma nodded, trotted to put the dress back, and rejoined Kim. Taking her daughter's hand, she headed out the double doors of the small shop they had been in and headed for the one place she knew Kerry and Madi would be; Barnes and Noble.
"Why does Mommy and Madi like to read?" Emma asked, tagging along next to Kim as they walked through the wide, mall corridor. Kim shrugged her shoulders a bit,
"Because…" she paused for a second, leaned down, and scooped Emma up, "they just do. You know how you like to have stories read to you?" Emma nodded. "Well, it's the same thing; you like to listen to stories and they like to read them." Emma nodded again, satisfied with the given answer.
They continued through the busy mall, passing a few shops, a couple screaming toddlers and babies, and a packed food court before finally coming upon Barnes & Noble. Weaving through crowds, Kim headed straight for the in-store Starbucks where she knew she'd find Kerry and Madeline.
She kept her eyes peeled and told Emma to do the same, but after a few scans of the café, there was no sight of either red head. Turning away, she headed to look through the rest of the store when a particular laugh caught her attention. Searching for where the sound came from, she located who she was looking for, as well as four others.
"There's mommy and Mads!" Emma pointed as they headed towards them.
"...so you've been where?" Kim could hear Kerry clearly now, "All this continent hopping you've been doing, John…its crazy." John Carter's laugh was deep and mature; much more so since the last time Kim had heard it, back in 2005, when he and Kem had Joshua and had gone back East.
"France, mostly…I've been back to Africa a few times, just for a couple weeks at a time, but with these two," he gestured to the boy who stood at his side and the young girl in his arms, "I've got a bit more to stay home for." Kem elbowed him lightly in the side and the group of them laughed. Kim was now right behind Kerry, but before she could greet them, Emma took care of it,
"Mommy! We've been looking for you and Madi everywhere!" her gleeful exclamation drew the attention of all six people who had been involved in the conversation they'd been involved in. Kerry, who had turned around, smiled.
"This," she gestured towards Emma as John had done towards his two children, "is someone you haven't met before. John, Kem, this is our daughter Emma. Emma, these are two of my friends and their children, Joshua and…" she realized she didn't know the daughter's name and gave Kem a questioning look.
"Amelia." She smiled lightheartedly.
"..Joshua and Amelia." Kerry smiled. Emma smiled and waved.
"Wow, Dr. Legaspi…you look great!" John smiled. He hadn't seen Kim in years and she looked the same; great.
"Please, Carter, call me Kim...and you don't look half bad yourself." She said with a smile. "Nice to see you as well, Kem….it's been a while." She and Kem had met only a few times, probably eleven or twelve, but they had become friendly acquaintances right off the bat.
"You, too." Kem nodded graciously.
"Not to break up our reunion here, but we should get going…" Kerry smiled, "how long are you guys staying stateside?" John's smile faded a bit.
"Just a few days longer…we're leaving Friday…the funeral is on Tuesday." Kerry nodded her head knowingly. Kim made a mental note of asking Kerry whose funeral they were going to be attending.
"Well, if you guys aren't doing anything tonight…would you like to stop over for Madi's birthday dinner? Abby, Luka and Joe, their son, are stopping over as well…" Kerry asked, subconsciously running a hand through Madi's hair. Kem looked to John, who nodded.
"We'd love to...it'd be a good chance to catch up." Kerry smiled,
"Sounds good." She pulled a piece of paper and a pen from her purse, turned it over, and began jotting down numbers and an address, "here's our address, my cell phone number and our house phone. Dinner's around 7:30 so stop by around 7:00 or so…whatever works for you guys." She handed the paper to Kem.
"Alright," John nodded, "we'll see you then."
The two parties went in opposite directions.
*
"Thing one and thing two are both, finally, asleep." Kerry walked into their bedroom, headed for her dresser.
"Without a fight?" Kim sat up in bed. Kerry laughed cynically.
"Thing one, being Madi, was out like a light. Thing two, however, was the tougher one. Someone just doesn't get the concept of bedtime." She extracted a pair of pajamas and began slipping out of her day clothes.
"And how's the burn?" Kerry held out her hand towards Kim, showing her the slightly-scorched palm.
"Perfectly fine, Dr. Kim." she smiled, "Last time I let five kids run around my kitchen while I'm cooking, though." Kim chuckled. It was true; the eight year old, seven year old, two five year olds and four
year old who had been running around the house that night had been near-disastrous.
"They're cute, eh? Amelia and Josh?" Kim asked, crossing her legs to sit Indian-style. Kerry nodded,
"Yeah…Amelia reminds me of Carter. Young Carter, that is. John's so serious, now." She observed. Kim snorted,
"Or maybe you've just loosened up a bit…" Kerry shot her a mock smile before letting out a laugh,
"I'm going to go wash up." Kim nodded and leaned back in bed.
"I'll be here."
She could hear Kerry chuckle from down the hall and could picture her shaking her head.
A/N: I've been writing these chapters a little bit at a time over the past week...so I appologize for any inconsistency, lol, I've had a hard time keeping track. Also, I really would have loved to write about the actual dinner, but this chapter was already pushing 2,500 words and I REALLY wanted to get this up tonight, so I skipped over it. I might write some kind of reuinion like that in the future, though...hm...Well, thank you for reading! :D