Chapter 28
Second Base (Part III)
Wow, just... wow. Still speechless over the Jack drinking and skipping school bit at 14 in last night's epi... and that nothing was brought up at the family dinner about it while they worried about a blatantly rude cop instead? How un-Reagan-like. Not happening here! Get set for some hands-on Irish grandparenting!
"Mary Margaret Reagan," Frank sighed after a probing hand under the covers on her side of the bed located only cold sheets and sent him wandering into the kitchen in the middle of the night to find her sitting there alone at the table with a pen in hand, a piece of stationery paper and a new open bottle of scotch with a quarter-filled tumbler of the amber liquid in front of her. "Honey, what is the problem this time? I mean I understood with that Romano girl that you didn't like her or think she was good enough for him… but this one? Good grades, polite, Catholic with a solid future plan to become a nurse?"
"That is the problem this time, Frank," she acknowledged while taking a sip to steady herself as she admitted the truth. "I didn't want to like her… but I do, and so does your son."
"Ooo… kay," he drawled out with a still-puzzled look on his face. "And just how many of those have you polished off?" he inquired as he grabbed a glass from the cupboard and sat down to join her. "Because you're talking crap."
"Just one, and knock it off," she chastised before beginning again. "I am not talking crap. Really? Is that all you have to fall back on? I didn't want to like her, Frank… and I guess I really didn't want him to like her as much as he does because I wanted her to go away so we could all be the same again."
"Now you sound like Jamie, and he's eight," Frank reminded.
"But she fit in today… she had a place," Mary continued as she ignored that fact and produced the patented Reagan frown. "You could see that the longer she stayed. Soon we'll have to make way for someone for Erin, and then Joseph and Jamison as they grow up and move away from us… college, careers, families…"
"Like we did, dear… we did all those things. You came along and I brought a wife and four children into this family, yet I still eat Sunday dinners with my parents in their house. If that's the trend we'll run out of room here and need to add on again instead of having to put chairs up."
"I didn't have that growing up," Mary admitted with a sigh as she blinked back a tear or two. "My parents were there… but not present like I want us to be for our children."
"We are already that," Frank assured. "And that's one thing that I know won't change although I can't believe I'm already old enough to have a son who's interested in girls that way," he tried to lighten. "Do you remember that, Mary Margaret? We weren't any older than them when we first met, although it took us a while to act on it… my fault I guess. I needed a bit longer to get up the courage to bring you in."
"I do, and I remember how scared I was to meet your mother that first time," she smiled as she reached across the table and grabbed his hand as acceptance began to take over the initial feeling of panic she had experienced. "You were afraid to so much as look at me in front of her that day… just like Danny was, he still looked nervous and white as a sheet tonight when he got home," she offered with no way of knowing of course that all of that bottled up tension had found an outlet in the back of the Studebaker… a known fact that would be held in private by a certain set of grayhairs for many years to come. "I suppose I must give this Linda credit for facing down Betty and me at the same time," she added with a wry smile as she picked up the piece of stationery paper and glanced at the first few lines written there. "Go back to bed, dear," she urged. "I'll be up in a few minutes. I promise. There's just something I need to finish first."
"Alright," he replied while getting up and pointedly removing the bottle of scotch after recapping it. "I'll be waiting for you," he left her with and she sat back and listened to his footsteps trailing away up the stairs before continuing with her letter.
Dearest Linda, it started.
When I first heard that you were dating my Danny, I wasn't happy. In fact, I just wanted to close my eyes and pretend you didn't exist. I just knew that I wouldn't like you. How could I? No one would ever be good enough for my son, and your mere presence meant that so many of the things I held dear in our lives would be changing soon.
Then I saw the two of you together, and I knew immediately that you were a sweetheart and a good soul. Over that first dinner, we got to know each other a little, and I was able to see how well you fit together with not only him, but all of us.
But more than that, now I have a few things I'd like to say to you...
###
"Wait… how do you know what was in the letter Aunt Linda?" Nicki asked. "Did Grandma Mary actually give it to you? When? What did she say?"
"She did. I found a sealed envelope in my coat pocket when we were leaving the house the night after we told everyone that Danny had proposed and we were engaged now. She knew from that very first day somehow… unless she had a stack of them written out somewhere," Linda laughed a little and teared up as she remembered the contents. "She told me I was beautiful, and to never let someone tell me different… to follow my goals and not let anyone including Danny stop me… to never let him disrespect me, and that she remembered how it was to be young and in love, but not to forget who I was… that sometimes it's easy to lose yourself and to become one with the person you're with. I still have it in my jewelry box and I look at it whenever I need to be reminded of those things."
"That's so amazing," Eddie admitted as she sat back with a sad sigh. "Now I really wish I would have had the chance to know her too," she added as she reached over and squeezed Jamie's hand.
"Me too," he murmured.
"And had Mary known what else happened that day… maybe that letter would have never been written and your relationship with her might have been different all those years," Henry offered with a knowing look towards both Linda and Danny. "That's why Betty and I decided to keep it to ourselves and handle it in this house… and why you should have done the same for Jack and this Charlotte," he advised with an air of consternation as he stood up. "Now, while I go talk to the boy maybe you can remember what it was like back then and decide if it's something that you would have wanted brought up for open discussion around the table," he finished before the sound of the patio door opening and closing left them with one less in number again.
"What's Grandpa talking about?" Sean asked, his ingrained sense of curiosity running in overdrive now. "What else happened that day? And what did he find in the backseat?"
"NOTHING!" Danny and Linda both exclaimed in unison as Frank sat back and thoughtfully rubbed that iconic mustache of his as he considered his father's words and wondered just how he and his wife had been kept in the dark over it for all that time.
###
"Humph, thought I might find you in here with him," Henry noted as he rounded the corner and spotted Jack sitting on the couch in the living room with Bear curled up next to him… a fluffy tail slowly twitching in contentment back and forth as the boy's hand softly scratched his ears. In spite of being known as particularly fearsome to strangers, the cat was affectionate to most members of the family, especially the youngest ones with the clear exceptions of Eddie's mother Eva and Danny of course. "Sometimes it's good to talk to somebody who can't talk back… at least not in so many words."
"I wish everyone here was like that sometimes," Jack lamented as he refused to look up and let his grandfather see that he had been crying. "There's never any privacy…"
"... in this family," Henry finished for him. "You're right, and you know I've heard that a time or two from just about everyone over the years," he admitted as he sat down in the opposite chair. "Your Uncle Jamie especially because he was like you and always wanted to keep his own business. Don't forget he had to grow up with a lot of nosy noses pointed at him all the time since he was the youngest."
"And now they're looking at me and laughing," Jack added with a shameful downturned face. "Everyone knows what happened and they think it's funny except Mom… she's just mad about it because Mrs. Lewis yelled at her and now she doesn't like Charlotte anymore either."
"Well, no one out there except your little brother hasn't been through something like that… it's sort of a right of passage when you're growing up, and moms tend to do that… they never think another girl is good enough for their son. Your great-grandmother was the same when Francis was seeing Mary, and your grandma was the same when your dad first brought your mom here… and they understand a lot more than you know," he added as he sat back. "Now the question is, what do you think of this girl?"
"Charlotte? I think I really like her," Jack stuttered. "I mean I do, it's just that…" he trailed off.
"What is it?" Henry asked, sensing the boy's hesitation. "There's something," he continued to prod with his still-sharp detective's brain now in full swing and considering other options that contradicted his earlier automatic assumption of a son following in his father's promiscuous footsteps. "You took her out awhile ago to go ice skating, didn't you? But your mom said this was only your third date?"
"She sometimes goes out with other guys, too..." his great-grandson admitted. "More experienced guys," he revealed sheepishly since Henry seemed to be listening without judgement and he felt the overwhelming need to get something off his chest.
"Ah," the older man nodded knowingly as he read Jack's body language and then prayed that the next statement was true. "Something tells me that you're not quite ready for that, are you?"
"Well, I haven't... no, I mean I'm not, but she asked me to the movies and Trevor said if I don't at least go to second base… then nobody cool like Charlotte will go out with me again."
"So that's why what happened on the porch… happened, right? You listened to what your friend said instead of what you've been taught in this family about respect and values from day one… Tell me, is that what Charlotte asked for?"
"Not exactly," Jack admitted as he looked up. "She told me when we were walking home together that it was nice to go out with me because we could relax and have fun, and she definitely wanted to kiss me good night, but... I would have never… I mean if she said she didn't want to..."
"So you just assumed she wanted you to be like these other guys… the more experienced ones, right? Not that maybe she wanted to go out with you because she saw something different… a gentleman, perhaps."
"Maybe… but I didn't ask," Jack replied in frustration, wondering now if he had indeed made the wrong move. "Grandpa this is all so confusing!"
"Well then I'm going to simplify things and tell you the same thing Grandma Betty told your mother and father when they had a little incident like what you went through... we were the only ones that knew about it then and sat them both down right here in this very living room. Mind you, it took everything Betty had not to drag your father in here by the ear once she figured out what was really going on…"
###
"Danny! What's going on? What are we doing in here?" Linda giggled as he led her around the side of the house and into his grandparents' garage where their seldom-used classic black 1953 Studebaker Commander Starliner was stored.
"It's okay, no one will come in," he assured as he closed the door behind him. "Since he's the Police Commissioner, people drive Gramps around most of the time and Grandma Betty thinks it's a sin to go anywhere but church or our house on a Sunday."
"But that doesn't explain what we are doing in here," she added flirtatiously with a little tug on the collar of his shirt that clearly was meant to invite something further.
"Oh, well then maybe this will," Danny offered as he pulled her close and trapped her up against him… his pulse quickening as he leaned in and tilted his head slightly and felt her return the gesture. Their lips pressed up against each other as their eyes closed while the intimacy heightened. "I thought we could use a little privacy before you have to go home since I've been wanting to do this all afternoon," he admitted as he gave way to some impure thoughts. "That sweater… fits in all the right places you know…" he added as they lingered between kisses that were steadily growing in mutual intensity before as he slowly drew his lips away and looked in her eyes, seeking direction for what was next as his hand slipped down her side after trailing suggestively over the cashmere concealing her soft curves. "I don't want to… you know, if you don't…"
"No, that was nice," she shivered as the excitement from his touch rushed through her in the cool fall air of the approaching evening while she brought his hand up and held it to her bra line once more. "Maybe just some more of that and this," she whispered as she pulled him over the now firm points as his knees grew weak with the offer of rounding first and sliding into second. "But I'm not ready for anything else, Danny…"
"Okay… me neither then," he agreed, unsure of how to proceed and grateful for the direction with this clearly special girl when previous encounters with others of Marianne's ilk had gone from zero to sixty just to fulfil physical urges in the backseat of a parked car somewhere. That realization, however, brought up the thought that he should have planned better not to have this encounter to go down in a dusty old garage with no… what was it his father called it? Ambience?… He had to show more class than that but his options were now limited. "Where?... I mean can we just sit down somewhere?" he asked with a glance around. "C'mere," he grinned and pulled her over to the Studebaker. "We can pretend that we're parked up on a lover's lane somewhere back in the day steaming up the windows."
"Danny, I don't know… your grandparents' car?"
"Hey, it's fine… I told you," as he ignored her hesitation and opened the door with a smile. "They'll never know, besides we're just kissing, right?" he urged as he met with little resistance once she conceded and they met again to explored each other's lips and tongues as his hands caressed her and heightened the excitement between them to the point where neither noticed when his watch snagged on one of those distinctive fleur-de-lis buttons and pulled it from its place on the pretty blue cashmere sweater that fit in all the right places while leaving an unmistakable record of their presence behind on the Studebaker's back seat. When they finally pulled apart, it was some twenty minutes later, and they gathered themselves for the short walk towards the ice cream store with guilty mischievous smiles flitting between them… smiles that soon vanished on two faces that went instantly pale, however, when that same car pulled up alongside of them on the street not five minutes afterwards and the passenger-side window rolled down to reveal one very huffy-faced Betty Reagan… a rather strict-minded Irish Catholic grandmother who had not failed instantaneously to add up what a loose button laying on the backseat and the still-fresh smell of a certain pungent aftershave meant when she and Henry opened the garage door and climbed in the car on their mission to return a certain young lady's white jacket.
"Get in," Henry advised gruffly from the driver's seat as he pointed to the back. "Seems like you've been there before, and your grandmother has a few things to say about that to the both of you."
###
"So that's it? Grandma Betty found Mom's button? At least she didn't see it for herself," Jack huffed sadly. "That was way worse. Mrs. Lewis was so mad I won't ever be able to face her again."
"Well that's one way to look at it, but remember… Mrs. Lewis also knows exactly what did and did not happen on her porch while my Betty let her imagination wander, and let me tell you, she was hot as a hornet's nest by the time we got home. Your mom and dad got a real earful about having been raised to be a gentleman and a young lady by good God-fearing parents and that certain activities were meant to be withheld until marriage, plus she gave them what for over what was and was not appropriate behavior when visiting our home. You need to keep that one in mind at least… and I think you owe Mrs. Lewis an apology for that. By the time Betty had cooled down though, she left them with some advice that I think probably helped their relationship start off the right way so that it could turn into what it's been all these years… and it makes things a lot less confusing."
"She did? What was it?"
"Well, I'll tell you if you promise to listen to it instead of one of your so-called friends next time you find yourself in a situation that has you wondering what the right thing to do is."
###
"Pop's been in there a long time with Jack," Linda worried as she glanced over at Danny nervously. "Maybe I should go in and talk to him... I overreacted after church. I should have listened to him first before flying off the handle."
"I think maybe it's best if you leave this one to your grandfather... sometimes it's easier to talk to somebody outside the loop on things like this," Frank offered even as the patio door opened and a sheepish-looking Jack appeared followed by a solemn-faced Henry as they both took their seats without a word at first.
"So, is everything okay now?" Linda wondered as she glanced down the line at her son who had resumed eating his meal which had been left untouched over Sean's vehement objections.
"Jack, if you'd like I can take that into the kitchen and warm it up for you," Eddie offered.
"No, I'm alright now, thanks," he assured. "I called Charlotte and asked if I could come over and apologize to her and her parents tonight if that's okay."
"You are? I mean… really?" Linda asked as she looked back and forth between her son and his grandfather, trying to judge the level of maternal intervention that was going to be required. What she saw instead of a frightened and angry boy was a calm and more confident young man who had the air of having grown up just a bit in that short time he had been away from the table.
"Yes. Grandpa and I talked, and he helped me figure things out," Jack revealed. "He told me what Grandma Betty said to you and Dad in the house that day."
"Well, your great-grandma said a whole lot of things when we got back here," Danny admitted with a pained grimace at his grandfather and a nervous glance at Linda considering Sean's presence and the fact that whatever was revealed to Jack would likely have a ripple effect on his brother who tended not ever to let anything go… and he wondered just how far down memory lane Henry had taken his son. "Some of them probably shouldn't be repeated in front of everyone."
"Some of them weren't..." Henry gruffed. "Because they didn't need to be. Try to remember that too."
"So what were these magical words?" Eddie wondered. "I mean I'd like to tuck them away for the future," she added with a nod towards Kaylin.
"My granddaughter is not dating until she's thirty," Frank insisted with a smile towards Nicki. "Same goes for you, but if I had to guess, I bet Mom said to always do what you feel in your heart is right and keep your head on straight no matter what anyone else says… if you do that it makes your decisions easier."
"To be true to yourself, and don't try to be someone else or fit the mold of who you think that person might like," Jamie continued. "Joe always used that on me and he said he got it from her," he explained. "I really needed to hear that about my decision to be a cop and not a lawyer, but I got lucky here," he added with a kiss on his wife's cheek.
"That sometimes we are so desperate to be with someone we try to change who we are… and how it never works, she said," Erin added as she remembered that conversation. "She was right about that too, and I really wish I would have listened to her when I started dating and she told me those things."
"Because you don't want someone to date you or fall in love with you who doesn't know the real you," Danny finished as he reached over and gave Linda's hand a squeeze. "Guess we weren't the only ones that needed to hear that and those other things. I grew up a lot that day too, son," he added as he looked over at Jack. "I realized that your mother was special and deserved to be treated with respect, and that I owed that to my family, too… the same today as it was back then. I'm proud of you for stepping up and doing what you need to make it right."
"Words to live by," Henry added as he raised his glass. "To my Betty, may she always be with us."
"To Mom… to Grandma Betty…" came the chorus from around the table as everyone agreed.
So that got a bit more involved than originally intended, but there it is... Linda's first dinner and the hanky-panky in the Studebaker that ensued and left them all with good advice to remember from Grandma Betty. Consensus from the reviews and PMs seems to indicate an almost dead even split (which surprised me a little). Since that's the case I'll probably go with the shorter, silly one-shot covering the hair, or lack thereof, that our friend Will E. displayed on air last night since not ONE peep was made about it... that's what I'll work on next as Kaylin attempts to solve a problem of her own with a little creative scissor work while I outline the longer Henry/Betty piece tentatively titled "Where the Heart Lies".
