Disclamier: i do not own cheaper by the dozen

Hi thanks to la-la-la-45, Islanda & 2014connerje for reviewing. I have decided that i might not finish the story in a few chapters and instead make it longer as that is what people have been telling me to do, so if you've got any good ideas then pleae let me know.

Chapter 35

It had been an hour since Mike, Sarah, Jake and Jessica returned home. All four of them had gone to their rooms to get some sleep as it they hadn't had any sleep the whole night and had been up for about twenty four hours.

"I'm so happy to have them all home now," Kate said to Tom.

"So am I," Tom replied.

"I thought I might not have ever seen Mike again and then I thought something might have happened to Sarah, Jake and Jessica because I never heard from any of them," Kate continued.

"Well at least nothing did happen to any of them."

"I know but something nearly did happen because Jake nearly died, Sarah said that the floor underneath them gave way and Jake fell but he managed to grab on and was left hanging about twenty metres or something off the ground but Sarah and mike were able to pull him back up, thank goodness for that" Kate said.

"Sarah told me that too, I don't know what we would have done if he had fallen or if Mike had never been found," Tom said.

"I can't even bare the think about that," Kate replied.

"Hey mom, dad is it ok if I stay here with you for the next couple days you have left at the lake?" Lorraine asked as she walked into their room.

"Yes of course it is. Nora said that her bud and Tom were all going to stay as well and Charlie said he was going to spend some time here with us as well since Ann is going away this week with her work," Kate answered.

"I'll share a room with Sarah. It will be just like old times when we use to come here," Lorraine said.

"I know and it's great to have the whole family together again because we not all been together since last year while we were at the lake. Anyway I thought you use to hate coming to the lake" Tom said.

"I use to love coming when I was younger and well as the years went on I started to not enjoy coming as much and well last year I wasn't so excited about coming at all but I have to admit it was a great spending time as a family," Lorraine smiled.

Ever since Lorraine had moved to New York she missed her family and realised that when her dad was always going on about spending time as a family and that it's important to spend time together that he was actually right.

Lorraine went through into Sarah's room with her bag of clothes. She barley had anything with her as she just took a few things because she had no time to pack as she tried to get here as quick as she could to try and help find Mike.

She quietly tip toped into the room trying her best not to disturb Sarah who was sleeping. She sat down on the side of the bed and then remembered how uncomfortable and lumpy the bed was. She put the few things she had with her into the drawers by the side of her bed, trying her best to do it quietly which wasn't going so well as she had already dropped a few things which made a loud bang when they hit the floor.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked as she woke up from her sleep.

"Oh sorry I didn't mean to wake you; I was just unpacking a few of the things I took with me," Lorraine replied.

"Why are you unpacking?" Sarah said.

"I'm staying here for the last few days you all have left at the lake," Lorraine replied.

"But you hate the lake," Sarah said.

"I don't hate it I just hate all the dirt and mess and this uncomfortable mattress," Lorraine said.

"Well what do you like about it then?" Sarah asked.

"Emm well I like spending time with the family," Lorraine replied.

"Since when did you like spending time with us all?"

"Since I moved away to New York and I don't get to see you all every day and I missed you all and I want to spend some time with you all," Lorraine said.

"Well I'm going to leave you to get some sleep, so I'll see you later," Lorraine said before leaving the room.

Jake and Mike were in their room trying to get some sleep but both of them had, had very little sleep so far.

"Dude I hope you don't mind me asking but why did you run away? Was it because of me and Sarah arguing?" Jake asked.

"Well I suppose but don't blame yourself it wasn't because of you two personally I was just sick of all the arguing and I just wanted to get away from it all," Mike replied.

"If we hadn't found you would you have come back?" Jake asked

"I would have come back at some point. Well the truth is I probably would have come home by now because I started to realise how worried you all would have been and I don't think I could have put you through much more of that than I already had," Mike said.

"I'm sorry about all the arguing, "Jake said.

"It's not really your fault it was all of ours but I just wanted to get away from it all but I kind of wish I didn't run away because I realise how worried everyone must have been and I feel really bad about what I put you all through," Mike said.

"I think that you running away kind of did have a good side because all the arguing has stopped now. I think it just showed us that no matter what had happened we all love each other and well we're all going to get mad at each other at some point but we shouldn't hate each other. It was just the wakeup call we needed." Jake said.

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