Pastor Tim and Alice Killed in car accident

by S Lyster

During the Glanders scare, Phillip and Elizabeth cancel EPCOT to go into quarantine. They're also too late to call off the 'accident' that Pastor Tim and Alice were scheduled to have. They're killed. With her parents nowhere to be found, Paige goes nuts, heads over to Stan's. Martha's cover is blown. Are Pastor Tim and Alice 'Russians? Then Reed Street church moves on.

1. Too many beers

Stan had had way too many beers. With both Sandra and Matthew now out of the house, the place was way, way too large. For one guy. A guy who couldn't cook. And a house now with no rhythm to prevent him from drinking beers way into the night.

The kitchen had been Sandra's domain. When they'd moved to the D.C. metro-region in 1981, Sandra had picked the house. Because of the kitchen. Way out in Falls Church. There were cheaper houses closer to downtown, this one had had the kitchen she'd always wanted. As well as the separate laundry room.

It's not even that Sandra and him had been particularly traditional in their home life. She was a stay-at-home-mom mainly by necessity. In St. Louis, he'd been away so much down in Arkansas - undercover - that he wasn't much use at home anyway. Sandra's domain by default had been the house, as well as raising Matthew. By the time they'd moved to D.C. for Stan's new job, Matthew had become a full-fledged teenager. Stan had not been prepared for any of it.

Now, Sandra was off living with her E.S.T. guy. Matthew split the difference between the two houses, except that when he was here at the house, Stan thought, Matthew spent most of his time with friends. It made Stan now feel like a teenager - he'd had Tori over to the house more than once. It felt illicit, in the same sense of what it felt like sneaking a girl into the house with your parents away.

Stan was drinking too much, albeit only at night when work had been slow. He'd just had a fight with arguably his best friend, Phillip Jennings, across the street. Tori had caught Phillip having a drink with Sandra, and Stan had fumed. He'd gone over to Phillip's to confront him. Thought of beating the crap out of him, but that would be way too easy. Phillip was (at the time) a little weasel doing stuff behind Stan's back - like going to E.S.T. - and Stan would not give him the satisfaction of beating the crap out of him.

Which made Stan feel all the more alone. Not even his pal to talk with. Nights like this, it would be Phillip over here knocking down a cold one with him.

At that the doorbell rang. Mercy's sake, it was 1 am. It was 8:30 pm just a minute ago! Stan thought, "If that is the little weasel, maybe I will beat the crap out of him." At that, Stan could hear his now deceased mother say, "Now, now, Stan, play nice."

Having had too many beers, Stan stopped in at the bathroom to check his appearance, and to swig around some mouthwash. If it was Phillip, he did not want to appear weak.