Palm Sprints International Airport
"Yes… yes ma, I hear ya!" The heavy set business man sat down heavily in his chair, his phone pressed to his ear, a look of utter weariness crossing his face. "No ma, I am sure the Philippino next door isn't stealing your paper. What? How do I know? Because he's agoraphobic!" The man paused, rolling his eyes. "No, it isn't an act!"
"Hmmm…" Melinda said, tapping a crayon against the pad of paper she clutched in her chubby little hand. She was sitting next to the haggard man, waiting for her daddy to come back from the car rental desk, her mommy on the phone with Melinda's grandmommy letting her know they'd made it. Melinda was fine with her parents doing their own thing as it was clear this man was in need of a psychic-ologist and she was the baby for the job! Her little face screwed up in concentration as she thought over the problem carefully, consulting all the highly respectable medical books and films she'd seen. "I t'ink your mommy t'inks the neighbor is a monster. But monsters are fun! They make us laugh to make lightboobies light up! Show her Monsters, INC! That will fix everyt'ing!" Melinda paused, looking down at her notepad. "But you also need to be nicer to her! She's your mommy, she loves you! I sub'cribe 50 ceecees of pudding, stat!" She ripped the page she'd been scribbling on out of her notebook and waved it at that man.
He hung up his phone just in time to see Melinda waving the paper at him. He smiled, making sure the baby's mother saw what he was doing, and gently took the picture. "Is this for me?" Melinda nodded, giving him a gummy smile. "Thank you, princess. I needed that." He stood up, carefully folding the paper and sticking it in his pocket before heading off to find a taxi.
"Take two cupcakes and call me in the morning!" Melinda cried out as he left. "Ask for Melinda Finster, MDDDDD!"
"We'll be at the hotel in about an hour, mom, but we'll need to unpack and get Melinda a nap… she did well on the plane but I know the time difference is really going to mess with her. So let's say we do a late supper, okay? Maybe around 7pm? I'll text you when it gets closer with details. Love you too." Angelica hung up and slid her phone into her pocket before looking down at her daughter. "You did very well, sweetie. You didn't cry that much and stayed still and I am very proud of you." She leaned down and kissed her daughter's fuzzy head. "Now we need daddy to come back with the car and we can go and get settled in at the hotel. See what Aunt Susie got for us… and pray it isn't a dump."
"It's Susie, Ang," Chuck said as he walked up to them, a set of keys dangling from his index finger. "And it's that Holiday Inn just outside of town… it should be fine."
"Holiday Inn Express," Angelica muttered.
"And suites," Chuck said. "And come on, its Yucaipa… we aren't going to find the Ritz setting up shop there. And we aren't going to be spending a ton of time there… we'll be in town with family for most of the trip."
"That's true," Angelica admitted. While she was no where near as vain as she had been in her teen years she did like the finer things in life. She'd spent a year remodeling their place in Chicago and had personally worked with the designers for their Foundation's main office to make it both practical and beautiful. Just because she had learned some humility didn't mean she was ready to slum it. Luckily Chuck and her made more than enough money to allow her to indulge a bit (thanks to, in part, Chuck's books combined with Angelica's business sense and her cunning when it came to the stock market) and her husband understood her needs and let her do what she wanted when it came to decorating… within reason. "It does have a pool, right?"
Chuck laughed. Angelica was a swimming nut and had already begun to work on getting Melinda to love the water as much as she did. The two had been taking 'Mommy and Me' swimming classes since Melinda was 6 months old and the baby was like a fish in the water. "Yes, and a hot tub in case we can convince Charlotte and Drew to babysit for a night."
"Convince? You make it sound like we'll be able to keep them away from Melinda. Mom and dad already have 4 weeks worth of Grandma and Grandpa time with her that they want to cram into 14 days." Melinda gurgled at this, realizing that they were discussing her. Angelica reached down and lifted the tot up, settling her into the baby harness she wore over his shirt. Melinda kicked and giggled as her parents grabbed the cart that held all their luggage and made their way to collect their rental. Honestly, Angelica didn't understand how their families had managed to pack so lightly during all their family vacations. With just Melinda Chuck and her were dragging around enough supplies for an army. "Do you remember it always being this hot?" she asked as they made their way past busy terminals and long snaking security lines.
"We're used to the Midwest," Chuck reasoned. "Remember how weirded out Phil was when he visited last year for that conference and had to deal with snow that didn't melt away in a day?"
Angelica chuckled at that. Phil had stayed at their place when he'd been asked to give a lecture at a meeting of other bug and slime guys and gals. "He finally understood our problems with commutes in February." Angelica noticed Chuck looking longingly at a Starbucks and shook her head. "No…"
"Come on, the jet lag is already hitting me."
"Yes and medicating with coffee will not help," Angelica said.
"I can't believe you of all people are preaching the avoidance of caffeine," Chuck complained. "You used to drink 20 cups of the stuff every day!"
"And then I had to go 9 months dry," Angelica reminded him, glancing down at Melinda; the baby wasn't paying attention as she was more focused on all the exciting new things she was seeing.
"Mommy! Look! That trash can is diff'ent than the one at home! Take pic-ture!"
Now that they were safely off the plane Angelica reached into the diaper bag and pulled out Katrina, Melinda squealing in pure bliss as she grabbed her doll and hugged her tight. After all the times Angelica had lost Cynthia (who was currently back in Chicago in the special display box Tommy had given her 12 years ago for Christmas) she was determined to keep a firm eye on her daughter's beloved doll. Melinda began to babble happily to the doll, Angelica chuckling as her baby reunited with the dolly she hadn't seen for 35 minutes. "So, what is the schedule?"
While Chuck had gotten over most of his fears Angelica knew that her husband could still get frazzled in hectic situations. The best way to counter this was the same way she helped little ones that had to be removed from their homes and placed in foster care: give them as much power as you could. For the little kids that meant suggesting foster parents let them pick out their own clothing or suggest what they should have for supper once a week. For Chuck it meant letting him set up their schedules when they went on vacation. While Angelica was a control freak and would have preferred to handle things on her own she knew that he needed this power and surrendered it to him. Luckily he wasn't one of those people that needed to schedule every moment of a vacation down to the last second so Angelica never felt that her vacation was little more than rushing from one place to another.
"You call your mom yet?" Chuck asked as he clicked the key fob in his hand and raising the hatch of the SUV he'd rented for the next two weeks. Chuck had figured with how much they had to bring for Melinda plus needing to haul supplies to the parties and most likely carpool with their friends the extra space would be welcomed. He knew that Tommy would, at the very least, be getting a van for the major trips but if they all didn't want to drive around on their own they'd need several vehicles with a lot of space.
First he put in both his and Angelica's massive bags in the car, then their toiletry bags, and finally the bags that held their formal wear for Charlotte's retirement party and the Finster's anniversary party. Then began the moving of Mt. Melinda: her suitcase (just as big as theirs), her fold-up stroller, her own little toiletry bag, a bag filled with books, toys, and stuffed animals, her walk-and-go, and her booster seat. Then, just to remove any extra space in the back, he tossed his and Angelica's carry-ons on top, which had their Ipads, laptops, and other odds and ends.
"Yeah," Angelica said, getting Melinda set up in her car seat while Chuck loaded up. "Said meet them at 7 for supper. Thinking we go someplace casual... what about that pizza place on Elms?"
"Pepper's? Yeah, that would work. Nice enough for your parents but casual enough for Melinda." Shutting the hatch Chuck checked his phone, swiping at the screen. "I figure that to help with jet lag we should wait to eat till 2. We can grab something from the vending machine at the hotel and then while you get Melinda settled in for her nap I can walk around and find someplace to eat."
Angelica instantly picked up where her husband left off, pulling out her phone as he pocketed his and started up the SUV. "There is a Subway a block and a half from the hotel. I need something cool until I get used to the heat again. Could get me a cold cut and you could grab that meatball marinara you like."
Chuck nodded, backing out of the parking spot and making his way towards the freeway. "Good. No idea when Phil and Lil will roll in and with Tommy, Kimi, and Dil they could already be at the hotel or not get there till dusk so I figure we hold off trying to find them until after eating with your folks. Worst comes to worse we see everyone at breakfast."
"Sounds good. After Melinda's nap we can walk around the downtown and pick up her diapers and food for the next few days. I'm sure my mom, Kiri, and Aunt Didi will have plenty but better safe than sorry."
Chuck nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a plan, Ang." The two lapsed into comfortable silence, Angelica reaching for the radio and flipping through the stations. "I think this is going to be a great vacation-"
"DOOMED! WE ARE ALL DOOMED!" a preacher bellowed when Angelica flipped to a religious station. "FALL TO YOUR KNEES AND DESPAIR FOR THERE IS NO HOPE!"
Melinda began to cry, startled by the loud noise.
"That was just bad timing," Angelica muttered.
~MC~MC~MC~
Somewhere Above Yucaima
"I don't get why they like these," Louie said, picking of a piece of paper his mommy had dropped and waving it about. "You can't even draw on it... someone put squiggles on it! What's the point?"
Brian, who by the fact that he was older than his cousin by 6 months was Louie's guide to everything, looked up from the glow-in-the-dark Magic Burst Reptar (from the Reptar the Mystic series where Reptar had to go to wizard school so he could defeat the evil Goblin King). "I think mommy called it Aunt Kimi's fan snail."
Louie tilted the paper back and forth, brow furrowed. "It's a pretty flat snail."
"I think she means it's brought by a snail. They are the ones that do the squiggles... snails don't have no hands so they can't draws any good."
"Oh... that makes sense!" Louie stood up, wavering slightly before he began to toddle over to his parents. "Mommy, lookie! I'm a snail!"
"Oh, thank you sweetheart," Kimi said, collecting the letter Louie had brought her. "Now, go play with Brian for a few more minutes. We'll be landing soon and you'll have to be buckled into your car seats before then." She patted her baby on the head, Louie hugging her leg before he half ran, half stumbled back to Brian. He'd been flying in Tommy and Dil's private plane ever since he'd been born and both he and Brian were used to it, seeing it as home. If they'd flown commercial the two tots would have had to sit with their parents, unable to do much other than just be rocked back and forth; in the private plane they could stretch their legs while their parents caught up on answering the letters their fans sent.
"How can it be called a car seat if we only use it in the plane?" Dil asked as he blew into one of the already opened envelopes, pulling out the contents. After a rash of celebrities getting sent all manner of strange and, frighteningly enough, dangerous items being sent to them Nigel had decided that none of his on-air talent would receive any fan mail that wasn't properly screened. All three of them hated that, as the letters were supposed to be personal messages to them from fans young and old, but with little ones about none of the stars of 'Journey Into The Unknown' were going to risk their families.
"This isn't going to be like the conversation about calling them water bottles if we never put water in them, is it?" Steph asked. She was curled across the aisle from them, reading a cheap romance novel and laughing at all the stupid parts.
"It's a valid point that must be addressed!" Dil declared.
"Address it after we finish this last batch," Tommy said with a grin as he finished signing a photo of the team, sliding it over to Kimi so she could sign. "We're going to be landing soon and I want this all done before the plane touches down."
"Afraid Nigel will kill you if you don't relax?" Kimi asked with a smile.
Tommy huffed. "Why is it that you all think I am some workaholic stick-in-the-mud? Are you forgetting who you are talking to? I'm Tommy Pickles... the most exciting kid ever!"
Steph turned a page. "Well, you evolved into Thomas Pickles, the man who once spent 20 hours editing one shot of a grasshopper."
"You just love bringing that up!" Tommy said with a huff, though his smile told them he was taking the ribbing in good humor. "Okay, so sometimes TV Tom and Real Life Tommy blend a bit too closely but I'm not like Aunt Charlotte! I can pull myself away from my computer."
Kimi patted his hand. "Okay, that's true. You haven't even sneaked a peak once the entire flight."
"That we know of," Dil said with a laugh as he finished signing the group shot and sealed it in the return envelope before grabbing the next bit of mail for him; it was a crayon drawing by a little boy who said he wanted to be just like Dil when he grew up. Deciding to add that one to his scrape book (which he looked at whenever he was feeling down in the dumps as a reminder of all the joy he brought to the world), he said, "I tried to spy on him when he went to the bathroom but someone pulled me away."
"You aren't allowed to watch my husband do that," Kimi stated simply as she finished the last of her letters.
"We've all seen each other naked, I don't get what the big deal is."
"We were 3," Tommy complained. "The point is that I actually do want to focus on anything but work for the next two weeks... Nigel locking me out of the editing bay-"
"And kicking you out of the building, don't forget that," Kimi teased.
"-was the best thing. Removed temptation until I could get up in the air."
"Is that a hint of melancholy I hear in our fearless leader's voice?" Steph asked with a smirk.
"...yeah," Tommy admitted. Kimi, Dil, and Steph all looked at each other, realizing the conversation had taken a serious turn and the time for jokes was over. Kimi reached over and squeezed Tommy's hand while Dil began to clean up, knowing his brother would speak when he was ready. Tommy might have played the calm, aloof, and (some would say) straightman on their show Kimi and Dil knew that he was still the adventurous boy they'd all grown up with. If he were being this serious they knew what he had to say was important. "I didn't mean to bring the mood down," Tommy lightly joked.
"What's wrong?" Dil asked, motioning for Tommy to scoot over so he could sit next to him, Kimi on the other side to sandwich him in. Steph shut her book and took Dil's chair across from them, her snark wiped away as her boss spoke.
"I don't know... you ever feel like you worked hard to get to the place you dreamed to be and now you're just spinning your tires?" He drummed his fingers on the table. "I'm not talking about personal stuff, mind you. I'm a dad and a husband and I get to work with the best brother in the world and the best crew and my wife and I spend so much time together..." each of his friends... his family... smiled at that, "...it's just the professional aspect of it. I feel like I'm in a rut."
"Is that why you wanted to do the rattle break gag?" Dil asked. He had thought that a tad unusual; Tommy and him were like Abbot and Castelo, with Tommy being the straight man and him being the jokester. It was their bit, their style… Tommy wanting to switch things up had been odd. But he'd just chalked it up to his brother being nice and wanting to Dil off from being gooped. Clearly it was something more.
"Yeah, I guess... I'm thankful for the show, don't get me wrong... but we've been doing it for almost a decade. There isn't anything new anymore. You guys are great," Tommy quickly added, not wanting to offend Kimi and Dil by letting them think he was insulting their talents on camera, "and the shows are great quality..."
"You just don't enjoy it like you used to," Steph finally said.
"Yeah," Tommy stated. "I feel like I'm an actor putting on the same play, night after night. The lines might change but it is the same story. There is nothing fresh, nothing exciting. We could change the title to 'Journey into Completely Known and Expected'." He waved his hand about lazily. "The grasshopper... I used to care so much about the show I spent 20 hours on that shot. Now I know exactly what I need and can get the show edited in a few hours. Even when I try new wipes or scene placements I just feel... bored."
Kimi was quiet for a moment, looking down at their joined hands. "...I haven't written an article for the magazine since Louie was born."
That surprised Dil and Tommy. They'd reconnected with Kimi during their second year doing the show, back when her sole job was traveling the world and finding new fashion trends and reporting about it for the style magazine Pout. Tommy had hit on the idea of using Kimi in a segment, just for fun, and she'd agreed to it, thinking it would be good for a laugh. When Nigel had seen the footage he'd contacted Pout and made an agreement for Kimi to work on the show and write articles part time in exchange for the magazine and show cross-promoting each other. It had worked out perfectly for both mediums and Kimi had within 10 episodes become a staple of 'Journey', crystallizing 'The Trinity'.
When she'd gotten pregnant with Louie she'd decided to cut back, getting a leave of absence from Pout and doing her parts for the show on a soundstage, leaving Tommy and Dil to hike through overgrowth and climb crumbling stone structures. Once Louie was 4 months old Kimi had slowly begun easing back into the daily grind and now her workload was the same as it had been pre-pregnancy.
Or so they'd thought.
Kimi looked down at the table, running her finger along the grain, unable to look up at her family. She'd hated that she'd been lying to them for the last 8 months and didn't want to see the looks on their faces as she spilled her guts. "It isn't writer's block. I've written-written 10 articles. You know how I work… bare bones it, get opinions, then do a final draft. But every first draft… I just kept telling my editor that I didn't like'em. They weren't right. And they weren't. I… I don't know it's… it's like they don't matter anymore. I sit down to try and force myself to write a new one and all I can think about is how I'd rather be helping you guys out or Louie needs me or I see Brian toddle by…" Kimi stopped rambling when Tommy removed his hand from her grasp, for one horrid second causing her to fear he was going to move away, only for him to wrap his arm around her and give her a squeeze.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Tommy mumbled, nuzzling her cheek.
"I felt stupid. You were doing the show and acting like everything was the same-"
"Acting being the key word," Tommy told her.
Steph stood up, sensing exactly what the couple needed. Louie looked at her in confusion as she picked him up, as he knew it wasn't time for the plane to land, but when she brought him over to his mommy and daddy he merely smiled and reached out for them. Mommy and daddy looked a touch sad and he knew that Louie-hugs would cure everything! His mommy smiled and accepted him, kissing his nose while Steph went and got Brian, bringing him over and setting him near Louie on the table beside her.
"Why is mommy sad?" Louie asked, reaching up and running his little hand over her cheek.
"Hmmm… I bet she's cranky. Need a nap!" Brian reasoned.
Louie accepted this answer because Brian was older and tended to know more than him. Brian was the one that had taught him to talk like a big baby, after all! "Daddy, get mommy to nap! I'll deal with snail's mail!" He kicked out, trying to shove a piece of paper away, but it only moved about an inch. "…in a minute! I'll deal with in a minute!" Louie kicked harder but the stubborn letter didn't want to go more than an inch at a time. Finally Tommy, who was chuckling at his son's actions, reached over and put the letter in the box with the rest of the fan mail. "I loosened it for you!" Louie declared. He didn't know what that meant but he'd heard daddy say that to mommy a few times and it sounded cool. Satisfied that he'd proven himself a big strong baby that could take care of his parents he promptly forgot what they were talking about and focused on pretending to be a kitty as his mommy rubbed his back.
"Listen, of anyone you know I'm the one who gets that kids change your world view," Steph said, watching as Brian played with his Reptar doll. She glanced over, her smile falling slightly when she saw Dil clenching his fist; he did not like remembering how she'd first come to them, pregnant and alone, her boyfriend of 4 years having dumped her when she refused to abort the baby. "I was pulling in 6 figures as a producer when Brian came along but that didn't matter all of a sudden. It was like a switch was flipped and I needed to do something completely different. Suits thrown in the trash, passport renewed, and I signed up with you guys to be a camerawoman. The point is that family changes things so you shouldn't be surprised that having Louie is making you rethink your lives."
Dil, blocking out all memory of his fiancée's asshole ex (lest he decided to pay the bastard a visit), plastered a grin on his face. "Now, for anyone else this might be a problem but for you two I'd say you're in the perfect position to figure all this out. Unless you guys have been blowing your money on Reptar dolls, and in your case Tommy I could believe that," his brother stuck his tongue out at him, "you guys have more than enough money to do whatever the heck you want. You can retire forever or buy a book store or make Youtube videos starring the babies."
"We get to be Tubey stars!" Brian exclaimed, waving his hands in the air.
Dil chuckled as the baby he already saw as his own gurgled and screeched happily. "We have two weeks without any work, which should give you guys plenty of time to recharge. Maybe after the vacation you'll be ready to get back to work. Maybe not. But I'm with ya both no matter what you decide."
Tommy grinned, bumping fists with his brother. "Thanks Dil."
"Alright, enough of feeling sorry for ourselves because we are rich and do amazing things," Kimi said with a self-deprecating smirk, "what are our plans for the next two weeks? Beyond the three parties and seeing our folks."
"Well, I know mom and dad have offered to babysit for us," Dil said, reaching over and pulling Brian over to him, the 18 month old not even noticing as he fiddled with his reptar doll. Dil had tried to get him into Goober but the tyke was around Tommy too much and he, along with Louie, were just as Reptar crazy as Uncle Tommy. "Mom especially. She really wants to spend some time just her and her grandbabies. Assuming we can arrange schedules with everyone else I definitely want all of us to hang out together. Maybe hit a bar?"
"God, I haven't gone clubbing in ages," Steph said with a goofy little smile.
"There is a waterpark that opened last year that looks like fun," Tommy said. "We could take the kids there for a day."
Kimi nodded in agreement. "And when Susie gets here I am leaving you, Tommy."
"Say what?" Tommy said.
"I always thought Susie swung that way… her husband will be surprised-OW!" Dil laughed as Steph smacked him on the shoulder. "Not in front of the babies!"
Her brain caught up with her mouth and Kimi smacked her head. "I'm going out without you. Girl's Night Out. Me, Lil, Susie, and Angelica for sure, Steph and Gina if they are in the mood."
"Girl's night as in fruity drinks or girl's night as in "Dear god, the 11 o'clock news is going to air footage of this"?"
"Our group will have an FBI agent, the head of a non-profit, a tv star, and the Senator from California… yes, the news will broadcast the gory details."
"I'm in!" Steph whooped.
Tommy raised an eyebrow at Dil. "So… think the town will survive us for two weeks?"
Dil clapped his brother on the shoulder. "Tommy… no chance in hell."
