Finally, I'm able to submit Chapter 6. Y'all don't want to hear the tale of woe, which includes more storms, accidental delete, having to retype entierly from memory, & did anyone else have trouble connecting yesterday? I'll just have to get started earlier next time, that's all. Anyway, this chapter starts out as more T/K, but it includes the others, eventually.
I'd like to thank the reviewers. In alphabetical order, thank you to Ally, Junior, Kimmy Larisa, Lil Kimi, Nightw2, & Starry Nights. Please keep reading & reviewing.
Rugrats is created, owned, & / or copyrighted by Klasky-Csupo & / or Nickelodeon, which in turn is owned by Viacom.
It was a very exhausted Tom Pickles who finally trudged into Camp DareDeville under the load of his fiancee. At about the halfway point she had allowed him five minutes rest, then had jumped back on top of him & urged him onward. And so he went on, this time carrying her piggyback instead of in his arms. As they reached camp, Tom was quite vocal, although due to his exhaustion he was hard to hear.
" *huh* Please get off, please get off, please get off, please get off, please get off..." And so on.
Finally, "Oh, all right." She barely had time to step down before he collapsed under her. As he did, she stepped over him, walked around to in front of him, & bent down so that she was on eye level with him, which at the time was mighty low, considering that he had rolled over & was lying on his back.
"You're exaggerating."
"Easy for you to say; you were riding the whole way. Would you at least tell me why I carried you the whole way?"
"Well, now that we're engaged, I want you to get used to carrying me across the threshold."
"Oh." He had to smile at that. "Alright, I'll give you that. But what about the marathon to get here?"
"That wasn't a marathon. A marathon is 26 miles, 385 yards. I've been in a couple of those so I would know. What you ran isn't anywhere near that."
"It is if you're carrying 97 extra pounds! However far it was, why was I carrying you the whole way?"
An evil grin came to her face. "Well, after the carrying across the threshold, there's this thing called the honeymoon."
The smile turned rueful. "Please tell me you don't have a dominatrix outfit in storage."
The grin deepened. "You'll just have to wait to find out."
It was at this time that Kimi noticed the silence around them. She drew herself up to her full height & looked around. "Where are the others?"
"Your training probably laid them up."
"Very funny. I'll just go check in on Chuckie. Don't go anywhere."
"How would I go?" she didn't hear him say as she skipped off to Chuckie's trailer.
"Oh, big brother..." she sang as she entered without knocking.
One minute later, she walked back out. "No big brother."
The producer's trailer was close enough to where Tom lay a-dyin' (or so he thought) that he couldn't help but overhear what she was saying. He couldn't quite make it out, though, which would explain why his response was "Huh?"
"He wasn't in there. I can't understand it; the twins should've been back by now too."
"Like I said, maybe they're laid up."
"And like I said..."
"I'm serious. You know how the four of us are always getting into scrapes; maybe the Devilles did just that. And knowing how Chuckie feels about Lil, I'll bet they're all in the infirmary right now."
"Hmm, it's worth checking out." She gave a serious, professional look at her fiance's supine form in the middle of the path. "Anyway it'll give me a chance to get you back into shape."
"I was in shape this morning; then you happened."
"Keep that up & I might buy back my introduction to you."
"And another thing, how am I going to get there?"
In response, she grabbed his hand & pulled with all of her considerable might. Inevitably, she had her way with him (so to speak), & he rose to his feet, although he was far from the man he had been that morning. Paying no heed to his protestations, she marched toward the infirmary, dragging him along by the hand.
(A/N: Before I go on I'd better lay out the layout of the infirmary. It's divided in half lengthwise. In the front half, in the middle of which is the front door, is Kimi's office. The back half is itself divided in half, the other way. That's the two rooms I mentioned earlier, the one on the right being Susie's office. Now, back to the story.)
The first thing he did after they entered the infirmary was to fall upon the couch in the front room. Kimi, meanwhile, crossed over to her desk, from which she produced certain substances vital to the health & recovery of the serious athlete.
Carrying said substances, she joined her fiance on the couch. As he made no move to move any part of himself she chose to situate herself on his lap.
"UHUNHNH!"
"If you don't like it, you can move something."
"I'm in no condition to."
"Then you'll take me sitting on your lap & like it." And with that the physical trainer set about repairing the damage she'd wrought, opening his mouth for the bottle.
"You know the drill. Hydrate yourself first, then the salt tablets." He managed a weak nod in response, & she set about administering the fluids & other vital materiel for the body, which he accepted as passively as though he was still the diaper-clad baby we all remember.
That done, Tom slipped into a state of stillness. To anyone but Kimi, who knew better, it would seem that he was sleeping the sleep of the just & the weary. As she watched him, she brushed the stray hairs from his forehead. "Poor kid." she ventured.
His eyes popped open at that. "I'm not a kid."
She grinned; he'd taken the bait just as she'd hoped. "Well, aside from baby Dilly you're the youngest among us."
"I am not; you are."
Yes, they were born on the same day & year. But neither they nor even their own mothers knew the exact time. And even if they had there was still the matter of different time zones to consider. So the pair, who had over the years been dubbed the Virtual Twins among other names, were left to wonder, & for each to accuse the other of being older or younger as the need arose.
Such was the case now as they continued. "You are the youngest."
"No, Kimi, you are."
"You are."
"You are."
"You are."
"YOU ARE!"
"YOU A--, eh?" Suddenly, Tom had his hand out.
"We'd better stop this before we turn into Phil & Lil."
That caused her to shudder. "*gasp!* Anything but that!"
That bit of entertainment over, Kimi returned to her previous activity, which by now had progressed to caressing Tom's forehead, his face. "I must say, you've been very good about doing what I tell you to."
"It's like I said, you've broken me."
"When did you say that?"
"Well, actually what I said was that if I didn't mess up every now & then you might subconsciously start looking for someone else to trai--"
"I remember, I remember." Bringing her face to his, she cradled his head in both of her hands. "You have to understand, Sweetie, I have to keep you on a tight rein. If I didn't, the Tommy Pickles personality cult would quickly spin out of control, fomenting its own Cultural Revolution. The government would have to send in the Army AND the Marines."
That provoked weak laughter.
"You think I'm kidding, don't you?"
"Well, yeah."
"You think I haven't noticed that you get the most fan mail of any of us, & you're just one of us guests, technically. I'll bet at least half the business Pickles Toys gets is from wannabe Tommy-lovers."
"Well, maybe, but come on. I mean, 'personality cult'? That's going a bit far, isn't it?"
"Do you remember high school & college at all? Everyone --- and I do mean everyone --- was throwing themselves at you."
"Everyone?"
"Yep. Lil, Susie, Sam, everyone."
"Oh, c'mon!"
"We had our hands full fending them off of you."
"'We'?"
"Chuckie, Phil, Dil, me."
"Not Lil & Susie?"
"Well, only when they weren't trying for you themselves."
"That's really going a bit far. I mean, Lil I could believe, but Susie?"
"You could ask her yourself."
"And Sam was Chuckie's crush."
"You had the medallion."
"That was Dad's, still is."
"Details, details."
"Look, you're exaggerating on all these girls chasing after me, Susie, Sam,..."
"No I'm not. Look, I kid you not, one time at a slumber party even Angelica--"
"NASTY!"
"Just telling it like it is. One time at a slumber party --- she'd had a bit of something she shouldn't have --- I actually heard her say 'if he wasn't my cousin--'"
"Okkay, that's just sick. I still think you're exaggerating."
"Believe what you want, Pickles."
Silence held sway for a bit, then,
"I just don't get it; there's nothing special about me."
"Oh, this from Everybody's All American."
"Oh, the football thing."
"Oh, that was just the icing on the cake. You are the easygoing, carefree, outgoing, charismatic individual everyone wants to be or be with. You have that certain mystique."
"Mystique?"
"Oh yeah, it's very powerful."
She'd been leaning in closer as she was talking, & and now she started smooching him. After a few minutes of this she could hear his chuckling. She withdrew to face him. "What?"
"My own personality cult."
"Yeah."
"So that's why you've been riding herd on me."
"You need me to ride you, constantly."
A smirk appeared on his face. "Like someone said a while ago, getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we?"
They laughed together.
"Just call me Chairman Tommy. Wonder what color my little book would be?"
Kimi ran a hand through his hair, at which she stared before dropping her gaze back down to his eyes. "Gray, Tommy. Dark, dark blue-gray." And then her lips again dropped down to his. Simultaneously, his arms enfolded her. Kimi's ministrations had had their desired effect; Tommy was back to his old self, which was exactly how both of them wanted it.
They'd been at it for a while, when Tommy noticed something. He got a frown on his face which Kimi immediately picked up on.
"What?"
"Don't you hear that?"
"I don't hear anything."
"Well, I do. And it sounds like it's coming from one of those rooms." he said as he pointed to the two rooms on the other side of the infirmary. "It might be the others."
"You think?"
"Well, figure it out." said a by now renewed Tommy as he moved Kimi off of his legs which he swung around to the floor. "We don't find them anywhere else & there's noises coming from there; what would you think?"
"Well," said Kimi, "there's a good way to find out." And with that she was up & walking toward the door on the left (the one to the room containing Chuck & Lil).
"Um, are you sure you want to do that?"
"Why not?"
"Well, the odds are that Susie would be in her office, which would mean--"
"Good point. You take that one." Kimi said, crossing over to the door on the right.
"Fine with me." said Tommy as he approached the door on the left. His hand approached the doorknob...
"Tommy?"
His head turned. "Yes, Kimi?"
"Let's be quiet when we open them. No need to disturb the guys, just yet anyway."
He had to laugh at that, and keep it quiet. Now two hands moved to their respective doorknobs.
Two doorknobs noiselessly turned.
Two doors soundlessly opened.
On the other side...
"Mmm, mmm, uh, wait, hold it."
"Well, that's a switch."
"What?"
"Well, this is the first time you've been the one to stop it, although I would've in five minutes the way we were going."
"And I would've wanted ten minutes past that. It's just that..."
"What?"
"Well, doesn't something feel funny to you?"
"Mm, not bad, Deville. Intriguing, but I've heard better pick-up lines from you."
"No, really. I mean, here I am, a woman warm & willing--"
"You wish!"
"--and I'm feeling a draft. Aren't you feeling a draft?"
"Well, now that you mention it... I know I slammed that door closed."
"Sometimes I slam a door too hard & it rebounds."
"Hmm, plausible, but improbable."
"So I guess we should check it out?"
"Yeah, guess we should."
And so two heads turned to the side and saw an open door...
...and standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame arms crossed in front, a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on the face, was Kimi Watanabe Finster.
*WHUMP!*
"Oh, please, don't let me interrupt."
Hurried footsteps were heard, just before Tommy joined his fiancee in the doorway.
"Ouch, I'll bet that hurts." he said just before looking crossways at Kimi. "I hope you didn't have anything to do with that."
"Me? I was just standing here. Is it my fault something just happened to be going on?"
"Better make that two somethings."
"You mean...?" *ZIP!*, she was off.
Before Tom left to join her he paused & turned to address Phil & Susie. "You guys might as well come too; I think you're going to want to see this."
And again. "And for what it's worth, there's nothing to be ashamed of; you two weren't doing anything Kimi & I weren't doing a few minutes ago."
And then he left. Phil & Susie, who'd been readjusting themselves all the while, were hot on his heels.
What they found in the first room was Chuck & Lil, asleep, in each other's arms. The reactions were immediate.
"That is so SWEET!"
"Sweet? He's sleeping with my sister!"
"Considering what you were doing a few minutes ago I wouldn't talk, Deville. And what about her sleeping with my brother?"
"Considering what we were doing a few minutes before that I wouldn't talk either, Kimi."
"Does it matter to anyone that they're both fully clothed?"
Three heads mulled over Susie's question before giving an simultaneous "nope!"
Then Tommy took charge, as was his wont. "Alright, there's no way they're going to be the ones sleeping after what I've been through today. Phil, you & Susie wake your sister. Kimi, let's wake your brother."
Following the leader, the four moved to their assigned positions.
"Sleeping Beauty?"
"Prince Charming?"
Chuckie was the first of the pair to awaken, though not immediately.
"Hm, whu? 20 million a year? That's a joke! Why I could get more than that in, uh, er, wha?" as he finally realized where he was.
Tommy laughed. "Welcome back to the land of the livid, Chuckster."
Verbally, Phil now pounced on him. "Now maybe you can explain what you were doing with my sister?"
"Like I said, Phil, you're not one to talk. But what was she doing with my brother?"
"And like I said, Kimi..."
At this point Lil finally woke up with one of her full-body yawns, accompanied by the usual too cute for words vocal effects. As her hand reached back, Susie --- from her vantage point behind --- noticed something and screamed.
"What is it, Suze?"
"Look at her hand!"
"What?"
"She's engaged, too!"
"What do you mean 'too'?"
"You're engaged too?"
"What do YOU mean 'too'?"
"Oh yeah, we're getting married."
"We are too!"
"We're ALL getting married!"
This was Chuckie's first contribution to the dialogue, something which wasn't lost on his bestest friend.
"Like I said, Chuckster, welcome--"
"I heard you the first time. And you'd better be good to my sister, Pickles!"
"For that matter, you'd better be good to my sister, Finster!"
"*sigh*, why not? You'd better be good to my brother, Deville!"
"And you'd better be good to my brother, Carmichael!"
"Now that that stuff is out of the way, what say we go hit the table? We have lots of stuff to talk about now."
Following Tommy's lead as usual, the group adjourned from that room & exited the infirmary, to reconvene around the table. As they sat, the couples held hands, now more than ever.
Tommy kicked off the discussion. "So, we're all engaged. Now what?"
"What do you mean, 'now what'?"
"I guess we get married."
"You guess?"
"How about when?"
"Do we have to decide now?"
"As soon as possible, as far as I'm concerned."
"Long courtships, short engagements. That's what I've always preferred."
"I wanna have it in June."
"Me too."
"Me too!"
"Um, does anyone here realize the problems in planning three weddings in one month?"
"Hey, wait a minute. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Oh no! We're going to get married together, aren't we?"
"Phil..."
"Just like we've done everything together, for our whole lives, since we were in diapers."
"Phil..."
"The rate we're going, we'll probably die & be buried togeth-- *SMACK!*"
"Thanks, Doc."
"My pleasure."
"So what do we tell the parents?"
"What should we tell them?"
"Let's just tell them we're all getting married."
"It's not that simple."
"Yes it is; we just make things harder than they need to be."
"I don't need to tell you how HIS mom will react."
"I'm wondering what they'll say myself."
"What can they say? We're all adults in our mid-20's."
"Thanks, Phil." said the 28 year old Susie.
"And it's not like we're depending on them for anything."
"We've been giving them more than they've been giving us lately."
"Let's face it; we're rich."
"Well, some of us are."
"Just you wait."
"Besides, we moved out years ago."
"None of us have lived at our old homes since we left for college."
"All the same, there's going to be a bit of an empty nest syndrome thing happening."
"True, there's just something about getting married that's so, final!"
"Anyone else ever notice how much the wedding march sounds like the funeral march?"
"PHIL!" the others shouted.
"What? I'm just pointing that out."
"Like he was saying, our parents can't really do anything about it."
"They'll deal with that empty nest syndrome."
"Can't expect us to put our own lives on hold indefinitely because of them."
"You want YOUR Mom & Dad's blessing, don't you?"
"Well..."
And so it went. The six of them stayed around the table & talked all through the night about engagements, weddings, marriages, parents, anything that came to mind.
And so Chapter 6 goes. Now that you've read, please review. And I will try to get the next chapter up by Monday (methinks I'm the least forgiving of my mistakes, but that's just me). Cya then.
I'd like to thank the reviewers. In alphabetical order, thank you to Ally, Junior, Kimmy Larisa, Lil Kimi, Nightw2, & Starry Nights. Please keep reading & reviewing.
Rugrats is created, owned, & / or copyrighted by Klasky-Csupo & / or Nickelodeon, which in turn is owned by Viacom.
It was a very exhausted Tom Pickles who finally trudged into Camp DareDeville under the load of his fiancee. At about the halfway point she had allowed him five minutes rest, then had jumped back on top of him & urged him onward. And so he went on, this time carrying her piggyback instead of in his arms. As they reached camp, Tom was quite vocal, although due to his exhaustion he was hard to hear.
" *huh* Please get off, please get off, please get off, please get off, please get off..." And so on.
Finally, "Oh, all right." She barely had time to step down before he collapsed under her. As he did, she stepped over him, walked around to in front of him, & bent down so that she was on eye level with him, which at the time was mighty low, considering that he had rolled over & was lying on his back.
"You're exaggerating."
"Easy for you to say; you were riding the whole way. Would you at least tell me why I carried you the whole way?"
"Well, now that we're engaged, I want you to get used to carrying me across the threshold."
"Oh." He had to smile at that. "Alright, I'll give you that. But what about the marathon to get here?"
"That wasn't a marathon. A marathon is 26 miles, 385 yards. I've been in a couple of those so I would know. What you ran isn't anywhere near that."
"It is if you're carrying 97 extra pounds! However far it was, why was I carrying you the whole way?"
An evil grin came to her face. "Well, after the carrying across the threshold, there's this thing called the honeymoon."
The smile turned rueful. "Please tell me you don't have a dominatrix outfit in storage."
The grin deepened. "You'll just have to wait to find out."
It was at this time that Kimi noticed the silence around them. She drew herself up to her full height & looked around. "Where are the others?"
"Your training probably laid them up."
"Very funny. I'll just go check in on Chuckie. Don't go anywhere."
"How would I go?" she didn't hear him say as she skipped off to Chuckie's trailer.
"Oh, big brother..." she sang as she entered without knocking.
One minute later, she walked back out. "No big brother."
The producer's trailer was close enough to where Tom lay a-dyin' (or so he thought) that he couldn't help but overhear what she was saying. He couldn't quite make it out, though, which would explain why his response was "Huh?"
"He wasn't in there. I can't understand it; the twins should've been back by now too."
"Like I said, maybe they're laid up."
"And like I said..."
"I'm serious. You know how the four of us are always getting into scrapes; maybe the Devilles did just that. And knowing how Chuckie feels about Lil, I'll bet they're all in the infirmary right now."
"Hmm, it's worth checking out." She gave a serious, professional look at her fiance's supine form in the middle of the path. "Anyway it'll give me a chance to get you back into shape."
"I was in shape this morning; then you happened."
"Keep that up & I might buy back my introduction to you."
"And another thing, how am I going to get there?"
In response, she grabbed his hand & pulled with all of her considerable might. Inevitably, she had her way with him (so to speak), & he rose to his feet, although he was far from the man he had been that morning. Paying no heed to his protestations, she marched toward the infirmary, dragging him along by the hand.
(A/N: Before I go on I'd better lay out the layout of the infirmary. It's divided in half lengthwise. In the front half, in the middle of which is the front door, is Kimi's office. The back half is itself divided in half, the other way. That's the two rooms I mentioned earlier, the one on the right being Susie's office. Now, back to the story.)
The first thing he did after they entered the infirmary was to fall upon the couch in the front room. Kimi, meanwhile, crossed over to her desk, from which she produced certain substances vital to the health & recovery of the serious athlete.
Carrying said substances, she joined her fiance on the couch. As he made no move to move any part of himself she chose to situate herself on his lap.
"UHUNHNH!"
"If you don't like it, you can move something."
"I'm in no condition to."
"Then you'll take me sitting on your lap & like it." And with that the physical trainer set about repairing the damage she'd wrought, opening his mouth for the bottle.
"You know the drill. Hydrate yourself first, then the salt tablets." He managed a weak nod in response, & she set about administering the fluids & other vital materiel for the body, which he accepted as passively as though he was still the diaper-clad baby we all remember.
That done, Tom slipped into a state of stillness. To anyone but Kimi, who knew better, it would seem that he was sleeping the sleep of the just & the weary. As she watched him, she brushed the stray hairs from his forehead. "Poor kid." she ventured.
His eyes popped open at that. "I'm not a kid."
She grinned; he'd taken the bait just as she'd hoped. "Well, aside from baby Dilly you're the youngest among us."
"I am not; you are."
Yes, they were born on the same day & year. But neither they nor even their own mothers knew the exact time. And even if they had there was still the matter of different time zones to consider. So the pair, who had over the years been dubbed the Virtual Twins among other names, were left to wonder, & for each to accuse the other of being older or younger as the need arose.
Such was the case now as they continued. "You are the youngest."
"No, Kimi, you are."
"You are."
"You are."
"You are."
"YOU ARE!"
"YOU A--, eh?" Suddenly, Tom had his hand out.
"We'd better stop this before we turn into Phil & Lil."
That caused her to shudder. "*gasp!* Anything but that!"
That bit of entertainment over, Kimi returned to her previous activity, which by now had progressed to caressing Tom's forehead, his face. "I must say, you've been very good about doing what I tell you to."
"It's like I said, you've broken me."
"When did you say that?"
"Well, actually what I said was that if I didn't mess up every now & then you might subconsciously start looking for someone else to trai--"
"I remember, I remember." Bringing her face to his, she cradled his head in both of her hands. "You have to understand, Sweetie, I have to keep you on a tight rein. If I didn't, the Tommy Pickles personality cult would quickly spin out of control, fomenting its own Cultural Revolution. The government would have to send in the Army AND the Marines."
That provoked weak laughter.
"You think I'm kidding, don't you?"
"Well, yeah."
"You think I haven't noticed that you get the most fan mail of any of us, & you're just one of us guests, technically. I'll bet at least half the business Pickles Toys gets is from wannabe Tommy-lovers."
"Well, maybe, but come on. I mean, 'personality cult'? That's going a bit far, isn't it?"
"Do you remember high school & college at all? Everyone --- and I do mean everyone --- was throwing themselves at you."
"Everyone?"
"Yep. Lil, Susie, Sam, everyone."
"Oh, c'mon!"
"We had our hands full fending them off of you."
"'We'?"
"Chuckie, Phil, Dil, me."
"Not Lil & Susie?"
"Well, only when they weren't trying for you themselves."
"That's really going a bit far. I mean, Lil I could believe, but Susie?"
"You could ask her yourself."
"And Sam was Chuckie's crush."
"You had the medallion."
"That was Dad's, still is."
"Details, details."
"Look, you're exaggerating on all these girls chasing after me, Susie, Sam,..."
"No I'm not. Look, I kid you not, one time at a slumber party even Angelica--"
"NASTY!"
"Just telling it like it is. One time at a slumber party --- she'd had a bit of something she shouldn't have --- I actually heard her say 'if he wasn't my cousin--'"
"Okkay, that's just sick. I still think you're exaggerating."
"Believe what you want, Pickles."
Silence held sway for a bit, then,
"I just don't get it; there's nothing special about me."
"Oh, this from Everybody's All American."
"Oh, the football thing."
"Oh, that was just the icing on the cake. You are the easygoing, carefree, outgoing, charismatic individual everyone wants to be or be with. You have that certain mystique."
"Mystique?"
"Oh yeah, it's very powerful."
She'd been leaning in closer as she was talking, & and now she started smooching him. After a few minutes of this she could hear his chuckling. She withdrew to face him. "What?"
"My own personality cult."
"Yeah."
"So that's why you've been riding herd on me."
"You need me to ride you, constantly."
A smirk appeared on his face. "Like someone said a while ago, getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we?"
They laughed together.
"Just call me Chairman Tommy. Wonder what color my little book would be?"
Kimi ran a hand through his hair, at which she stared before dropping her gaze back down to his eyes. "Gray, Tommy. Dark, dark blue-gray." And then her lips again dropped down to his. Simultaneously, his arms enfolded her. Kimi's ministrations had had their desired effect; Tommy was back to his old self, which was exactly how both of them wanted it.
They'd been at it for a while, when Tommy noticed something. He got a frown on his face which Kimi immediately picked up on.
"What?"
"Don't you hear that?"
"I don't hear anything."
"Well, I do. And it sounds like it's coming from one of those rooms." he said as he pointed to the two rooms on the other side of the infirmary. "It might be the others."
"You think?"
"Well, figure it out." said a by now renewed Tommy as he moved Kimi off of his legs which he swung around to the floor. "We don't find them anywhere else & there's noises coming from there; what would you think?"
"Well," said Kimi, "there's a good way to find out." And with that she was up & walking toward the door on the left (the one to the room containing Chuck & Lil).
"Um, are you sure you want to do that?"
"Why not?"
"Well, the odds are that Susie would be in her office, which would mean--"
"Good point. You take that one." Kimi said, crossing over to the door on the right.
"Fine with me." said Tommy as he approached the door on the left. His hand approached the doorknob...
"Tommy?"
His head turned. "Yes, Kimi?"
"Let's be quiet when we open them. No need to disturb the guys, just yet anyway."
He had to laugh at that, and keep it quiet. Now two hands moved to their respective doorknobs.
Two doorknobs noiselessly turned.
Two doors soundlessly opened.
On the other side...
"Mmm, mmm, uh, wait, hold it."
"Well, that's a switch."
"What?"
"Well, this is the first time you've been the one to stop it, although I would've in five minutes the way we were going."
"And I would've wanted ten minutes past that. It's just that..."
"What?"
"Well, doesn't something feel funny to you?"
"Mm, not bad, Deville. Intriguing, but I've heard better pick-up lines from you."
"No, really. I mean, here I am, a woman warm & willing--"
"You wish!"
"--and I'm feeling a draft. Aren't you feeling a draft?"
"Well, now that you mention it... I know I slammed that door closed."
"Sometimes I slam a door too hard & it rebounds."
"Hmm, plausible, but improbable."
"So I guess we should check it out?"
"Yeah, guess we should."
And so two heads turned to the side and saw an open door...
...and standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame arms crossed in front, a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on the face, was Kimi Watanabe Finster.
*WHUMP!*
"Oh, please, don't let me interrupt."
Hurried footsteps were heard, just before Tommy joined his fiancee in the doorway.
"Ouch, I'll bet that hurts." he said just before looking crossways at Kimi. "I hope you didn't have anything to do with that."
"Me? I was just standing here. Is it my fault something just happened to be going on?"
"Better make that two somethings."
"You mean...?" *ZIP!*, she was off.
Before Tom left to join her he paused & turned to address Phil & Susie. "You guys might as well come too; I think you're going to want to see this."
And again. "And for what it's worth, there's nothing to be ashamed of; you two weren't doing anything Kimi & I weren't doing a few minutes ago."
And then he left. Phil & Susie, who'd been readjusting themselves all the while, were hot on his heels.
What they found in the first room was Chuck & Lil, asleep, in each other's arms. The reactions were immediate.
"That is so SWEET!"
"Sweet? He's sleeping with my sister!"
"Considering what you were doing a few minutes ago I wouldn't talk, Deville. And what about her sleeping with my brother?"
"Considering what we were doing a few minutes before that I wouldn't talk either, Kimi."
"Does it matter to anyone that they're both fully clothed?"
Three heads mulled over Susie's question before giving an simultaneous "nope!"
Then Tommy took charge, as was his wont. "Alright, there's no way they're going to be the ones sleeping after what I've been through today. Phil, you & Susie wake your sister. Kimi, let's wake your brother."
Following the leader, the four moved to their assigned positions.
"Sleeping Beauty?"
"Prince Charming?"
Chuckie was the first of the pair to awaken, though not immediately.
"Hm, whu? 20 million a year? That's a joke! Why I could get more than that in, uh, er, wha?" as he finally realized where he was.
Tommy laughed. "Welcome back to the land of the livid, Chuckster."
Verbally, Phil now pounced on him. "Now maybe you can explain what you were doing with my sister?"
"Like I said, Phil, you're not one to talk. But what was she doing with my brother?"
"And like I said, Kimi..."
At this point Lil finally woke up with one of her full-body yawns, accompanied by the usual too cute for words vocal effects. As her hand reached back, Susie --- from her vantage point behind --- noticed something and screamed.
"What is it, Suze?"
"Look at her hand!"
"What?"
"She's engaged, too!"
"What do you mean 'too'?"
"You're engaged too?"
"What do YOU mean 'too'?"
"Oh yeah, we're getting married."
"We are too!"
"We're ALL getting married!"
This was Chuckie's first contribution to the dialogue, something which wasn't lost on his bestest friend.
"Like I said, Chuckster, welcome--"
"I heard you the first time. And you'd better be good to my sister, Pickles!"
"For that matter, you'd better be good to my sister, Finster!"
"*sigh*, why not? You'd better be good to my brother, Deville!"
"And you'd better be good to my brother, Carmichael!"
"Now that that stuff is out of the way, what say we go hit the table? We have lots of stuff to talk about now."
Following Tommy's lead as usual, the group adjourned from that room & exited the infirmary, to reconvene around the table. As they sat, the couples held hands, now more than ever.
Tommy kicked off the discussion. "So, we're all engaged. Now what?"
"What do you mean, 'now what'?"
"I guess we get married."
"You guess?"
"How about when?"
"Do we have to decide now?"
"As soon as possible, as far as I'm concerned."
"Long courtships, short engagements. That's what I've always preferred."
"I wanna have it in June."
"Me too."
"Me too!"
"Um, does anyone here realize the problems in planning three weddings in one month?"
"Hey, wait a minute. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Oh no! We're going to get married together, aren't we?"
"Phil..."
"Just like we've done everything together, for our whole lives, since we were in diapers."
"Phil..."
"The rate we're going, we'll probably die & be buried togeth-- *SMACK!*"
"Thanks, Doc."
"My pleasure."
"So what do we tell the parents?"
"What should we tell them?"
"Let's just tell them we're all getting married."
"It's not that simple."
"Yes it is; we just make things harder than they need to be."
"I don't need to tell you how HIS mom will react."
"I'm wondering what they'll say myself."
"What can they say? We're all adults in our mid-20's."
"Thanks, Phil." said the 28 year old Susie.
"And it's not like we're depending on them for anything."
"We've been giving them more than they've been giving us lately."
"Let's face it; we're rich."
"Well, some of us are."
"Just you wait."
"Besides, we moved out years ago."
"None of us have lived at our old homes since we left for college."
"All the same, there's going to be a bit of an empty nest syndrome thing happening."
"True, there's just something about getting married that's so, final!"
"Anyone else ever notice how much the wedding march sounds like the funeral march?"
"PHIL!" the others shouted.
"What? I'm just pointing that out."
"Like he was saying, our parents can't really do anything about it."
"They'll deal with that empty nest syndrome."
"Can't expect us to put our own lives on hold indefinitely because of them."
"You want YOUR Mom & Dad's blessing, don't you?"
"Well..."
And so it went. The six of them stayed around the table & talked all through the night about engagements, weddings, marriages, parents, anything that came to mind.
And so Chapter 6 goes. Now that you've read, please review. And I will try to get the next chapter up by Monday (methinks I'm the least forgiving of my mistakes, but that's just me). Cya then.