Disclaimer: They belong to Brenda Hampton, Aaron Spelling, Warner Brothers, etc. None of whom are me. Believe me, I'm not worth suing.

Author: Catgurl83

Title: Shocking News (22\?)

Feedback: Thanks to all of you who have been giving me such lovely feedback and encouragement! I really appreciate it.

Rating: PG

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"Hey Mom," Mary said as she ran down the stairs the next morning. "Do you need some help?"

"Sure Honey. Can you scramble some eggs?"

"Okay," Mary said, taking a carton of eggs out of the fridge. With all of the people at the house, she'd have to scramble the entire dozen.

"So, what are you doing today?" Annie asked at she flipped a pancake.

Mary smiled, "I'm spending the day with Benjamin."

"He's leaving town tomorrow?"

"Yeah. He has a flight back to New York. What are you and Dad doing?"

Annie sighed, "We have an appointment with Ruthie's doctor. He's going to update us on her progress over the last three days since her transplant." She took the pancake out of the frying pan and laid it on a plate before pouring more batter into the pan. "I was hoping that you and Benjamin could have a late lunch with your father and I. We really weren't able to get to know him with the whole family at dinner last night."

Mary held back her cringe. She had known that her mother would come up with some way for her and Eric to spend more time with Benjamin if she came downstairs before the rest of the family. She was so used to early mornings now that she couldn't role over and go back to sleep, even though she'd tried. "I'll talk to him," she promised.

"He seemed nice."

"He is nice," Mary said a bit defensively. She couldn't help but be defensive whenever either of her parents started discussing someone whom she was dating. They had never liked one of her boyfriends. Ever. Sure, they'd tried with a few of them like Wilson but they still hadn't been completely comfortable with the relationships.

"How long have you and he been dating?"

Let the interrogation begin, thought Mary. "For about a year and a half."

"A year and a half?" Annie echoed incredulously. "You've been dating for a year and a half and we haven't met him before now?"

"We haven't both been in California at the same time until now," Mary explained.

"But still, a year and a half?"

Mary poured the scrambled eggs into a serving bowl. "Matt's met him."

"When did Matt meet him?"

"About six months after we began dating."

Annie popped bread into the sixteen-slice toaster. "They've been friends since they met?"

"Pretty much," Mary answered holding back a smile. She knew that Matt's approval was going to go a long way toward helping her parents accept Benjamin.

The twins ran down the stairs noisily. "What's for breakfast?" David asked as he tried to swipe a piece of toast off of the platter that his mother was laying the buttered slices on.

Annie moved the platter out of his reach. "Breakfast will be ready in less than five minutes. You can wait until then. We're having pancakes, eggs, toast, and fruit."

"Cool," Sam said. Pancakes were his favorite breakfast.

David shrugged. He'd rather have French toast but he couldn't have his way all the time.

"Go wash your hands," Annie instructed. "And while you are upstairs, you can let the others know that breakfast is almost ready."

"Okay," both boys said as they turned back toward the stairs.

Annie and Mary set the table as the rest of the family started to come down.

**************

"So, what does this mean Dr. Richards?" Eric asked.

"Ruthie's spleen will have to be removed. I had hoped that the Hydroxyurea would lower Ruthie's white count soon enough that her Spleen would shrink and wouldn't have to be removed."

"But that hasn't happened?"

"No, it hasn't. Her spleen is still dangerously large."

"You'll have to surgically remove it, right?" Annie asked just to clarify.

"Yes."

"Is Ruthie strong enough for that?" Eric asked in concern. He had just seen his youngest daughter and she hadn't seemed strong enough to get out of bed, let along have surgery.

Dr. Richards shook his head. "No, she isn't. We'll have to wait for a few weeks before we can even think about scheduling the surgery."

"How is her white blood count now?" Annie asked. She was amazed at the things that she had learned about leukemia and what she and the kids had dubbed 'leukemia talk' during the last few months.

"It is down," the doctor told them with a small, encouraging smile. "But not enough. She isn't showing any signs of rejecting though," he informed them with another smile.

"Infection?" Eric asked as Matt had told him to.

"She doesn't have any infections setting in either. Do you have any other questions that I can answer?"

Annie and Eric exchanged a glance before Eric answered, "No. Thank you Doctor."

Dr. Richards nodded before stepping out of the room.

Annie sighed. "So, it isn't over."

"We knew that there was a chance that she'd have to have her spleen removed. Dr. Richards told us when he diagnosed her," Eric reminded her with a sigh of his own.

"But I was hoping that it wouldn't come to that."

"So was I."

***************

Benjamin pulled his car to the curb and climbed out. He walked around to the back on the house. Opening the gate, he stepped through into the backyard. He walked past an old picnic table toward the door.

Happy, who was sitting near the door, looked up curiously.

"Hi Happy," Benjamin said, reaching down to pet the dog that he had met the evening before. The old dog stood and slowly made her way toward him. He hunched down and scratched behind her ears.

"Buppy."

At the gurgled word, Benjamin stood up and turned around.

Matt, who had just come down from the garage apartment, closed the door behind him.

"Buppy," Charlie gurgled again, pointing toward the dog.

"Do you want to pet the puppy?" Matt asked his daughter, carefully pronouncing the "p" sound.

Charlie's only response was to clap her hands gleefully.

Matt bent down next to the dog, which had trotted over to them. Charlie extended her hand to run it over the dog's head. It was obvious that she wasn't very coordinated but Happy didn't seem to mind.

Matt set the happy eleven-month-old down on the ground next to his feet. She was still happily petting the dog. "You're meeting Mary here?" he asked Benjamin unnecessarily.

"Yeah, I am."

"You're lucky. Mom and Dad are at the hospital."

"How's Ruthie doing?"

"I'm not sure. I think that she is doing pretty well considering everything but she is still in pretty grave condition."

"Do you think that she is going to be okay?"

Matt hesitated, "I can't be sure but my gut feeling is that she is going to live. But then I'm her brother. Even if I thought that she was going to die, I wouldn't say it."

"That would be tough," Benjamin commiserated. "Mary talks about Ruthie all of the time. She adores her youngest sister."

Matt grinned, "I think that we all do. Ruthie was so much younger than Mary, Lucy, and I that we all spent a lot of time helping Mom look after her. I think that for the first several years of her life we probably spoiled her." He laughed. "She and Simon had a different sort of relationship. As a little girl, Ruthie idolized him. Simon could do no wrong in her eyes. To some extent, I think that she still feels that way and always will. And he adored her for it. With the twins, she took on the role that all of us had had with her."

"All of you seem close. As a kid, I always missed that," Benjamin said wistfully.

"Yeah. Sarah's told me that too." He paused a moment. "It's never too late to gain it."

"Yeah," Benjamin agreed quietly.

Charlie had tired of Happy and was holding her arms up. Matt quickly swooped her up high in the air and she giggled.

Benjamin turned toward the door, which was unlocked. In New York, he never left his door unlocked, he mused as he turned the handle, even when he was home.

The kitchen was devoid of people so they walked down the hall to the living room.

At the sound of footsteps, Mary looked up from the book that she was reading. When she saw Benjamin, she smiled. "Hey," she said, standing.

"Hey," Benjamin replied, approaching her. He gently brushed his lips across hers, mindful of Matt watching them.

As Benjamin pulled back, Mary turned toward her brother. "Hi Matt." Her smile softened. "Hey Charlie." She reached down to tickle the little girl's tummy causing her to laugh.

Turning back to Benjamin she said regretfully, "I'm watching the boys until my parent's get home."

"Do we have to stay here with them?" Benjamin asked with a smile to assure Mary that he didn't mind.

Mary shrugged, "No. I just have to leave a note if we take them somewhere. I'm sure my parent's wouldn't mind."

"Good. I thought that we could take them to the park and maybe get ice cream cones."

"They'll like that." Mary frowned, "My parents want us to have lunch with them when they get back from the hospital."

"They asked Sarah and I to watch the boys during lunch," Matt added. At his sister's confused look he said, "Last night they talked to us."

Mary sighed. If they had planned it like that then there probably wasn't any getting out of it. "I guess we have to."

Benjamin smiled. "I don't mind. It won't be that bad, Mary."

She gave him a look. He'd learn soon enough. Being from a large family was good in that you had a support system, people who were always there for you no matter what. In other ways, it wasn't so good. Until she had moved to New York, she had had very little privacy and even then, she had had to fight for it. There was always someone to meddle in your life and in your decisions.

Mary turned toward the stairs. "I'll go get the boys."

***************