Chapter 9
Review Responses:
None because something is up with the system...Thanks to Morgan and Katie for reviewing, I know they did because they let me know not because I got the review...so anyway one more chapter to go after this, I hope you guys enjoy...
"Cecilia get up," Robbie urges shifting Cecilia's weight and stretching out, remembering that after Cecilia had cried herself to sleep the night previously Robbie hadn't dared to wake her to go to their bedroom so he too had fallen asleep on the couch.
Cecilia quickly bolts up right, "did I over sleep, what time is it?"
"Calm down," Robbie soothes, "you're fine it's only 15 after six."
Cecilia seems to sink back into the couch, "thank God, how are we going to get through this day?"
"We have to get through the next six hours without falling apart, and then we can fall apart, all right?"
Cecilia nods, "I think I can do that."
"Peter's coming over at 11 to say good-bye to Ruthie, he wants to stay until the Camden's come get her."
"Are you sure we're doing the right thing not taking them to the airport? Cecilia inquires about the decision that Chandler had helped them reach the day before.
Robbie nods, "Chandler's right, it's only going to be harder for them to get on that plane with us standing right there."
Cecilia leans against Robbie, "yeah, I guess. I'm going to go check on Ruthie and the twins, if you want to get a shower."
Robbie shakes his head, "I'll come with you."
"You're up all ready." Cecilia comments, surprised to find Ruthie all ready sitting up in bed.
Ruthie nods, "the sleepy part of my medicine wore off and I couldn't fall back asleep."
"If you want me to get you more..." Robbie offers.
Ruthie shakes her head, "I'll take some before I get on the plane, I want to be awake today."
"We're so sorry we couldn't fight enough to keep you here." Cecilia kneels down by Ruthie's bed.
Ruthie shakes her head, "you tried your hardest, in the end it wasn't your decision and sometimes you just have to go along with the plan that God has for you."
Robbie and Cecilia nod and Robbie responds, "that's right, and it's not like we won't ever see you again."
"I'm going to go check on the boys." Cecilia states standing up, wanting to give Robbie and Ruthie some time alone.
"They're mad at you." Ruthie states, "they were in here earlier."
"What? Why?" Cecilia questions, guilt immediately washing over her.
"They think you love Robbie more than them, and that's why they have to move to New York." Ruthie responds, "I tried to tell you that it wasn't true, but they wouldn't listen to me."
Cecilia briefly knocks on the boys' bedroom door and when she doesn't get a response she asks, "it's Cecilia can I come in?"
"No!" The boys call back from across the door/
"Please?" Cecilia pleas, "I really need to talk to you guys."
"Fiiine..." The boys sigh, "come in."
"You guys have all ready started packing," Cecilia comments glancing around the room that once was clean and now has clothes strewn everywhere.
"You don't want us here." David states.
"You want us to go to Buflow..." Sam adds.
"I do not want you to go to Buffalo." Cecilia states, "come where guys." Cecilia sits on David's bed and waits until they both come over and sit on the bed with him. "Just because I got married doesn't mean I love you guys any less, and my marrying Robbie doesn't have anything to do with you having to live with your grandparents. Your grandparents love you very, very much and they want you to go stay with them for awhile and a judge said that we have to let you go stay with them."
"But we don't want to." Sam insists.
"I know, but can you guys be brave for me, and be good for your grandparents?"
"But why?" David asks.
"To show them what your parents taught you while you were alive, and to show them what Robbie and I have tried to help you to remember when you came to live with us."
"So you want us to be good for you, and Mommy and Daddy?" Sam asks.
Cecilia nods, "exactly."
Sam and David exchange glances, "we can do that."
"Good, thank you."
The five and a half hours between the time Robbie and Cecilia spoke to the younger children and when Peter, Paris and Chandler showed up seemed to fly by. And Ruthie, who seemed to be holding together fairly well seemed to crumble the instant the doorbell rang. The instant the three walked into the condo it was filled with an uncomfortable silence which was eventually broken by Paris, "so I was looking at a calendar last night and thinking about my days off and I figure Peter and I could come visit you guys in Buffalo."
"Really?" Peter looks hopeful and Paris nods.
"That'll be nice." Cecilia attempts to encourage Ruthie to say something but she remains silent.
Knowing that they would have been waiting at the doorway if Peter asked the adults in the room to leave he sat down next to Ruthie on the couch and said, "I'm going to miss you."
"I'll miss you to." Ruthie finally responds, "but I want you to date other people."
"That's not going to happen hunny, because you are the only one I want to date." Peter states firmly.
"Peter..." Peter leans over and silence Ruthie with a simple kiss on the lips causing Ruthie to immediately burst into tears.
When the doorbell rang 45 minutes later Ruthie was griping Peter's hand tightly and Cecilia was doing the same to Robbie. "I'll get the door." Chandler offers leaving the group to open the door, revealing the rest of the Camden family.
"Are you guys ready to go?" Ruth asks once they have all exchange very uncomfortable greetings.
"We have their bags packed with all of their clothes and as many personal things as they can take, we'll ship the rest to you." Robbie responds.
"Thank you." John Camden looks tired and less stern than he had the night before. "We should be on our way."
"Of course." Robbie nods and his grip on Cecilia's hand tightens. Simon, Chandler, and the Colonel grab bags and head to one of the rental cars that belong to the various Camden's.
"We'll be waiting in the car." Ruth states urging her husband and into the car.
Ruthie and the twins say their good-byes to their siblings first, with the exception of Matt, Mary and Sarah who will be flying home with them. The twins say good-bye to Peter but Ruthie seems to have had enough of good-byes with Peter and she only hugs Paris and Chandler. And finally they reach Cecilia and Robbie.
"I love you Robbie." Ruthie states wrapping her arms tightly around Robbie as the two embrace for several seconds.
"We love you too Cecilia." The twins both hug Cecilia tightly at the same time.
And then they switch before Ruthie hugs Cecilia she states, "I know originally we started off kind of rocky but thank you for taking us when we really didn't have any other choice and thank you for fighting for us. I love you Cecilia."
Cecilia hugs Ruthie, "I love you too Ruthie, call us when you get settled in, all right?"
Once they have moved toward the car Cecilia steps into Robbie's open embrace, unable to watch the car pull onto the street and then disappear around the corner. Finally breaking apart Cecilia takes notice that Paris, Chandler and Peter have slipped away quietly, as have Simon and Deena leaving only Lucy behind.
"Call me if you need anything, all right?" Lucy questions.
"We will, thanks Luce." Robbie responds, "have a safe flight home."
The next morning Robbie silently slipped out of his and Cecilia's bedroom, careful not to wake Cecilia, hoping what had happened the night before could go unmentioned. Robbie hadn't intended to take advantage of Cecilia's emotions like that, he had let things get to far out of control and when kissing turned into more he hadn't stopped it, and that was how he had woken up in Cecilia's bed that morning.
After making himself a cup of coffee though Cecilia is up and looking a little out of place, "Robbie..."
"About last night," Robbie begins, "I didn't mean to let that happen."
Cecilia shakes her head, "we both made a choice Robbie, I don't want you to blame yourself for it."
"Well I..."
The phone cuts Robbie off and instinctively Cecilia reaches for the phone, "hello Palmer-Camden residence." Cecilia bites her lip, "I'm sorry Palmer residence."
"Cecilia, it's Ruthie." Ruthie's voice sounds strained.
"Ruthie, sweetie, how was the flight?" Cecilia asks as she quietly switches over to the speaker phone.
"It was all right, I don't know, nothing special, Mary managed to get us all first class seats."
"How are you feeling?" Robbie asks.
"I'm still really sore, but a simple Tylenol helps, I'm not so drugged anymore." Ruthie responds, "and I'm able to manage on the crutches better, even with the cast on my arm."
"Good." Cecilia responds, "how are the twins?"
"They're all right, the Colonel and Grandma Ruth took them to get registered for school." Ruthie states.
"Why didn't you go with, you shouldn't be missing school." Robbie states.
"I know, but since it's hard for me to get around they decided that I should be home schooled and since I won't really be able to get around until schools out they aren't bothering to register me until next year. But, whatever I guess it's better than having to start at a new school in the middle of the year."
"I'm sorry Ruthie," Cecilia sighs, things weren't going to be looking up for Ruthie anytime soon.
Ruthie sighs as well, "I wish I could come home, I all ready miss you guys and I miss Glenn Oak, and Peter."
"We miss you too." Robbie and Cecilia chime and they continue the conversation for another twenty minutes before Ruthie has to go.
"Oh and could you take the science project Peter and I were working on over to the school when you send all of our information?" Ruthie asks, "we forgot about it and it's due at the end of next week."
"It's all finished?" Cecilia asks.
"Yes, it's in my room on my desk, you won't miss it."
"All right, we'll talk to you soon Ruthie." Robbie promises.
"Bye."
"I should get going," Cecilia states when they hang up the phone, "I am going to drop the project off at school, send Ruthie's transcripts and then I have class."
Robbie nods, "all right, I thought I'd make dinner tonight, we can talk then."
"You want to hear something crazy?" Cecilia breaks the silence that had never been at the dinner table before, always before it had been filled with chattering about school related subjects.
"What?" Robbie asks looking up from his plate for the first time.
"It's really crazy, maybe something you haven't considered before." Cecilia states.
Robbie smiles gently at Cecilia, "or maybe I have and you don't know, so what is it?"
"I can actually see myself being married to you for more reasons than just to let Ruthie, Sam and David have a family." Cecilia states blushing deeply.
Robbie takes a deep breath and then finally replies, "that's not crazy. Besides Matt and Sarah were engaged after knowing each other something like 24 hours. We may be able to keep this marriage going if we work at it, I know I'm falling in love with you."
Cecilia smiles at Robbie, "I'm willing to work on it."
An hour later Cecilia and Robbie walk through the promenade after stopping to get some ice cream from the Dairy Shack, their hands are interlaced as they weave through the many teenagers populating the area. The only person they recognize that isn't in the youth group at church or one of Ruthie and Peter's friends is Chandler who stops in front of them.
"How are you guys holding up?" Chandler asks sympathetically.
"It's going to take us awhile to adjust." Cecilia responds, "we're used to having to run a thousand and one errands, it will take some time to adjust to not having anything to do."
Chandler nods, "you guys'll get used to it, but if you need anything, and I mean anything give me a call."
Cecilia and Robbie nod, Robbie responding, "we will Chandler thanks."
"I should get going, I'm on my way over to Paris', Peter is pretty upset and kind of giving Paris a hard time."
Once Robbie has gone he glances over at Cecilia, "so now what?"
Review Responses:
None because something is up with the system...Thanks to Morgan and Katie for reviewing, I know they did because they let me know not because I got the review...so anyway one more chapter to go after this, I hope you guys enjoy...
"Cecilia get up," Robbie urges shifting Cecilia's weight and stretching out, remembering that after Cecilia had cried herself to sleep the night previously Robbie hadn't dared to wake her to go to their bedroom so he too had fallen asleep on the couch.
Cecilia quickly bolts up right, "did I over sleep, what time is it?"
"Calm down," Robbie soothes, "you're fine it's only 15 after six."
Cecilia seems to sink back into the couch, "thank God, how are we going to get through this day?"
"We have to get through the next six hours without falling apart, and then we can fall apart, all right?"
Cecilia nods, "I think I can do that."
"Peter's coming over at 11 to say good-bye to Ruthie, he wants to stay until the Camden's come get her."
"Are you sure we're doing the right thing not taking them to the airport? Cecilia inquires about the decision that Chandler had helped them reach the day before.
Robbie nods, "Chandler's right, it's only going to be harder for them to get on that plane with us standing right there."
Cecilia leans against Robbie, "yeah, I guess. I'm going to go check on Ruthie and the twins, if you want to get a shower."
Robbie shakes his head, "I'll come with you."
"You're up all ready." Cecilia comments, surprised to find Ruthie all ready sitting up in bed.
Ruthie nods, "the sleepy part of my medicine wore off and I couldn't fall back asleep."
"If you want me to get you more..." Robbie offers.
Ruthie shakes her head, "I'll take some before I get on the plane, I want to be awake today."
"We're so sorry we couldn't fight enough to keep you here." Cecilia kneels down by Ruthie's bed.
Ruthie shakes her head, "you tried your hardest, in the end it wasn't your decision and sometimes you just have to go along with the plan that God has for you."
Robbie and Cecilia nod and Robbie responds, "that's right, and it's not like we won't ever see you again."
"I'm going to go check on the boys." Cecilia states standing up, wanting to give Robbie and Ruthie some time alone.
"They're mad at you." Ruthie states, "they were in here earlier."
"What? Why?" Cecilia questions, guilt immediately washing over her.
"They think you love Robbie more than them, and that's why they have to move to New York." Ruthie responds, "I tried to tell you that it wasn't true, but they wouldn't listen to me."
Cecilia briefly knocks on the boys' bedroom door and when she doesn't get a response she asks, "it's Cecilia can I come in?"
"No!" The boys call back from across the door/
"Please?" Cecilia pleas, "I really need to talk to you guys."
"Fiiine..." The boys sigh, "come in."
"You guys have all ready started packing," Cecilia comments glancing around the room that once was clean and now has clothes strewn everywhere.
"You don't want us here." David states.
"You want us to go to Buflow..." Sam adds.
"I do not want you to go to Buffalo." Cecilia states, "come where guys." Cecilia sits on David's bed and waits until they both come over and sit on the bed with him. "Just because I got married doesn't mean I love you guys any less, and my marrying Robbie doesn't have anything to do with you having to live with your grandparents. Your grandparents love you very, very much and they want you to go stay with them for awhile and a judge said that we have to let you go stay with them."
"But we don't want to." Sam insists.
"I know, but can you guys be brave for me, and be good for your grandparents?"
"But why?" David asks.
"To show them what your parents taught you while you were alive, and to show them what Robbie and I have tried to help you to remember when you came to live with us."
"So you want us to be good for you, and Mommy and Daddy?" Sam asks.
Cecilia nods, "exactly."
Sam and David exchange glances, "we can do that."
"Good, thank you."
The five and a half hours between the time Robbie and Cecilia spoke to the younger children and when Peter, Paris and Chandler showed up seemed to fly by. And Ruthie, who seemed to be holding together fairly well seemed to crumble the instant the doorbell rang. The instant the three walked into the condo it was filled with an uncomfortable silence which was eventually broken by Paris, "so I was looking at a calendar last night and thinking about my days off and I figure Peter and I could come visit you guys in Buffalo."
"Really?" Peter looks hopeful and Paris nods.
"That'll be nice." Cecilia attempts to encourage Ruthie to say something but she remains silent.
Knowing that they would have been waiting at the doorway if Peter asked the adults in the room to leave he sat down next to Ruthie on the couch and said, "I'm going to miss you."
"I'll miss you to." Ruthie finally responds, "but I want you to date other people."
"That's not going to happen hunny, because you are the only one I want to date." Peter states firmly.
"Peter..." Peter leans over and silence Ruthie with a simple kiss on the lips causing Ruthie to immediately burst into tears.
When the doorbell rang 45 minutes later Ruthie was griping Peter's hand tightly and Cecilia was doing the same to Robbie. "I'll get the door." Chandler offers leaving the group to open the door, revealing the rest of the Camden family.
"Are you guys ready to go?" Ruth asks once they have all exchange very uncomfortable greetings.
"We have their bags packed with all of their clothes and as many personal things as they can take, we'll ship the rest to you." Robbie responds.
"Thank you." John Camden looks tired and less stern than he had the night before. "We should be on our way."
"Of course." Robbie nods and his grip on Cecilia's hand tightens. Simon, Chandler, and the Colonel grab bags and head to one of the rental cars that belong to the various Camden's.
"We'll be waiting in the car." Ruth states urging her husband and into the car.
Ruthie and the twins say their good-byes to their siblings first, with the exception of Matt, Mary and Sarah who will be flying home with them. The twins say good-bye to Peter but Ruthie seems to have had enough of good-byes with Peter and she only hugs Paris and Chandler. And finally they reach Cecilia and Robbie.
"I love you Robbie." Ruthie states wrapping her arms tightly around Robbie as the two embrace for several seconds.
"We love you too Cecilia." The twins both hug Cecilia tightly at the same time.
And then they switch before Ruthie hugs Cecilia she states, "I know originally we started off kind of rocky but thank you for taking us when we really didn't have any other choice and thank you for fighting for us. I love you Cecilia."
Cecilia hugs Ruthie, "I love you too Ruthie, call us when you get settled in, all right?"
Once they have moved toward the car Cecilia steps into Robbie's open embrace, unable to watch the car pull onto the street and then disappear around the corner. Finally breaking apart Cecilia takes notice that Paris, Chandler and Peter have slipped away quietly, as have Simon and Deena leaving only Lucy behind.
"Call me if you need anything, all right?" Lucy questions.
"We will, thanks Luce." Robbie responds, "have a safe flight home."
The next morning Robbie silently slipped out of his and Cecilia's bedroom, careful not to wake Cecilia, hoping what had happened the night before could go unmentioned. Robbie hadn't intended to take advantage of Cecilia's emotions like that, he had let things get to far out of control and when kissing turned into more he hadn't stopped it, and that was how he had woken up in Cecilia's bed that morning.
After making himself a cup of coffee though Cecilia is up and looking a little out of place, "Robbie..."
"About last night," Robbie begins, "I didn't mean to let that happen."
Cecilia shakes her head, "we both made a choice Robbie, I don't want you to blame yourself for it."
"Well I..."
The phone cuts Robbie off and instinctively Cecilia reaches for the phone, "hello Palmer-Camden residence." Cecilia bites her lip, "I'm sorry Palmer residence."
"Cecilia, it's Ruthie." Ruthie's voice sounds strained.
"Ruthie, sweetie, how was the flight?" Cecilia asks as she quietly switches over to the speaker phone.
"It was all right, I don't know, nothing special, Mary managed to get us all first class seats."
"How are you feeling?" Robbie asks.
"I'm still really sore, but a simple Tylenol helps, I'm not so drugged anymore." Ruthie responds, "and I'm able to manage on the crutches better, even with the cast on my arm."
"Good." Cecilia responds, "how are the twins?"
"They're all right, the Colonel and Grandma Ruth took them to get registered for school." Ruthie states.
"Why didn't you go with, you shouldn't be missing school." Robbie states.
"I know, but since it's hard for me to get around they decided that I should be home schooled and since I won't really be able to get around until schools out they aren't bothering to register me until next year. But, whatever I guess it's better than having to start at a new school in the middle of the year."
"I'm sorry Ruthie," Cecilia sighs, things weren't going to be looking up for Ruthie anytime soon.
Ruthie sighs as well, "I wish I could come home, I all ready miss you guys and I miss Glenn Oak, and Peter."
"We miss you too." Robbie and Cecilia chime and they continue the conversation for another twenty minutes before Ruthie has to go.
"Oh and could you take the science project Peter and I were working on over to the school when you send all of our information?" Ruthie asks, "we forgot about it and it's due at the end of next week."
"It's all finished?" Cecilia asks.
"Yes, it's in my room on my desk, you won't miss it."
"All right, we'll talk to you soon Ruthie." Robbie promises.
"Bye."
"I should get going," Cecilia states when they hang up the phone, "I am going to drop the project off at school, send Ruthie's transcripts and then I have class."
Robbie nods, "all right, I thought I'd make dinner tonight, we can talk then."
"You want to hear something crazy?" Cecilia breaks the silence that had never been at the dinner table before, always before it had been filled with chattering about school related subjects.
"What?" Robbie asks looking up from his plate for the first time.
"It's really crazy, maybe something you haven't considered before." Cecilia states.
Robbie smiles gently at Cecilia, "or maybe I have and you don't know, so what is it?"
"I can actually see myself being married to you for more reasons than just to let Ruthie, Sam and David have a family." Cecilia states blushing deeply.
Robbie takes a deep breath and then finally replies, "that's not crazy. Besides Matt and Sarah were engaged after knowing each other something like 24 hours. We may be able to keep this marriage going if we work at it, I know I'm falling in love with you."
Cecilia smiles at Robbie, "I'm willing to work on it."
An hour later Cecilia and Robbie walk through the promenade after stopping to get some ice cream from the Dairy Shack, their hands are interlaced as they weave through the many teenagers populating the area. The only person they recognize that isn't in the youth group at church or one of Ruthie and Peter's friends is Chandler who stops in front of them.
"How are you guys holding up?" Chandler asks sympathetically.
"It's going to take us awhile to adjust." Cecilia responds, "we're used to having to run a thousand and one errands, it will take some time to adjust to not having anything to do."
Chandler nods, "you guys'll get used to it, but if you need anything, and I mean anything give me a call."
Cecilia and Robbie nod, Robbie responding, "we will Chandler thanks."
"I should get going, I'm on my way over to Paris', Peter is pretty upset and kind of giving Paris a hard time."
Once Robbie has gone he glances over at Cecilia, "so now what?"