Everyone's reviews have really kept me motivated to keep writing. (especially Atomos, Fairie-kittie, and RavenChild!) Thank you all so much for the compliments!
Pyxelle
Chapter 10"I had a really good time at dinner last night, Gavin." Brittany said, batting her lashes prettily. "I've never been to the Blue Swan before."
"Yeah, well my uncle's the manager there." Gavin told her as he stepped into the Miller residence. "I have connections."
"That explains why we were given our own private dining salon ahead of the mayor." Brittany giggled at the memory. "I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his face."
Gavin laughed. "I know, he did look pretty shocked, didn't he?"
"More than shocked. Electrocuted and burned to a crisp is more like it." Brittany motioned for him to sit next to her on the loveseat. "The question is, how on earth on you ever going to top last night?"
"What, you don't think I can?"
"I have my doubts, Gavin. Last night was pretty wonderful." Brittany flattered him.
"Well," Gavin said, dropping his motorcycle helmet to the floor and leaned over to kiss her cheek quickly. "I thought we'd start with a picnic on Lookout Point."
"A picnic won't impress me after the Blue Swan, Gavin." Brittany reminded him, giggling as he began trailing kisses down her neck. "Not unless they're catering it."
"No, I made the food myself, to make up for the picnic you didn't get to have with your sisters today."
"You cook?" Brittany looked at him in mock astonishment. "Well, aren't you just full of surprises."
"There's more," He said, grabbing her hands and kissing them both gently. "After the picnic, we're going hiking."
Brittany froze, then pulled back her hands and looked at him skeptically. "Hiking?"
"Yep. Hiking." He grinned at her, handing her two slips of hard white paper. "All the way back to my bike, on which I am going to be driving you to-"
"The new Madonna concert!" Brittany exclaimed, her voice climbing even higher in her excitement. She didn't care. "Oh, Gavin, these have been sold out for months! I love Madonna!"
"I know." Gavin was grinning ear to ear. "But no concert with the original Material Girl is complete without the Greatest Material Girl – or without these." He deposited two cards that looked like hospital id cards in her lap.
"Backstage passes." Brittany said in awe. "You got backstage passes to see Madonna."
"It looks that way, doesn't it?"
"Oh, Gavin!" Brittany laughed delightedly and threw her arms around his neck. "This is wonderful! You're the best boyfriend in the world!"
They both froze. "Boyfriend?" Gavin finally asked hesitantly.
"I, uh..."Brittany stammered.
Gavin held up his hand in a non-threatening manner. "Hey, no pressure. It's okay."
Brittany couldn't believe he had gotten tickets to the sold-out tour...much less backstage passes. "This is amazing, Gavin. How on earth did you do it?"
"Hey, I told you I've got connections." He laughed at her withering look. "Okay, I've been working on it for months. Its really a boring story of calling the ticketmaster, calling in a few favors...okay, a lot of favors..."
"Months?" Brittany looked at him, confused. "Gavin, we've only been dating for three weeks. Again, I mean."
"I know."
Brittany looked down at the tickets in her hand. "We're these meant for someone else?"
"No!" Gavin genuinely seemed surprised at the thought, and Brittany relaxed a little. There was no way she was going to be the consolation prize. "I got them for you. Everyone knows what a big Madonna fan you are."
"But we weren't dating months ago." She reminded him.
For the first time that she could remember, Gavin blushed. "I know. Lets just say I've that you'd change your mind."
Brittany didn't know what to say to that, but luckily, she didn't have to, because just then a herd of elephants came pounding up the porch stairs. "What in the world?" was all she had time to get out before Jeannette came storming into the room. "Jeannette, what's going –watch out!"
It was too late, and Brittany winced as Jeannette's foot hit Gavin's helmet and she went flying. There was a crash as she landed into the bookshelf across the room. "Jeannette!" Brittany cried, rushing up to her. "Are you all right?"
"Fine." Jeannette said, standing up quickly and brushing herself off. "Sorry. I'm in a hurry." She barely glanced at Brittany. She just straightened her dress a bit and started back towards their bedroom at a hurried pace, not noticing that she had stepped on the spine of her favorite book, Frankenstein, and completely destroyed the binding. "I'll talk to you later."
Brittany picked up Frankenstein and stared after her, stunned. It wasn't like Jeannette to destroy any book and not care about it, much less her favorite. Something was definitely wrong here.
"Gavin?" She called out, walking back into the living room.
"Is she always like that?" He asked, looking off in the direction that Jeannette had flown off to in amazement. "Talk about energy!"
"No, she isn't." Brittany told him with worry in her voice. She handed him the tickets and passes. "Hang onto these a second, okay? I need to go and check on Jeannette."
"Sure. I'll just wait here for you." Gavin assured her.
"Jeannette?" She called as she walked into their bedroom. "Jeannette, are you all ri-what on earth are you doing?"
Jeannette had two suitcases out and was flinging clothes from both her and Eleanor's closets into them. "Packing." She said simply in response, not slowing down.
"Packing for what? We just finished our tour, and-hey, that's mine!" She grabbed her favorite skirt out of Jeannette's hands.
"It is? Sorry. I thought it was Eleanor's." Jeannette continued to pack.
Brittany watched her for a moment in astonishment. "Just where are you – and apparently, Eleanor – going to go?" She asked after a few seconds.
That gave Jeannette pause, and she looked around in a furtive manner that Brittany wasn't used to seeing on her sister. "Is Miss Miller around?" Jeannette finally asked, her voice almost a whisper.
"No, she's at the beauty parlor. Why?" Brittany narrowed her eyes. "What are you two planning to do?"
"We're going to London." Jeannette told her, and briskly resumed her packing. Brittany could only stare at her, stunned, for almost a minute. When she finally could speak, her voice had climbed nearly a full octave – no mean feat for a chipmunk.
"London? London!" This had to be a joke! "Why on earth would you go to London?"
"To get Alvin and bring him home." Jeannette told her matter-of-factly. "Do you mind if we take your hairdryer? Mine is broken, and I can't find Eleanor's."
Brittany was so taken aback that all she could do was nod. They had found Alvin?
"Thanks." Jeannette said, grabbing the hairdryer. "Just use Eleanor's if you need it. Well, if you can find it."
Brittany felt as if she must be in some sort of odd dream, where the events were speeded up and you didn't have time to breathe, much less think. "Alvin's in London?"
"Yes." Jeannette paused suddenly, one of her sensible bras in her hand, and amended that. "Well, we think he is, because of Theo Miller, or, rather, we think he is Theo Miller, and so Simon decided that to find Alvin we'd have to do something a little drastic – just like Alvin might have done - and then Theodore showed some backbone and demanded to come with –oh, dear, I didn't mean to make that awful pun, I'm sorry- and then Eleanor insisted on going to help out Theodore, and I certainly couldn't let Eleanor be Simon's partner-in-crime, it would just be wrong, especially after he kissed me today, so here I am." She sucked in a deep breath. "Oh, my, that was a really bad sentence, wasn't it?"
Trust Jeannette to be concerned about grammar at a time like this. "Wait a minute, wait a minute!" Brittany waved her hands in front of her to regain her sister's attention.
Jeannette looked at her impatiently. "What?"
"Alvin's in London." Brittany stated.
"We think so."
"You, Simon, Theodore, and Eleanor are going to London." She continued.
"Yes."
"I take it that Dave and Miss Miller have no idea this trip is taking place."
"No."
"And you kissed Simon?" Brittany ended incredulously.
Jeannette let out a contented sigh. "Yes."
Brittany waited almost a full two seconds before running to her own closet. "We need to get hurrying, then!" She pulled out her own suitcase. "There's not a lot of time before Miss Miller gets home."
It wasn't until she had actually stepped back into the living room that she remembered that Gavin was still there. She stopped dead in her tracks, so suddenly that Jeannette crashed into her. Luckily, neither of them fell, but Gavin jumped up to help her all the same.
"Brittany, are you okay?" He asked, holding onto her arm to give her support.
"Yes..no.." Brittany gazed at him helplessly. There was no easy way to do this. "I have to go, Gavin. I'm so sorry, but I have to go away."
"Go? Where?" Gavin looked confused, and glanced at the suitcase. "How far away?"
"Far away, "She told him regretfully, tightening her grip on the suitcase. "Its an emergency."
Gavin glanced from her to her suitcase and back to Brittany several times. "When will you be back?" He finally asked.
Brittany looked at Jeannette, who only shrugged. "I don't know, Gavin." She told him truthfully. Jeannette gestured towards outside, pushing Brittany in front of her and out the door.
Gavin stood alone in the middle of their living room, a baffled expression on his face. "Brittany!" He called just before they started down the steps.
"Yes?" She called back.
"What about Madonna?"
There was a pause. Then Brittany shouted back as they ran to Jeannette's car.
"Tell her I said 'hi!'"
OoooOoooO
Simon was giving Eleanor a crash course- in every...single...class he'd had in pre-medical school.
Well, not actually, but as the list of things she had to remember grew, she certainly felt that way. She'd had no idea to what extent Theodore was still dependent on assistive devices. The hoyer lift, for example, completely floored her. There was this sling that went under Theodore, and then you'd hook it up to these two-foot chains that attached to a machine that was pumped up with a lever to lift him out of his chair...she didn't really know how she had thought he'd gone from his chair to his bed and vice-versa, but he hadn't let her into his room and she'd honestly never really asked. She'd felt relief when Simon said he rarely used the contraption, but when he described the cradle hold he used instead she knew she wasn't strong enough to lift him in that manner. So she tried her hardest to remember just how the hoyer worked. She hoped Simon didn't mind explaining again later, because she thought she'd probably need it.
And then there were the medications. She'd known he was still on some, but the list was staggering. Laxatives, blood thinners, multiple types of vitamins, and a frighteningly long list of pain medications were on the list that Simon thrust into her hands. "How does he get these?" She asked timidly, wondering because just drinking enough water to swallow all the pills he must have would have kept his stomach working overtime.
"Oh, he gets them through his j-tube. They're all in liquid form." Simon told her as he packed the medications carefully, detailing each one for her so that she would know how to use them. She couldn't remember one of them. He must have caught the look of concern on her face, because he patted her brotherly on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll help you the first few times. It's easy."
"Do you mind writing it down, too?" She asked a little timidly.
"Of course not."
She wondered just why Theodore hadn't told her about all of this. She'd always known that he'd downplayed his condition, but not nearly to this degree. There was a whole other world that Theodore lived in that she'd had no idea existed. They'd talked a few times about what he was going through, but he'd always dismiss his own problems and they'd change subjects quickly. Now, she wished she had pressed him harder.
"This is the oxycontin. It's the strongest pain med he has, but he still gets it pretty much every day at once or twice –"
"He does?" Eleanor knew she sounded surprised, but didn't care. "I didn't know that-"
"They were interrupted by the door crashing open "We're here!" Brittany said, flinging a suitcase on the table. "Everyone ready?"
Simon and Eleanor just looked at her in confusion. Jeannette was not far behind her. "Hi, guys." Jeannette said, putting her own two suitcases down on the table. A sock was peeking out of one of them. "We're here."
"Yes, we see." Simon said, looking at Brittany in confusion, then back to Jeannette. The disheveled Chippette started to speak, but Brittany cut her off.
"Oh, you didn't really think you were going to leave without me, did you?" She asked, flopping down into a chair. "Well, its not going to happen, so you'd better just call and make sure you have one more ticket for us." She looked around at all of them staring at her dumbly. "Well? Aren't you going to call? We're in a hurry here, people!"
"Um, Brittany, we just decided to go an hour and a half ago." Simon told her. "Theodore just lay down. We're in a rush, but not that big of a rush."
Brittany glared at Jeannette for some reason, then looked back at Simon. "Then when are we going?"
Simon looked at Eleanor, then to the list he was writing for her. "Umm. I haven't gotten to call the airp-"
"Oh, never mind, I'll do it." Brittany grabbed the phone book and, grabbing the portable phone and heading into the privacy of the dining room, shot back at them, "And you people honestly thought you'd get along without me?"
"Oh, this is going to be fun." Simon said sourly.
"That's not nice, Simon." Jeannette scolded him.
"Sorry." Simon looked at Eleanor expectantly. "Should we continue?"
Eleanor sighed. "Yes." She glanced back towards the boys' bedroom.
"I need to know these things." She said.
End of part 10Reviews have been great, and are appreciated!