Ok Ch 20 I think it is, I'm not entirely sure where this chapter came from myself so feel free to flame it… anyway here we go again xxx k
As ever I own nothing
Amelia made her way hurriedly back into the ER, Imogen grasping one hand and Lauren the other, both trailing as she dragged them with her, she'd tried to avoid bringing Lauren to the hospital, but this time she'd been forced to, both Jasper and Nick had been in court when the school phoned and insisted that the girls be picked up having caused 'an inordinate amount of trouble' as the principle had put it, Amelia was less than impressed with the pair. She pushed the girls' in front of her into the Lounge, Abby and Neela were sitting at the table, books open in front of them, they both looked up as the door opened.
"Hey." Amelia sighed, smiling at them. Abby's eyes darted towards the two little girls standing around Amelia's waist, both looking sheepish, covered from head to toe in some grey-blue substance she couldn't quite identify but was best described as 'muck'.
"Hi." Abby said slightly amused by Amelia's harassed expression, and the children's appearance.
"Both of you sit, and don't move." Amelia instructed, pointing at the couch seriously. She made her way over to her locker, putting her coat and bag inside she pulled her lab coat and stethoscope out, donning them quickly, well aware that she had to get back to work, Abby and Neela exchanged curious amused glances.
"Mommy, are you mad?" Lauren asked quietly, a crooked frown adorning her face after a brief whispered conversation with Imogen.
"Do I look mad?" Amelia asked turning towards the pair looking expectantly at her.
"You look quite mad." Imogen supplied, causing Abby and Neela's smiles to broaden.
"I am quite mad." Amelia said turning back to her locker.
"It wasn't just us Mom, lots of other people joined in." Lauren defended them.
"Well then why are you two the only ones who got sent home?" Amelia said her back still to them; they had no answer and kept quiet.
"God, I don't know why I do this job some times." Susan announced as she entered the lounge wit a theatrical sigh, she noticed the two kids on the couch and frowned slightly at Abby.
"This is Amelia's daughter Lauren, and my new next door neighbor Imogen." Abby told her as Amelia turned back around, smiling apologetically at Susan, pausing Abby added, "They've been sent home from school." Susan surveyed the disheveled little girls and smiled quizzically in Amelia's direction. "What did you guys do?" Abby asked frowning slightly leaning over her books, talking conspiratorially to the girls, trying to mask her smile as she spoke to the culprits on the couch. They looked over at Amelia, who looked back, her best stern expression on her face, her arms crossed.
"She's really mad." Lauren whispered audibly to Imogen. Amelia was trying to maintain her expression as the other three women in the room dissolved into quiet laughter.
"Are you going to tell her?" Amelia asked, raising her eyebrows, her lips twitching to keep from smiling. The girls looked up at her, obviously with no intention of admitting their actions.
"Do you have to tell my Daddy?" Imogen asked frowning.
"Yes." Amelia nodded.
"No, Melia, we won't do it again." Imogen begged.
"To late, you already did it, he already knows that I had to pick you up from school." Amelia told her.
"Are you going to tell Daddy?" Lauren chipped in, her face mirroring Imogen's, begging Amelia not to.
"Yep." Amelia nodded again.
"They're going to be mad aren't they?" Lauren asked.
"They might think it's funny too." Imogen said turning to Lauren before Amelia could say 'yes' again.
"They're not going to think it's funny Immo." Amelia shook her head.
"They might, they thought that the paste man was funny, and they said the mud snowman was awesome." Imogen said her hopes rising.
"And Abby thinks it's funny, look she's laughing." Lauren added pointing at her aunt. Abby's expression instantly changed as she tried to mask her amusement at the situation, she looked from Amelia to the girls and back, attempting to silently protest her innocence.
"Abby doesn't even know what you did." Amelia said exasperated.
"But she's laughing, look." Lauren insisted as Abby stood up, trying to mask her face.
"Right, day-care, come with me." Amelia said beckoning the little girls as she crossed the room.
"No, please, Mommy no." Lauren wined.
"Come on." Amelia continued.
"We'll be good." Imogen insisted.
"I know you'll be good, but you're going to be good in day-care." Amelia said holding the door open as they trailed through, past her.
"Mealia, we won't do it again." Imogen tried as she passed through under Amelia's arm. Their pleas continued as they disappeared through the door, and Abby, Neela and Susan lost their composure completely, dissolving into laughter.
"Stop laughing." Amelia said smiling back through the door.
"Sorry." Susan said giggling.
"At least I'm some of the way through this, you've got it all to come." Amelia said to Susan before disappearing.
____
Amelia had been slammed as soon as she returned from day-care, she hadn't had a spare second to think about the girls' shenanigans, she was waiting on the phone, as Abby approached, settling beside her.
"So what did they do?" Abby asked smiling.
"Who?" Amelia asked distracted from the relentless music playing in her ear.
"Lauren and Imogen." She supplied.
"I want to hear this." Susan said over hearing Abby's question. Amelia cracked a smile, laughing slightly, and hung up on her futile phone call.
"Oh, they filled balloons with water and used them as water bombs." Amelia nodded.
"They got sent home from school for that?" Abby frowned.
"They put paint powder in them, didn't tie the balloons, and were inside the class room." Amelia shrugged, raising her eyebrows resignedly.
"How the hell did they get away with that?" Abby frowned, thinking about the covert operations that must have gone into making paint filled water bombs under a teacher's watchful eye, picking up on the meaning Amelia replied.
"Apparently the teacher was out of the room at the time." She shook her head, "Any one who thinks leaving a room full of four year olds, paint, water and balloons isn't a recipe for disaster is a fool, but apparently it's our discipline techniques that are at fault so..." She shrugged, smiling.
"Oh my god, where is this school?" Susan asked perplexed.
"Well when you hear about six year olds taking guns to school and shooting at class mates, the fact that they had a water fight seems pretty benign in comparison." Neela offered from the other side of admit.
"It's a fair point." Abby noted.
"Yeah, if they start shooting at each other, then I'll take the serious parenting approach." Amelia conceded.
"It all starts with what they see at home, you've got to be strict." Frank butted in, a knowing expression on his face, "All the delinquents I saw as a cop started out as mischievous four year olds."
"They're not going to turn into delinquents." Amelia replied bashfully.
"Well, I guess that's a risk you're willing to take." Frank shook his head.
"It's actually pretty imaginative, if you think about it, I'm not sure that I'd have thought to do that at the age of four." Amelia admitted, dismissing Frank, turning back to the others.
"I think you probably would have." Abby said, her eyes laughing, knowing that Amelia had gotten into her fair share of trouble even as a little kid.
"Hey where are they?" Jasper's resigned voice came from the other side of the desk. Amelia turned towards him and Nick.
"Hi, day-care third floor." Amelia pointed towards the elevators, smiling at them, "How was court?" Amelia continued as they approached, rather than heading straight towards the elevators.
"Tedious." Jasper sighed rubbing his temple.
"Meals I'm really sorry, I'm gonna get an on-call babysitter." Nick smiled apologetically, leaning on the desk.
"What did they do?" Jasper asked leaning in to kiss Amelia 'hello', she reciprocated automatically before she began to explain as Nick and Jasper looked resignedly at her.
"Paint bombed their class room. "Amelia replied casually.
"With what?" Nick asked, knowing there was more to come.
"Balloons, powder paint and water." Amelia said adding, "You can't find it funny." She noted the amused expressions on their faces. "They've been sent home from school, they're talking about suspending them next week and I'm clearly not getting through."
"Christ I didn't have the bottle to do that until I was ten, and even then it was just with water and outside." Jasper noted.
"Good for you." Amelia said dismissively, concentrating her gaze on Nick who looked amused, but as though he might take it seriously.
"Meals, we'll go talk to them." He reassured, as they turned towards the elevators, "Are we aloud to be a little bit proud of them for coming up with this?" He asked grinning turning back.
"No." Amelia said sternly. "We have to pay for the damage to the class room." She added.
"What?" Nick said, his eyebrows shooting up, stepping back towards Amelia.
"How much?" Jasper asked, looking almost scared.
"They said they'd call with an estimate tonight, they thought about seven hundred dollars though." Amelia said mildly amused at how seriously they were taking it now they knew money was involved.
"Seven hundred dollars, why?" Nick said disbelievingly.
"They're going to have to repaint the walls and a bunch of other stuff they said." Amelia explained.
"Paint the walls with what, gold leaf?" Jasper said horrified.
"Look, take it up with your daughters', this one's up to you." She said decisively, sending them away turning back to Susan, Abby and Neela.
"Jesus where the hell do you hang out to pick up guys that look like that?" Susan asked genuinely interested tearing her eyes from the pair headed towards the elevator looking at Amelia.
"Don't even." Amelia warned, walking away with a chart.
_____
"Hi." Abby smiled, bumping into Nick crossing the road, Imogen by his side as she walked out of Ikes, coffee in hand.
"Hey, you headed home?" He asked smiling warmly back at her.
"Yeah." Abby nodded pulling her coat closer around her, sniffing slightly. "How's the arm doing Imogen?" Abby asked looking down at the little girl.
"It's ok." Imogen told her quietly. Abby looked back up to Nick, frowning a bit.
"She's feeling sorry for herself because she's in trouble, this is the grumpy stage before she starts defending her actions." He confided smiling. "D'you want a lift?" Nick offered adding, "My car's just round the corner."
"You sure?" Abby asked hoisting her bag further onto her shoulder.
"It's not like it's out of my way, come on, as long as you can put up with a bitchy four year old." He said quietly out of Imogen's earshot smiling, turning, Abby in tow.
"You know how much you have to pay yet?" Abby smiled, referring to the costly damage the girls' had caused. Nick shot her a sideways glance.
"I can't figure out if Amelia's just trying to get us to take this seriously or if they are actually going to make us pay." He said, obviously dubious about the intent of Amelia's actions.
"So you think it might just be a ploy to make you take responsibility." Abby nodded, looking over at him.
"It can't seriously cost seven hundred dollars to repaint a room." Nick said frowning. "This is either Amelia trying to get out of telling them off or the school getting revenge on us for being the parents of trouble makers. Both of which are imminently possible" Nick laughed slightly as they arrived at his car, she was secretly impressed by the sleek Audi convertible, it wasn't a muscle car thank god, but it defiantly had class, Nick strapped Imogen in as she walked to the passenger side. As she got in she heard Imogen slipping into the defense of her actions stage Nick had mentioned.
"Everyone was playing Daddy." Imogen said, her voice not wining, just full of determination.
"Imm, you and Lauren started it, that's what the deal is." Nick replied, looking apologetically at Abby before looking in his rear view mirror fixing his gaze on his daughter as he started the ignition.
"No we didn't." Imogen said defensively, staring back at his mirrored gaze. "Wyatt Jenson started it, he throwed water at Katie first." She said her little emotions bubbling evidently inside her, she was obviously frustrated by the situation as he face contorted into a frown. Nick pulled out of the parking space, no longer looking at Imogen but still caring on their conversation.
"Ok so if Wyatt threw water at Katie why were you and Lauren involved at all?" Nick asked, obviously trying to be reasonable, trying to hear Imogen out, quite clearly having absolutely no idea who either Wyatt or Katie were, Abby watched as a smile played on his lips, he saw her watching him and looked over at her smiled broadly, mouthing the words 'I'm sorry' before listening to his daughter's response.
"He made Katie cry so me and Lauren…" Nick cut in
"Lauren and I, Imm." He corrected automatically looking at Abby as she laughed. "What?" He asked smiling and frowning at the same time.
"You're correcting her grammar?" Abby said her eyebrows raised, laughing at the situation, feeling bold she turned in her seat to face Imogen. "Ok, so he made Katie cry and then what?" Abby asked, taking over Nick's interrogation.
"Your not supposed to make other kids cry so I throwed water at Lo, and then she throwed water at me and then it was fun and then everyone joined in and Katie wasn't sad any more." Imogen explained willingly to the first person that wasn't a parent but was willing to listen, a frown still fixed on her face. Abby smiled warmly at her, glancing at Nick, she saw that he was grinning as well, desperately trying not to applaud his daughter she was trying to respond as Nick cut in, parental responsibility in place.
"Immo, ok." He breathed deeply before continuing as Abby shifted back round in her seat, looking at him as he dealt with his child. "Imm you and Lauren are already in pretty big trouble at school…" He paused, breathing deeply again, Nick continued instructing his daughter and occasionally bartering with her as she argued with him until they lapsed into a satisfied silence having agreed on a few behavioral aspects for school before devising a few 'fun' tasks for the weekend and arriving at their apartments.
Imogen ran off into their apartment as Nick hovered by the door, watching Abby struggle with the sticky lock on her door.
"Abby, would you," Nick started clearing his throat nervously as she looked up. "Would you be interested in going out for dinner sometime, or drinks or something, I mean if you want to, sometime?" He babbled, she smiled at him for a second, his obvious nervous demeanor endearing him to her even more.
"Sure." She nodded, the amused smile still plastered to her face.
Ok, I know that this whole thing is relatively unimportant, but I'm quite into the idea that these kids are not angels, and actually neither are their parents, in my humble opinion naughty kids are far more interesting than good ones!!!
As ever let me know what u think, I quite like these kids...