Ok, we're kicking off a little while after we left them, this is now hopefully drawing to a close, there should be about 4 or 5 ch's left so be warned… although having said that I could keep going but who knows… Anyway let it rip.

I still own nothing.

Ch41   

Nick, Abby and Jasper were sitting around the Kitchen table in Jasper and Amelia's house as Lauren and Imogen ran through the house and into the sun drenched garden.

"So when are you plotting this for?" Abby queried leaning conspiratorially towards Jasper who had a pen and notepad in front of him, having just told Abby and Nick why he'd needed them to come over and bring food.

"Lauren's birthday." Jasper said decisively.

"That ten days away." Abby said raising her eyebrows sceptically.

"Yeah I know which is why I need you to help me." He said imploringly looking between them.

"You're going to need more people than just us to help." Nick said raising his eyebrows.

"No, no look I don't, I have a plan." Jasper said launching into a lengthily explanation. They listened carefully as he explained, leaning back on their chairs in unison as Jasper finished, looking at them as if it was all very simple when in fact 'the plan' sounded like it would require about the same amount of stealth as the D-Day landings.

"Ok." Nick sighed, rubbing his hand backwards through his hair as he sighed. "Ok, right." He said again as he leant back towards the table, leaning his forearms on it in a businesslike manner. "It's doable, but we are going to need more people to manage it, the kids don't know about any of this do they?" He said pulling Jasper's planning pad from his grip, grabbing the pen as well.

"No way." Jasper told him, shaking his head, knowing that if Lauren, or Imogen even, got wind of any of his plans Amelia would know before he even had a chance to blink.

"You know she's going to hate this right." Abby said her forehead creasing slightly as she looked at Jasper, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, but that's part of the point and besides it'll be memorable." Jasper grinned.

"Yeah, but memorable maybe for the wrong reasons." Abby frowned.

"No, we've talked about it before, it'll be fine, she'll hate it, but she'll love it really."  Jasper nodded assuredly.

"Ahh the old love hate thing." Nick cut in relinquishing the pad and pen.

"Exactly." Jasper nodded, looking over at him.

"Right who's going to be here anyway for this birthday thing you're going to have for Lauren?" Nick asked, tearing off a piece of paper, and reaching behind him for another pen. 

"Um, Birdie and Ed are coming out, your Mom's coming down right?" Jasper added looking over at Abby who nodded her ascent, "I'm not sure if your brother's coming." He added shooting her another brief look.

"I'm fairly sure he wont." Abby said knowingly, adding "But then again." With a shrug. Eric was doing ok as far as she knew, but she also knew that Amelia had made no effort to get in contact with him and visa versa. Jasper nodded looking at her still before continuing, brushing the issue aside, it was clear to Abby as he continued that Amelia had talked to him about it, about Eric, but in her mind now Amelia was as much of a sibling as Eric and what Jasper was asking her to do she was more than willing to attempt for the youngest member of their family however dubious she was about it.

"Ok, other than that it's pretty much just a bunch of kids and their parents from the school and stuff, you two, and I think Amelia said she'd invited a couple of people with kids from the hospital, and there's a couple from the firm whose kids Lauren knows as well." Jasper shrugged.

"Ok so we need someone to spread the word in New York and see how many of them want to come out here." Nick paused.

"Ok, so we'll talk to Birdie." Jasper shrugged, writing 'talk to Bird' on the first line of his pad. Nick threw his pen down on the table and looked disbelievingly at Jasper.

"D'you want to keep this secret from Amelia?" Nick asked raising his eyebrows looking over at him crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah." Jasper nodded, frowning at him.

"Who told Amelia that you'd come into the bar every night for like three weeks straight to see Amanda?" Nick asked whimsically tipping his chin at Jasper. 

"Birdie." Jasper said his face expressing some hesitance.

"Unh hunh, ok, who told Amelia that you wanted to start dating her in the first place after Amanda blew you out?" Nick asked looking at Jasper, the twinkle evident in his eyes.

"Birdie." Jasper said his face showing scepticism for the first time.

"Right and who told Amelia that you were going to ask her to move in with you?" Nick asked his questions continuing as his demeanour remained relaxed, knowing that he'd already made his point but wanting to continue anyway knowing that it made his closest friend look somewhat comedically foolish.

"Birdie." Jasper repeated the name.

"And who told Amelia that you knocked Lauren's first tooth out by trying to feed her a gobstopper and she hadn't actually fallen over and knocked it out on the floor like you told her?" Nick continued.

"Birdie." Jasper conceded again.

"Do you see a pattern emerging here?" Nick asked, picking his pen up and waving it in circles at Jasper, his eyes laughing. "Who else is there that knows pretty much everyone she knows." Nick questioned as Jasper scribbled out 'talk to Bird.'

"Well you do." Jasper shrugged.

"Yeah, and so do you but it's all about delegation." Nick countered.

"Have you even made a list of the people who you want to come to this?" Abby asked, frowning, looking between the pair as they bickered.

"Well yeah, kind of." Jasper said frowning. "And I even got invitations printed." Jasper said producing a box of cards from by his left foot, dumping them on the table. "Check it out." He smiled proudly at the achievement.

"Hey they're kind of cool." Nick said looking up from his paper, tapping the one Abby was looking at.

"Yeah I thought so." Jasper nodded smugly.

"Ok, right, start writing a list of the people you need to get one of these to." Abby instructed as she laughed slightly, waving the thing that looked like a flyer in her hand at Jasper, before tossing it back into the box, secretly quite impressed that Jasper was going to so much trouble for her little sister, despite what she foresaw would be very rushed organisation, and a potential disaster. Jasper made absolutely no attempt to follow her instruction as he sucked the end of his pen. "Are any of your family coming over for Lauren's birthday?" Abby asked frowning inquisitively at him.

"I already spoke to my Dad and his girlfriend and they were thinking about it, and I think both of my brothers wanted to take a holiday anyway and my sister and her boyfriend have said they'd try to make it as well." Jasper nodded at her.

"Kate." Nick suddenly exclaimed, clearly not listening to Abby and Jasper.

"Yes." Jasper nodded, pointing the pen in his hand at Nick.

"What?" Abby frowned.

"Kate, Kate went to college with her, went to NYU with her, worked in the bar, she knows everyone and then some." Nick said smiling at his brain wave, holding out his hands.

"Awesome." Jasper nodded his agreement.

"D'you have a phone number for her?" Abby said, noting how proud they were of themselves for coming up with the ideas but not actually doing anything with them.

"Meals has got one, hold that thought." Jasper said making his way towards the desk in the corner of their lounge, pulling out a tattered looking book and bringing it back to the table with him along with the phone. "Hey check it, everyone's in here." Jasper said smiling at his find. "This makes everything a piece of piss." He shrugged, flicking through the pages. Jasper flicked through the book as Nick started jotting things down wordlessly, Abby looked slightly bemused between the pair as Jasper read out various names and Nick looked up as the pair started gossiping about what had happened to who, who had gotten together with who, who had broken up with who, and what they were all doing now, like a couple of old women.

"Ok right give me that." She interrupted them, grabbing the pen of Nick; glancing at the list he'd been writing and then looking again as she saw the first couple of items, a light frown on her face. "Did you hear him say that this needed to be Amelia's kind of party?" She asked looking back up from the paper to Nick.

"Yes." Nick shrugged, a smile on his face.

"Ok, so you think that…" She paused reading off the sheet. "Strippers, belly dancers, stethoscopes, what the hell…" She asked as she saw his list getting more ridiculous, frowning up at him, laughing; he was quite clearly not taking the any of it seriously.

"All doctors like stethoscopes." He shrugged.

"So you want to theme their party around stethoscopes?" She said sarcastically taking the piece of paper off him, replacing it with a fresh sheet. "Start on the things you're going to have to get practically." She instructed, attempting to take things in hand. "Right, who do you need to come." She asked turning to Jasper.

 "Are we aiming for efficiency now?" Nick said mockingly a wry smile on his lips.

"Shut up." Abby replied playfully with a throw away comment as she looked back at Jasper after her derisory look directed at Nick. She really quite wanted this plan to work, and she wanted Amelia to enjoy it and so she threw herself into trying to organize the morons surrounding her and ignore the two small screaming girls that periodically ran through the room. After twenty minutes of all three of them actually trying to organize and not just taking the piss they'd come up with a list of people who needed inviting, and other things that needed doing, along with specific things that certain people needed to bring, they'd also identified all the people Jasper, Nick and Abby as far as the hospital staff and Maggie were concerned, deemed incapable of keeping this from Amelia, and needed very last minute invitations and they put their pens down.

"Ok, give me Kate's number, I'm sure that she'll remember other people, and she'll probably send them out for you as well." Nick said holding his hand out for the phone and the number, clearly entering into an unusual mode of effectiveness rather than his usual laid back philosophy, Jasper handed him both obligingly, and he walked into the lounge, taking a seat on the couch as he started speaking, a friendly smile in his voice as he did.

"Ok, so can you give these to people she'd want to come from work?" Jasper said flapping a pile of cards in front of Abby.

"Yeah, listen, don't you want to do a head count because that list looks pretty long." Abby said spying the pages she'd written and Jasper now had sitting in front of him.

"You think she won't want that many people there?" Jasper said looking at her, slightly concerned.

"Yeah, no, I'm sure she will it's just that logistically how many people are going to fit in your back yard because you're going to have all the people from Lauren's thing there too." She said frowning slightly. Jasper nodded for a second as he scanned the pages in front of him, she had a point.

"78, 79, 80, 81." Jasper finished with a flourish as Nick walked back into the Kitchen. "Eighty one, they won't all come so it'll be fine, and even if they do the yard's big enough." Jasper said reassured, nodding at Abby who raised her eyebrows slightly, this was clearly going to be a fairly sizeable event. "What'd she say?" He asked turning to Nick.

"She said she was on it, she's going to go and talk to Eddie, said to send her all the invites that needed to be sent out in New York and she'd do it, she also said to send her a couple of spares just in case and to let her know if you wanted anyone to bring anything." Nick smiled nodding.

"Awesome." Jasper nodded back.

"What time is Amelia due home?" Abby frowned as she checked her watch and surveyed the plans filled table, looking back up at Jasper.

"Half six why what's the time now?" He asked frowning.

"Twenty past." She said quietly as a look of abject horror crossed Jasper's face and he hurriedly began to pile papers and stuff invitations and envelopes back into their box. Seven and a half minutes after the three of them combined had managed to clear the house of any signs of Jasper's plan and sat back down at the table, drinks in front of each of them in an effort to look unsuspicious Amelia walked through the door.

"Mommy." Lauren's cheery voice announced her arrival.

"Hey" Amelia's voice filtered through to the kitchen a clear smile in it. Followed almost instantly by Imogen's voice.

"Melia can Lo come and stay at our house tonight?" Imogen's clearly overexcited voice filtered through to the kitchen and Nick rolled his eyes.

"You'll have to ask Dad and Abby when they pick you up." They heard Amelia reply.

"They're here." Lauren's innocent wisdom informed her, as the patter of feet indicated the girls' immanent arrival.

"Hi." Amelia smiled as she walked into the kitchen preceded by Lauren and Imogen who began instantly to harass Nick and Abby respectively, eager to seek some kind of agreement to their request, which they did almost instantly as Abby and Nick's eyes agreed that they owed Amelia and Jasper some kind of babysitting repayment.

Amelia walked towards Jasper, smiling down at the girls and looking gratefully towards Abby and Nick, she laid a hand on his chest and bent to kiss him hello. Standing back up; stealing his beer as she did, Imogen and Lauren began to bounce around her as she opened the door of the fridge pulling out an uncorked bottle of wine, and the subsequent drinks that Lauren and Imogen had requested.

"D'you guys want to stay for dinner?" Jasper offered as he scooted around Amelia to get another beer and passed another automatically to Nick. They conferred momentarily before agreeing once again and Jasper grabbed the pile of take out menus.

"There's burgers actually if you want to barbeque." Amelia offered, reaching back past Jasper to replace the bottle in the fridge, her hand resting momentarily on his hip. It was like a little practiced dance with no music the way they moved around each other, so cleanly, so subtly, so comfortably.

"Sounds good." Nick nodded as he pushed his chair back standing to grab the bottle opener off the worktop.

"Why is it that men always become excessively manly when they barbeque?" Amelia frowned looking from Jasper and Nick's beer swilling, comedy chef hat wearing, apron donning forms and over to Abby. "I know that it's a cliché, but it's true look at them." She tipped her glass in their direction.

"I don't know, some fire lighting, hunter-gather instinct maybe." Abby smiled, bringing her eyes away from them and over to Amelia's.

"Jesus, do you ever let up on this Freudian crap?" Amelia grinned mocking her, laughing slightly as she met Abby's eyes.

"That's not Freud, if you're going to mock me about psychoanalysis then you at least need to get your psychological theories right." Abby raised her eyebrows taking a sip from her beer.

"There's probably a theory somewhere there in that response as well isn't there?" Amelia grinned knowingly.

"Almost certainly." Abby agreed rolling her eyes, placing the bottle back beside her chair; as Lauren and Imogen hurtled past them and out into the dimming light of the yard.

"So how are you and him doing?" Amelia asked looking at the kids now playing in the yard, her eyes unassuming as they diverted back to Abby.

"Actually ok I think." Abby nodded not looking back, her eyes fixed on Imogen and her niece, a knowing twinkle sparkling in them.

"Yeah." Amelia questioned.

"Yeah." She nodded, turning back to Amelia a smile on her face.

It's a little turning point-ish the end of this chapter. Abby's happy!!! Whoop de woo hoo hoo! I find it so hard to write this stuff because you see it so rarely, but most of the time it's what everyone wants to see, so here it is in all its hopefully subtle glory. No one's dying, no one's sick and there are good (hopefully) mysterious plans in place! – All guesses welcome! Let me know what you think….. K XxX