Ok, Ch 43 and it's party time, I will get to review responses in the next chapter so bare with me, until then though, thanks so much and I hope you enjoy this one….
Cheers K XxX
"Hi." Amelia said as she opened the front door.
"Hey." Abby replied as she entered the by now familiar house carrying a gift in her hand.
"It's a bit of a mad house, I'm sorry." Amelia said smiling, laughing slightly as two children who didn't belong to her tore around behind her. "Come on through." She finished looking back at her, and leading Abby through to the back yard.
She was impressed as she looked around, the entire garden was strung with balloons, and fairy lanterns hung from every tree. There were people milling about all over the yard, parents and children alike, the place was pretty much full.
"You sure know how to throw a party." Abby noted seeing the mountains of party food on the tables, and the paddling pool in the middle of the lawn.
"I know, I'm thinking of making a career out of it, this one took me long enough, I was starting to think that she was going to turn six before I got all of this stuff set up." She smiled.
"Hey birthday girl, how are you?" Abby smiled as Lauren ran over towards her and Amelia.
"You came." Lauren announced excitedly bouncing up and down.
"I did." Abby smiled, bending down to Lauren, handing her, her present.
"Thank you." She told Abby happily.
"You're welcome sweetie." Abby smiled at her again.
"Can I open just this one Mommy, please." Lauren begged, she was almost bursting having not been allowed to open any presents while the party was going on.
"Ok, just this one though." Amelia conceded, as Lauren began eagerly tearing off the paper.
"Hey Lauren what d'you get." Jaspers voice came from above the three of them who were all now crouched on the ground. They all looked up to see his face shielded by a camcorder. "Hey Abby." He added as she looked up and waved, embarrassed.
"Look Daddy." Lauren said standing up proudly displaying a huge box of paints, felt tips, crayons and pencils.
"Awesome." Jasper said still behind the video.
Lauren turned around and threw he arms around Abby's neck, clearly thrilled with her gift. "Thank you." She said sweetly. When the present inspection was over, and Amelia had pried it from Lauren's grip, agreeing that she would put it somewhere safe she and Abby stood up.
"This is great, thanks." Amelia told her, indicating the present. Abby shook off the compliment with a nod of her head.
"Would you like a drink?" She asked
"Sure." Abby replied,
"Follow me, we have just about everything, personally I'm sticking with the wine to see me through this." She smiled at her.
"I'm beginning to understand why." Abby frowned as two little boys ran in circles around them screaming before sprinting off to reek havoc elsewhere. "Is Maggie here yet?" she added.
"Yeah, she got here about an hour ago, she's…" Amelia started, scanning the yard. "She's talking to your boyfriend would you look at that." Amelia said pointing as she spied her talking and laughing with Nick, a small 'ha, ha you're screwed' look on her face. Abby rolled her eyes and Maggie and Nick headed towards them. Amelia had accepted that Lauren wanted Maggie here, and she'd decided that it was fine; she was slowly coming to the conclusion that Maggie was going to be an inevitable part of her life and as such she was willing to deal with her. Nick and Maggie arrived at the drinks table at the same time as them; Nick was clearly desperately in need of some kind of refreshment.
"Help yourself." Amelia said to Abby indicating the drink-laden table. "Can you please get that bloody camcorder off Jasper?" She asked turning her attention to Nick as Maggie began to speak to Abby.
"You know that I can't, besides, he's asked me to take over in a while and then it's going to be in your face even more." Nick laughed at her.
"Thin ice Nick, very thin ice." Amelia warned him, heading off to find Jasper.
"Hey." Nick smiled turning his attention to Abby as they kissed hello.
"Hi." She smiled back at him, caught slightly off guard as a mother pulled a little boy over behind them and began to tell him off.
"Do you two know what's happening later?" Maggie asked looking between them.
"It's a forbidden subject until later I'm afraid." Nick said smiling.
"Amelia doesn't know about it so you can't say anything." Abby told her smiling slightly.
"No, I know that she doesn't but you do right?" She said looking between them still.
"You'll have to wait and see." Nick smiled, toying with her as she frowned slightly.
"Daddy here." Imogen said rushing up to them thrusting her tee shirt into his hand, "Can you do my buckles up again." She requested, as the top of her overalls flapped around her waist turning to Abby for help. "Hi Abby." She said acknowledging her as she bent to help with the overalls.
"Hey, you having fun?" Abby said bending down to help with the buckles.
"Yeah, it's awesome." Imogen said cheerily before running away again to carry on with her fun.
"Awesome hunh, it sound's like she spends too much time listening to you." Abby smiled looking back at Nick.
"God, don't." Nick replied already unsure of his parenting abilities. "Is it inappropriate that she's half dressed?" He frowned at Abby.
"I don't think so, she's five." Abby laughed at his concern.
"Hello." Elizabeth's distinctive voice came from behind them, aimed at Abby, causing her to look around.
"Elizabeth, hi." She smiled mildly surprised to see her there, but glad nonetheless.
"What are you doing here already?" Elizabeth asked smiling.
"Family duty, or something along those lines." Abby explained with a crocked smile.
"Of course, sorry." Elizabeth shook her head.
"You?" Abby asked.
"Lauren and Ella met at day care, and she's the below her at school." Elizabeth explained still smiling, looking over at Nick, Abby got the hint and introduced them.
"Sorry, Elizabeth this is Nick, Nick, Elizabeth Corday." She finished. "And this is my Mom." She added indicating Maggie.
"Hi nice to meet you." Elizabeth smiled at Maggie and then up to Nick.
"Ella's Mom right." Nick twigged shaking her hand.
"That's right." She replied still slightly puzzled by who he was.
"Sorry, I'm Imogen Johnson's father." He shook his head slightly.
"Oh right." She replied, not sure what to make of the man whose daughter she felt wasn't a particularly positive influence on her daughter.
"Is Susan here?" Abby asked Elizabeth, Amelia had mentioned that she was coming early, sort of for a lesson in what she was in for but she hadn't seen her.
"Yes, she's over there, the baby's beautiful." Elizabeth indicated behind them.
"You haven't seen him before?" Abby asked surprised, she thought the whole world had seen Susan's baby by now, but obviously not.
"This sounds like a women's conversation, I'll see you later, Elizabeth it was nice to meet you." Nick smiled excusing himself, as Birdie approached Maggie, dragging her off for a conversation about the organisations for later.
"He's very handsome." Elizabeth said as she and Abby made their way over to Susan who had a couple of kids and Mom's surrounding her looking at her baby. Abby smiled at her. "Are you and him?" She asked eyeing Abby suspiciously.
"Kind of yeah." Abby nodded still smiling.
"Oh right." Elizabeth smiled to herself.
Abby, Elizabeth, Susan and Chuck had been talking for a few minutes, Susan had handed her son to Elizabeth who was cooing over him appropriately as Amelia approached with Jasper following her, camcorder still in hand and Sam headed from the other direction.
"Jas I swear to god, turn that thing off or I'm going to beat you round the head with it." She said semi annoyed but still playful.
"Ok, ok," He relented. "I'm going to go and talk to Birdie and Ed, I'm sure they'll have a few choice words for me." He informed her grinning as he headed over to where Birdie, Eddie, Maggie and the girls were.
Amelia's eyes wandered over to the little group, she saw Maggie, Birdie and Ed in conversation with Lauren and Imogen, both of whom were hanging off Ed. Abby, who had been standing a little way off extracted herself and made her way over to Amelia.
"You ok?" Abby asked her.
"Me? Yeah I'm fine." She said coming out of her trance smiling over at Abby.
"Why are you looking at them so suspiciously?" Abby asked looking from the little group to Amelia.
"Because I'm almost positive, one or all of them are plotting something." Amelia said narrowing her eyes.
"They don't look like they are." Abby said laughing slightly, nervously trying to put Amelia off track.
"It looks like they are." Amelia said looking from them to Abby suspicion still on her face.
"Are you not supposed to be mingling?" Abby asked frowning, changing the subject.
"Yes, actually, would you care to join me?" She said smiling at Abby, a slightly mocking tone in her voice as she turned her attention to Abby fully.
"I can't think of anything I'd like to do more." Abby told her equally mockingly as they both turned back towards Susan and Elizabeth as Sam arrived.
"Hi." Amelia smiled at Sam who was approaching, looking slightly harassed and apologetic.
"Hi, Amelia I'm really sorry, Alex has found some kind of games console and is all over it in your lounge." She said smiling sheepishly.
"Hey, no, that's fine, that's what it's there for." Amelia shrugged. "There are a couple of other kids around his age knocking about, I'm sure they'd be interested as well actually." Amelia said scanning.
"Yeah no, he's got them in there as well." She said with a knowing smile.
"Mom." Alex's voice interrupted them, the three of them turned to see him approaching with a closed game in his hand. "Can we open this, the one in the machine sucks." He said holding out the packet for Sam.
"No." She said frowning grabbing it off him.
"The TV's even smaller than ours." Alex said with a disgusted look, Sam shot him a warning glance.
"Finally someone who agrees with me, it's rubbish isn't it." Jasper nodded at him as he appeared beside them, Alex nodded at him.
"Put this back please." Sam said handing the game back to Alex.
"But Mom, there's only like one other game." He wined
"That's a copy, there are loads in the draw." Amelia said looking down at him.
"What draw?" He asked in a 'who the hell are you' voice.
"There's a draw in there that's full of games, the bottom one under the TV." Amelia explained.
"Oh no, no, you can't get her started on the SNES, she'll never get off it." Jasper grinned.
"Girls suck at games." Alex told him assumingly.
"Not this girl, Nascar and Mario cart you will never beat her." Jasper pointed at her.
"Luka's really good, he'd kick her ass." Alex said shaking her head.
"Alex." Sam interjected warningly.
"Luka's really good at what?" Luka asked appearing beside them.
"SNES." Alex told him.
"Oh." Luka nodded with a smile.
"Nope, we must have played a thousand times and I've only beaten her twice." Jasper said shaking his head.
"You must really suck." Alex said looking up at him.
"He does." Amelia agreed.
"I bet you wouldn't beat Luka." Alex said looking to her.
"That's a bet I might be willing to take." Amelia said, smiling slightly as she looked from Alex to Luka.
"Oh, no, no, no." Luka shook his head.
"Come on you'll beat her easily." Alex chastised him as Abby and Sam looked on laughing slightly.
"Looks like he's got more faith in you than you do." Amelia smiled at Luka challengingly.
"Ok, let's do this thing, I'll really show you how to play." Luka said pushing up his sleeves, smiling still as she shot a look at Sam who rolled her eyes and Alex looked excited. "One condition, I choose the game." He said.
"Got to be Nascar or Mario cart." Amelia shook her head.
"Ok, Mario." Luka nodded. "What's the bet?" He asked still smiling.
"Three days of dispo summaries and keep everything rectal away from me for a week." Amelia grinned.
"Ok, and you do all my scutt and keep my patient load below ten for a week." Luka said with a smile.
"Deal." Amelia held out her hand.
"Deal." Luka shook it.
"It's impossible to keep his patient load down." Abby said with a laugh.
"Doesn't matter because I'm going to win." Amelia said still smiling as she shrugged confidently.
"How'd you get so confident with this?" Sam smiled, looking at her quizzically.
"My youth was incredibly misspent, you should see my pool shot." Amelia smiled back.
"Not just your youth that was misspent." Jasper said teasing her.
"Ok, so my life's been one long round of bar games." Amelia grinned.
"Come on." Alex grabbed Luka's hand trying to pull him away.
"If you beat her then I need some tips." Japer said smiling at Luka.
"Oh, I will." Luka grinned at him.
"Let's see." Amelia smiled back at him, heading towards the house behind Alex and Luka.
"Kick his ass." Sam said grabbing her arm as she moved past. Amelia gave her a smile that indicated that that was exactly what she intended to do.
"Mom." Alex said bounding up beside Sam as she and Abby stood talking with Jasper Nick, Birdie, Ed and Maggie, Amelia headed down the steps talking with Luka as they made their way across the yard. "She's awesome, she showed me how to do stationary flip rolls and she knows like every single trick, and all of the secret routes and stuff." Alex said excitedly tugging at Sam's arm. "She really kicked Luka's ass." He said with a grin.
"So it looks like girls can play after all then." Sam smiled at him.
"Was she playing Mario cart?" Nick asked Alex who nodded at him enthusiastically.
"I told you she was good." Jasper said raising his eyebrows.
"I've never beaten her and I'm good at that game." Nick said with a nod.
"Nick bought a SNES and sold it two days later because he was so sick of being beaten by her, never won a game did you mate." Jasper said patting his back, as Nick shook his head sadly.
"So you're off dispo's for a week." Abby smiled as Luka and Amelia arrived, having made a pit stop at the drinks table.
"Yup." Amelia grinned.
"She beat you hunh?" Sam said mock sympathetically as Luka laced his arm around her back.
"She didn't just beat me, three rounds and I never even got close." He shook his head sadly as Alex ran off, back to the house.
"Mommy can we have cake?" Lauren asked pulling herself off Eddie and heading towards Amelia.
"I don't think it's cake time yet, why are you hungry?" Amelia asked her as she craned her neck up.
"No, but I want some cake." Lauren said grinning at her mother.
"I can't do cake, but…" Amelia said looking around to the food stack. "I can do jelly; how's that?" She asked her hands on her hips. Lauren paused considering the offer.
"Yeah." She nodded, "With Ice-cream." She added enthusiastically.
"There's no ice-cream." Amelia told her.
"Chocolate sauce then." Lauren told her.
"Jelly and chocolate sauce." Amelia said frowning at her.
"Yeah." She nodded.
"That's disgusting." She laughed.
"Can I have some too?" Imogen asked looking up at Abby.
"Yeah." Abby smiled down at her, she grinned and grabbed Amelia's hand as she headed off with Lauren.
"Jesus Nick I can't believe the pair of um are five." Birdie said turning from the girls to Nick.
"Yeah, before you know it they'll be bringing boys home for us to intimidate and asking us to buy them cars and wedding dresses." Nick grinned as his cell began to shrill in his pocket, playing a horribly accurate rendition of twinkle, twinkle little star.
"Imogen get hold of your cell again?" Abby asked, a grin on her face.
"Yeah." He grinned back, clearly she hadn't.
"Yeah." Abby nodded at him and they shared a smile as he flipped open his cell and answered.
"It's Tom." Nick said handing the phone to Jasper.
"Who?" Birdie asked, never wanting to be left out.
"His brother." Nick nodded at her.
"So what's the plan for this thing tonight?" Sam asked frowning at Abby conspiratorially.
"Mealia." Nick said loudly enough for it to be warning causing Abby, Sam and Luka to turn as the two little girls made their way past them and sat cross-legged in the middle of the group as Amelia bent placing the two bowls of jelly and chocolate sauce in front of them.
"Yeah." She said standing up looking at Nick, who shot a 'help me' glance in Abby's direction.
"So everyone here's a bloody educated professional." Birdie said looking at Amelia filling the silence.
"It would seem so." Nick nodded at her with a smile on his face, she'd taken the question on nicely.
"Sorry, Sam, Luka, this is Birdie and Ed, and Maggie." Amelia introduced them, as they both smiled. Luka smiled warmly at Maggie, giving her a little nod, which she returned.
"Why the bloody hell are all three of mine stupid great oafs then, the two of you should have taught them something at least." She said looking between Nick and Amelia.
"They're not oafs Bird." Amelia laughed slightly at her.
"Well they ain't like you lot." Birdie asserted with a huff.
"Bird they're not that bad you wouldn't have been able to come if they weren't looking after the bar." Amelia said with a smile.
"Luv, Andy won eighty nine grand on the lottery and invested the bloody lot in some stupid scheme involving rubber chickens that went tits up and he's back living above the bar again, that don't inspire much confidence." Birdie said her tone resigned.
"Eighty nine grand?" Amelia laughed slightly, she hadn't heard this one.
"Yeah, I warned him that it was stupid." Eddie nodded up at Amelia as Nick and Jasper both laughed.
"What was he going to get out of rubber chickens?" Sam asked frowning.
"Bloody rubber eggs, I ain't got no idea, ain't never heard of no one flooding no markets with rubber chickens." Eddie said shaking his head.
"Well maybe that was the point if it's never been done before." Amelia shrugged, smiling.
"Luv, I knew he was pig ignorant but I ain't never heard of no one being quite that stupid." Birdie shook her head.
"They may have an air of oafishness." Nick said with a smile on his face as he looked at Birdie.
"They're fine." Amelia shook her head at Birdie, who pulled away from the subject.
"Christ, d'you know with all the bull…" She was about to add the end of the phrase when Amelia cleared her throat loudly and pointed to the two little girls sitting next to them. "All the stuff." Birdie corrected herself as the others smiled on, "She told me about when she was at medical school, I recon I could get a bloody medical degree me self." Birdie grinned as Lauren and Imogen giggled, Amelia shook her head, and she knew, however hard she tried or hinted she was never going to be able to stop Birdie swearing around Lauren "And with these two clowns over here," She indicated Nick and Jasper, sighing, shaking her head slightly. "I could write a book on the criminal court through the centuries, my bar didn't look like a bar most day's with this lot around it looked like a bloody library." She finished sighing.
"Ah, but we educated you Bird, that's the trade off." Nick smiled at her.
"Didn't do nothing for me bloody sons though did you." She said with a smile and an eye roll.
"Apart from stopping two of them getting sent down no." Nick said with a smile on his face.
"Aye yeah we actually probably still owe um a bloody lot for that." Eddie said looking over at his wife who shrugged her agreement.
"Bloody hell." Lauren said talking to Imogen, mimicking Birdie as they both giggled.
"Um, hey no." Amelia said looking at her shaking her head looking down at Lauren.
"Why, Birdie says it." Lauren looked up at Amelia as she spoke, some of the laughter fading from her eyes as she realised that her mother was serious.
"Birdie says a lot of things that you're not allowed to say." Amelia said her eyebrows raised as she looked down at Lauren.
"But Daddy says it." Lauren frowned.
"What does daddy say?" Jasper asked Nick quietly as he handed him the phone.
"Bloody hell." Nick told him very quietly
"I don't care you're not allowed to." Amelia said clearly.
"Fucker?" Lauren asked frowning up at her mother, she was questioning her allowed use of the word as she frowned at Amelia whose eyebrows rose further as she glanced at Jasper and the other adults around her stared at Lauren slightly shocked, Amelia motioned with her finger for Lauren to come to her, which she did obediently, guessing correctly from her mothers face that this wasn't a time to argue.
"I was waiting for this conversation." Jasper said making his way to Lauren picking her off the ground, away from Amelia as he handed her his drink.
"Excuse us." Jasper said to the small-assembled group and carried Lauren away, Amelia's eyes following them.
"She ever said that before?" Birdie questioned.
"Um, no, she picks her moments." Amelia said turning back to birdie as she rubbed her face slightly, traces of a smile lingering on her lips.
"Am I allowed to say that stuff?" Imogen said looking hopefully up at Nick.
"Uh, no." Nick shook his head, a derisory chuckle escaping his lips.
"What happens if I do?" Imogen asked frowning questioningly.
"You don't want to know." Nick assured her.
"Eddie and Birdie say the F-word all the time" Imogen said frowning up at him. Nick looked at Eddie with his eyebrows raised.
"Eddie and Birdie are grown ups, they can say whatever they want." Nick said looking down at her at as she took a deep breath and frowned.
"You say it though." She said looking up at him.
"I'm a grown up too, you're not and until you are you're not allowed to say stuff like that." He told her seriously.
"Abby says it too though." She frowned glancing at Abby momentarily, before looking to Nick.
"Well, she's an adult as well." Nick shook his head as he shot a humorous look in Abby's direction, which she apologised for with her face as Nick shook it off.
"When will I be?" Imogen frowned up at him.
"When you're a hundred and three." Nick said looking down at her as a slight smile passed over Abby's lips.
"How many years is that?" Imogen squinted at him.
"Ninety-eight." He deadpanned looking down at her.
"That's ages, when I get that old can I call Abby Mom as well?" Imogen asked frowning.
"I don't know, when you get that old we'll talk about it." Nick nodded as she hung off Eddie's leg, and Birdie and Maggie shot inquisitive looks in Abby's direction as she shot Nick a semi-frustrated glance.
"How old are you?" Imogen frowning up at Nick, both of them missing the glances shooting between the rest of the group.
"Older than you." He said his eyebrows raised as he looked at her his hands on his hips, and she frowned again, looking away and up to Ed who was sipping from his glass.
"Sorry luv." Birdie half smiled, he shrugged, shaking his head; he knew that it would happen eventually.
Jasper returned with a red-eyed Lauren trailing him, as soon as they reached the others Lauren reached up for Amelia who took her wordlessly as Jasper retrieved his drink and shot her a frustrated and apologetic look and rubbed his hand over his face, sighing slightly.
Imogen made her way out of the group and over to Amelia's legs, looking up at Lauren.
"We're not allowed to say it till we're a hundred and three." Imogen imparted seriously as she looked up at Lauren, who took her thumb out of her mouth, bringing her head off Amelia's shoulder.
"That's ages." Lauren frowned, looking down.
"I know." Imogen nodded back up at her as she began to make shuffling movements to get down off Amelia's hip, as she hit the ground she and Imogen began to walk away talking earnestly about when exactly they'd be able to do 'grown – up' stuff.
"So you've finally got the bottle to tell her off now then." Birdie grinned at Jasper.
"Hell yeah, three years of trying and we've finally headed into the realms of equal disciplinary tactics." He smiled at Birdie his hand snaking around Amelia's back.
"Bloody hell, we're thirty six, seven years down the line and I'm still the one that does all the yellin'." Birdie grinned.
"Bird, that's a shocker." Nick grinned at her.
"Lauren you all set?" Jasper shouted, getting Lauren's attention as he turned away from Amelia.
"All set for what?" Amelia asked as Lauren bounded over to him, they were obviously plotting something. Lauren grabbed Jasper's hand as he handed his prized camcorder to Nick and they started to walk away. "Jasper." She said starting after them, missing the conspiratorial smiles shooting around the group she was with.
"You'll see, wait there." He grinned cheekily as he and Lauren made for the house.
Ok, there we go, I've done a lot of chopping and changing in this chapter so I hope it's ok….