As promised this is carrying on, thank you for all the reviews for the last couple of chapters, as ever they are much appreciated, i hope people continue to enjoy this....
it's the start of the road trip, as ever with road trips, anything can happen....
Amelia and Lauren were driving from the airport to Nick and Abby's; they'd seen Jasper off on his way to Boston and were headed to fetch the other half of the Maggie visiting team. Lauren was talking and Amelia was only half listening to the events of her school day as she headed through the suburbs towards the lake, she kept on spotting the roads that would take her and Lauren home. She was attempting to shrug off the desire to hold herself up in their house and hide for the weekend until Jasper got home and she could pretend she wasn't supposed to be anywhere else. She was frustrated at herself for feeling like this, she was the one who'd said they'd go, she was the one who'd gotten Lauren all excited over the prospect of going to see her 'Granny'; Christ, and now she was the one feeling as though she'd rather have her eyes gauged out slowly and painfully by a troop of elves with overgrown fingernails; Jesus, it was only Maggie for Christ's sake, and Abby was going to be there, and Lo, and Imogen, it wasn't as if it was going to be a one on one with Maggie and Eric.
"Mommy does granny have a yard at her house?" Lauren asked from her booster seat in the back of the car.
"I don't know sweetie." Amelia replied glancing in the rear view mirror for a second before returning her eyes to the road.
"Does she have swings?" Lauren asked looking a little excited even at the prospect.
"Lo, I don't know I've never been to Granny's house before." Amelia said as she concentrated on the road ahead, flicking the indicator as she motioned to turn.
"But she has a doggie right?" Lauren said her eyes wide as she looked at Amelia who glanced in the mirror again and smiled at her little girl.
"She told you she has a dog right?" Amelia said as she looked back at the road, turning the radio down slightly as she continued her conversation with Lauren.
"Yeah, he's called Dumpy." Lauren nodded.
"Dumpy?" Amelia said with a questioning chuckle as she saw Lauren nodding. "Lo, will you do something for me this weekend?" Amelia asked still smiling as she looked back at the road.
"Yeah." Lauren replied looking eagerly at Amelia as she shuffled in her seat.
"Can you be really nice to your Grandma for me?" She asked as they pulled up outside Abby and Nick's and Amelia switched off the ignition, turning in her seat.
"Why?" Lauren frowned slightly as she looked at her mother.
"Because I want your Grandma to have a nice weekend and I know she's really excited about seeing you and Immo so can you help me make sure she has a nice time?" Amelia said with a smile as she watched Lauren watching her.
"Yeah, me and Imm will play with her." Lauren said seriously as she nodded, clearly taking this new task extremely seriously.
Amelia smiled a warm, loving smile as Lauren's face broke into a grin and Amelia hopped out of the car, moving round and opening Lauren's door, unbuckling her seatbelt for her and lifting her out of the SUV.
"Mommy." Lauren started again as she found her feet on the pavement, holding onto Amelia's hand.
"Yeah." Amelia replied turning and looking down at her as she began to speak.
"Daddy told me that I have to look after you too; so if I have to make Granny have a nice time and look after you then do I have to do them both at the same time 'cause that's lots and I'm only little." She said earnestly as she looked up at her Mom; a slightly worried frown on her face. Amelia half laughed at her beautiful, genuine, amazing little girl and crouched down in front of her, taking hold of her sides as she smiled a truly heartfelt smile.
"Lo, let me tell you something." Amelia started as she smiled into Lauren's eyes, "As long as you're there, as long as you're at Granny's and you're having a nice time then I'm going to be ok, you don't need to look after me." She said as she watched Lauren digest what she was saying.
"But Daddy said that it's his job to look after you and he's not here so it had to be my job to look after you." She said, a worried look on her face as she searched her mother's eyes, her hands resting on Amelia's elbows.
"Sweetie, you don't have to look after me." She said with a shake of her head as she smiled almost involuntarily at Lauren. "Lo, I don't want you worrying about me, all I want you to do is have a good time with Immo, don't you even worry about making your Grandma have a nice time anymore, because d'you know what?" She asked her eyebrows raised as she asked her question. Lauren shook her head in response her eyes still fixed on Amelia's. "Sweetie when you're there everyone has a nice time, your grandma's really excited about seeing you and Immo and she's going to have a nice time just because you two are there, and I don't need anyone to make sure that I'm ok when you're there because I'm always ok when you're there." Amelia smiled at her.
"I love you Mommy." Lauren whispered as she smiled at Amelia's earnest face.
"I love you too baby girl." Amelia whispered back as their foreheads met and Lauren gave Amelia a little kiss and Amelia pulled Lauren's precious little body close in to her. Amelia looked back at her as she pulled away and looked into Lauren's eyes.
"I'm still gonna look after you though Mommy cause we're gonna miss Daddy." Lauren said earnestly as Amelia's hands returned to her sides.
"I tell you what if you're missing Daddy then you tell me and we can talk about it ok?" Amelia smiled at her as she nodded her agreement.
"Ok, and then when you miss Daddy then you can tell me too." Lauren smiled at her.
"Sounds like a deal to me, d'you want to shake on it?" Amelia asked, moving her hand from Lauren's side and holding it out for her to shake, which she did almost instantly sharing a grin with her mother.
"And can we talk to Immo about it when she misses her Daddy?" Lauren questioned as Amelia began to stand up, she paused though and bent towards Lauren, making eye contact again.
"If Immo's missing her Daddy then I think that she should tell Abby because she's going to be missing Immo's Daddy too." Amelia nodded at Lauren.
"Mommy." Lauren restarted frowning slightly.
"Yes." Amelia replied frowning back at Lauren, matching her face with a hint of a smile.
"When Abby gets married to Nick is that going to make her Imm's Mommy?" Lauren asked her frown turning to slight confusion as Amelia crouched in front of her again.
"When Abby and Nick get married then Abby's going to be Immo's stepmom." Amelia told her trying to explain the reality of twenty first century family dynamics.
"Immo wants Abby to be her Mommy like Daddy's my Daddy." Lauren told her, her little demeanor full of wisdom. Amelia smiled and looked at the ground for a second before looking back at Lauren.
"I know she does, but different people have to do things different ways sweetie, so you have to let Immo and Abby and Nick figure out how they all fit together like that, you and me and Daddy took a while to figure out how it all worked, but everyone takes time to figure stuff out, it's like how you didn't have a grandma till you were four because we had to figure stuff out." Amelia tried to explain as Lauren watched her intently her mind working overtime to try to understand what the hell her mother was talking about. Amelia watched as Lauren digested the information and her face cracked into a smile.
"I like my Grandma, I'm excited that we're going to see her." She said as Amelia began to stand up again and took hold of her hand.
"I know, but we're going to have to go and get your friends because we need to get going, otherwise it's going to be tomorrow before we get there." Amelia said, looking down on Lauren as she unbent her body and stood to face Abby and Nick's house.
"Then we should definitely go." Lauren nodded her agreement.
"Well I'm glad you think so." Amelia smiled giving Lauren's hand a light squeeze as they headed towards the front door.
Amelia let Lauren ring the doorbell, stretching her short body up to reach; they heard Imogen yell from the other side of the door.
"They're here, they're here." Her muffled voice filtered through as the door began to rattle and was eventually opened by Nick as Imogen stood in front of his legs grinning.
"Hi." He smiled at them as they headed into the house and Imogen and Lauren began to chatter excitedly. "Abby's almost set I think, d'you want a coffee?" He asked as they headed for the breakfast bar.
"Yeah actually that'd be great." Amelia nodded appreciatively as she hopped up onto one of the stools. "So you have a whole weekend to yourself." She smiled as Nick took a seat on the opposite site of the counter.
"Yeah, Christ knows what I'm going to do with myself, No Imm, no Abby, no Jasper even to entertain me." He smiled at her.
"I thought you were working." Amelia frowned slightly as she accepted the steaming coffee.
"Well that's the plan yeah, but I started reading through the stuff and it's so mind numbingly boring that I gave up already." He chuckled slightly shaking his head as he looked up at Amelia.
"Jasper's conference is on some change to some minor traffic violation law or something and its effects on the nation wide traffic system or some crap like that so it looks like the pair of you are in for a thrilling weekend." She said raising an eyebrow, smiling wickedly at him.
"As are you so I understand, Jas said he thought you were slightly unsure about going on this trip." Nick said changing the subject obviously as he studied Amelia, he knew she wouldn't mind that Jasper had mentioned it, and she wouldn't mind that he brought it up, in her Amelia like way she'd inevitably just shrug it off and shrug it off she did as she shrugged and replied.
"Yeah, no, I don't know." She half smiled with a sigh, "Lo's really excited about it, I'm not really that worried about it, y'know, Maggie's nice enough and out of the two of us I think Lauren's the one she really wants to see, so…" She trailed off shrugging again.
"So what about your brother?" Nick asked as he sipped from his own mug.
"I really have no idea, I mean you know about everything that's going with him and all that right?" Amelia asked as Nick nodded, Abby had told him about it, about all of it, some in more detail that he'd needed but he knew and he also knew that everyone seemed to think he was coping.
"Yeah, I've spoken to him actually, he's called here to talk to Abby a few times." Nick nodded. "He sounds like a pretty nice guy from what I can tell." Nick shrugged.
"Well that's more than I've done, I don't know at the moment all I know is that I'm going to meet a guy that I can hardly remember, but I'm sure it'll be fine, Lauren and Imm will probably break things up a bit." Amelia smiled and chuckled as she turned to see the pair emptying a box of marbles onto the living room floor.
"Guy's you're going in a couple of minutes can you put all of that back in the box." Nick called over to them indicating the marbles rapidly dispersing across the living room as Amelia turned back around and Abby appeared collecting up bits and pieces as she went, stealing Nick's coffee as she moved, taking a long draught as she did.
"Hey." Abby smiled as she noticed Amelia sitting in her kitchen, Amelia smiled back a hello. "Give me ten minutes." Abby said looking a little harassed.
"There's no hurry." Amelia shrugged as Abby turned to Nick.
"Have you seen my wallet?" She asked Nick with a frown as she glanced aimlessly around the kitchen.
"Yeah, laundry room." He replied with a nod.
"Why's it in the laundry room?" She frowned at him expectantly.
"I don't know." He shrugged shaking his head as she handed his coffee back to him and headed off to find the offending item.
"D'you know how long this is going to take us?" Amelia queried looking at Nick as she reached down to pick up the map book she'd brought in from the car with her.
"Here to Minneapolis, it should take around four hours, maybe five, but the way you drive it'll probably take about an hour and a half." He chuckled, he'd always known that Amelia's driving was slightly hazardous at the best of times, but recently Jasper had told him that he now refused to get in a car with Amelia behind the wheel unless Lauren was there as well, she was apparently the only thing that had the ability to slow Amelia's driving.
"Yeah, that's pretty much what Jas thought." Amelia nodded, ignoring the last part of his statement as she flipped the book open to the right page.
"Did you know which way you're going to go?" Nick asked as he leaned over to look at the map.
"Yeah, out on the 90 and then hit the 94 and straight up." Amelia said indicating the route with her little finger.
"You might as well follow the lake since your right here, and head toward Milwaukee and then cross over onto the 94, you'll probably get out of the city quicker that way." Nick said looking at the various routes.
"You think?" Amelia questioned frowning slightly as she looked down.
"Yeah, that'd be the way I'd go." Nick nodded as he looked back to Amelia who was smirking. "Oh shut up." He said with a chuckle, Nick was notorious for knowing every route under the sun and hated being stuck in traffic, so much so that he'd once gone almost an hour in the wrong direction in an effort to avoid a traffic jam and get to where he was going faster.
"Ok, we'll go that way." Amelia smiled at him. "Don't you want to get her to get a move on." Amelia added talking about Abby who was heading back up the stairs, a pile of clothes in her hands.
"I'll go and chivvy her along, can you get Imm to go to the bathroom." He asked as he pushed his stool back and stood up.
"Will do." Amelia nodded as Nick headed up the stairs and Amelia headed to help Lauren and Imogen get all the marbles back in the box and get them ready to go.
Fifteen minutes later the car was fully packed with what looked like a ridiculous amount of stuff given that there were only four of them and they were only staying two nights, the only thing it was lacking was people. Amelia slammed the trunk and headed back towards the house, before she got there though she was met by two five year olds hurtling towards the car, followed by a significantly slower moving Abby, pulling on a jacket, as Nick brought up the rear.
"We good to go?" Amelia questioned as she met Abby on the path.
"Looks like it." Abby nodded as she stopped by the car, pulling open the back door allowing the first and then the second child to climb in.
"You mind if I use your bathroom?" Amelia questioned indicating back into the house.
"Knock yourself out." Nick said, adding a sweeping arm movement for effect as Amelia headed past him and back into the house.
Nick moved around to the far side of the car and opened the door, leaning in to help Imogen get all strapped in her booster seat as Abby tended to Lauren.
"You guys all set?" Nick smiled between the pair as Imogen shuffled to get comfortable and stuck her thumb in her mouth as she nodded.
"Did you pick Alice up Imm?" Abby asked looking over at her as she buckled Lauren's seatbelt. A sudden look of abject horror crossed Imogen's face as she ripped her thumb from her mouth.
"No I forgot her, she's inside." She said looking from Abby to Nick hurriedly.
"Ok, I'll go get her, where is she Imm?" Nick said pacifying her as he laid a hand on her arm.
"She's in your bedroom." Imogen said her eyes wide as Nick jogged back inside to get the toy.
"Abby does granny have swings at her house?" Lauren asked as Abby pulled back away from her.
"I don't know." Abby shook her head, her face shrugging at Lauren.
"Mommy didn't know either." Lauren informed her shaking her head.
"Can we get to make cookies again like we did when she was at our old house?" Imogen asked shuffling herself forward to look over at Abby.
"I don't know, you'll have to ask her when we get there." Abby said smiling slightly as her attention diverted to Imogen.
"Will we get to play with her doggie?" Lauren asked shooting her head around from looking at Imogen back to Abby.
"Yes, I'm sure you can play with him." Abby nodded laughing a little as the pair exchanged excited glances with each other; they clearly had a lot of plans already set for what they were going to do with their weekend.
"Ok, here we go." Nick said as he reappeared and headed round to Imogen's side of the car, Alice in his hand. Imogen took her instantly and hugged her to her chest.
"I nearly forgot her." She informed Nick seriously as she met his eyes.
"You nearly did." He nodded and smiled equally seriously as he bent to kiss her head. "Right then, it looks like you guys are good to go." He added as he spied Amelia approaching, bag, map book and car keys in hand.
"We all set?" Amelia asked looking between Abby Nick and the two girls.
"Yep." Abby nodded once as Amelia handed her the map book.
"You're chief navigator." She said as Abby gave her a somewhat dubious look, placing the book on the passenger seat.
"Ok, have fun misses." Nick said with a smile as he bent towards Imogen giving her another kiss. "And be good." He said with raised eyebrows as she giggled at him and her bent in to kiss her one last time and she laced her arms around his neck to give him a hug.
"Bye Daddy." She said smiling as he pulled away.
"Bye baby." He said smiling back at her. "You have a good time too Lo." He added as he extracted himself from the car and moved to slam the door.
Amelia headed round the car and toward the drivers side, passing Nick as he moved around to Abby.
"See you on Sunday Meals." He smiled at her, giving her arm a light squeeze as the passed by each other.
"Yeah, have a nice, relaxing, quiet weekend Nicolas." She grinned as he gave her a peck on the cheek and headed on towards Abby with a chuckle and an eye roll.
Amelia climbed into her car and turned to check on Imogen and Lauren who were already deep in conversation with each other about something involving Imogen's toy Elephant and Lauren's fury giraffe called 'Nelson', Amelia smiled slightly at them before she extracted her cell, placing it on the charger by the dash board and moved to throw her bag by Lauren's feet.
"Mommy can I take my shoes off?" Lauren asked as Amelia's bag knocked her foot.
"Sure." Amelia nodded over at her.
"I can't reach." She added with a frown as her seatbelt prevented her from leaning forwards.
"Ok." Amelia said turning, stretching around to pull Lauren's shoes from her feet.
"Can I take mine off too?" Imogen questioned as she watched Amelia and Lauren.
"Yep." Amelia nodded as she tried to turn and reach Imogen's feet, it proved impossible though what with Imogen sitting directly behind her, so she extracted herself, hopping out of the car again and opening Imogen's door.
"Hey, cool shoes Imm." Amelia said with a smile as she pulled Imogen's little pink suede lace up shoes off her feet.
"Me and Abby chose them." Imogen informed her proudly, as she inspected them with a smile.
"They're awesome." Amelia smiled at her as she dumped them on the floor.
"That's what we thought." Imogen nodded grinning. Amelia slammed the door again and hopped back into the car as Abby climbed in the other side, obviously having said her goodbyes to Nick, who leaned into the car and around Abby to say one last goodbye and be good to the girls before giving Abby another final kiss and extracting himself.
"Drive carefully Meals, try not to get involved in any police chases." He said with a smirk as he slammed Abby's door, and she shot a slightly dubious look over at Amelia, a little concerned now as to what she'd let herself in for. Amelia noticed the look and chuckled over at her, starting up the car.
"I've got every intention of being a very responsible driver don't worry." Amelia laughed as she pulled away and Lauren and Imogen both started waving madly at Nick.
"I think I'm still wanted from the last high speed chase I got involved in." Abby said chuckling lightly as they turned the corner at the end of the street and the first raindrops began to fall.
"If we hear any sirens we'll just haul ass." Amelia deadpanned with a smile on her face as she and Abby both cracked up for absolutely no reason.
Let me know xx kay